Paul Cinquevalli

Paul Cinquevalli (30 June 1859 – 14 July 1918) was a German juggler, born in Lissa, Prussia (which is now Leszno, Poland). His real name may have been Paul Braun-Lehmann, Emile Otto Lehmann-Braun, or Paul Kestner. "Cinquevalli" was a stage name taken from the director of an Italian acrobatic troupe that he ran away and joined when he was 14. Paul Cinquevalli was an international celebrity in his time, achieving far more fame as a juggler than any other juggler in history.

One thing he was known for is his dangerous feats of strength, such as throwing a 60-pound iron cannonball in the air and catching it on the back of his neck. He was also known for performing tricks using ordinary household items, which would later become associated with the "gentleman juggler" genre. (Cinquevalli isn't always considered a gentleman juggler himself, since he also performed strongman juggling tricks using other kinds of props, and he didn't wear the formal attire that later gentleman jugglers would wear.)

Before Cinquevalli, magic tricks were generally included in what people called "juggling". Cinquevalli was among those who considered juggling to be distinct from conjuring, not liking people to think his feats were faked. Because he was so famous, his preferred definition of juggling caught on, and people stopped calling magic juggling.

Cinquevalli began his circus career at the age of 12, as an acrobat. He began performing juggling in 1876, and he permanently switched to juggling as his specialty at the age of 19, after falling 75 feet from a trapeze with no safety net. He instantly became famous when he came to England in 1885. England was where he most frequently performed until the beginning of World War I, after which he was ostracized there due to his German-sounding real name, and he retired.