Thomas Aguila's enthusiasm for the circus is so contagious, his wife switched from engineering to trapeze.
"I love it. I think that's why people like it," the juggler said Friday. "They see how much I love juggling and always smiling, you know — and I'm quite fast, too."
Aguila, who goes by the stage name Tommy Tequila, says he's the fastest juggler in the world, although Guinness World Records doesn't have such a category. He can spin clubs in four rotations before catching them. It's so fast, it looks like he has discs for hands.
"I explain to the other jugglers and they don't believe me. They say, 'no way, the most is three spins,'" Aquila said. "I say well, use your phone, take a video, and I already won a couple of dinners doing this."
He also can juggle seven ping pong balls with his mouth, spitting them high into the air.
Watch Tommy Tequila juggle ping pong balls with his mouth:
This weekend in Calgary, he's performing seven shows, most of which are sold-out, with the Royal Canadian Family Circus under the big top tent in the CrossIron Mills parking lot.
"I can juggle and you cannot see my hands," said Aguila, who is from Mexico.
"Every country has their particular style, I think, and I like mine because it's really fast, very happy."
Family tradition
Aquila started juggling when he was a 12-years-old boy. Born to a circus family, he tried performing with elephants, on the trampoline and up in the trapeze, but unfortunately found he has a fear of heights.
He was encouraged to start his own act, and so practised with ping pong balls, more readily available in Mexico than typical juggling clubs that had to be imported from the United States.
"To be honest, I was practising not too hard but suddenly my girlfriend left me and I feel so sad and [thought], 'I got to be the best juggler in the world!'"
"And it's how I became, not the best juggler in the world, but I became some kind of good juggler."
This weekend's shows also include equestrian acrobatics, a four-person high wire act, dancers, aerialists and daredevils — all members of circus families from 12 countries.
After a lifetime of practising and performing his sport, Aquila now travels with family, including his seven-year-old daughter and his wife, the trapeze artist.
"She told me how beautiful the circus is," he said.
"We travel different countries, we know different cultures, eat different meals everywhere we go and we still get paid. It's great."
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With files from Mike Symington, Lisa Robinson and the Calgary Eyeopener.