Dave Gillies, founder of the Give and Take Jugglers, grew up on a small family farm in Delaware County PA where he milked a Jersey cow before going to school in a one-room school house with a pot bellied stove next to the house where Bill Haley lived before he formed the Comets. After graduating from West Chester State College with a liberal arts degree in the mid sixties, Dave got a job teaching sixth grade in beautiful Chester on the Delaware, enthusiastic, naïve, and unencumbered by "education" courses, Dave attempted to inspire his inner city students with dramatics, journal writing, humor, and a sense that learning could be fun. He went on to teach fifth grade in Upper Merion for about twelve years, before being catapulted into full time performing in 1982. Dave’s father was an accountant, and his grandfather a Methodist evangelist, so a career of juggling with a message seemed ordained. He believes that if everyone learned to juggle and play the banjo they would be happy. He admires Fred Rogers who had the courage to extend respect and appreciation to all in spite of the risk of ridicule; Johnny Carson who didn't need to score cheap points at his guest's expense; and Garrison Keeler who can come up with fairly amusing original material week after week. He once opened for Henny Youngman.
www.jugglers.com
