Word: vova
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Growing up poor in the small industrial city of Penza, about 400 miles outside Moscow, Vova and Olga started juggling for fun in an after-school program. Pretty soon it got to be more than a hobby. The Galchenkos are easygoing and tons of fun to be around, but when it's time to work, something shifts behind their eyes and they get weirdly intense and laser-focused. "They have personalities that are very, very unpleasantly obsessive," says magician and juggler Penn Jillette (he means that with nothing but affection). "When I was around them practicing, they would do stuff...
...Galchenkos' world has been plenty chaotic. In 2003, thinking they would have more juggling opportunities in the U.S., they moved to New Hampshire, staying with a circus artist they had met while performing in Russia. They came alone: no mother, no father, just the two of them. Vova was 15, and Olga was 12. Neither spoke English...
...peerless, purely technical jugglers with little interest in show biz or comedy patter. Moreover, stage juggling is about making tricks look difficult, and the Galchenkos' natural gracefulness makes everything look easy. "We're probably the top team in the world, ever, technically, as far as juggling goes," Vova says and adds ruefully: "But we're probably the bottom team when it comes to presenting...
...right now they have a lot more than clubs to juggle. They have little money. They haven't seen their parents in three years. They have legal troubles too. Olga has successfully filed an Extraordinary Ability petition that will allow her to stay in the country for now, but Vova's hasn't been approved yet. He'll have to go back to Russia in October, at least temporarily...
...greatest technical jugglers in history performing on a street corner. "It's kind of an entry-level juggling job, I guess," he says. He's even working up a little patter to go with his act. "I mean, I don't make up a story," says Vova. "Most people who perform, they usually make up stories." Then again, most people don't have a story like the Galchenkos...