Rollercoaster juggling show
by Wes Peden
For those who have dreamed of playing on rollercoasters since they were children
By Sophie Jama
July 6, 2025
Opening the 16th Montréal Complètement Cirque Festival, the American Wes Peden is a must-know circus artist. His one-hour solo juggling show, Rollercoaster, blends ultra-modern, pop-punk style with innovative juggling inspired by rollercoasters and their high-tech safety features. The performance is set inside a large inflatable blue or pink structure and is accompanied by electronic music composed of distorted rollercoaster sounds, created by Mika Forsling.
Wes Peden is an incredibly creative circus artist. He choreographs every part of his body to serve the most surprising juggling acts.
Wes Peden reinvents rollercoasters’ dizzying rides where vehicles race at full speed along winding tracks that twist and turn in the most extravagant circuits. His movements—and many other clever tricks—are full of humour and generosity, using his body and a few colourful props.
On stage, giant serpentine shapes already evoke the scenery of an amusement park. Balanced on his head, a funny-looking hat holds a few juggling balls and a long, very long transparent tube in which he’ll roll his balls.
The artist’s entire craft lies in inventing games, movements, and obstacles that are always more complex and challenging, attempting the most daring feats, rewarding himself when he succeeds, and setting himself new challenges when he fails (or pretends to fail). Wes Peden’s talent and dexterity allow him to perform incredible feats. He’s not an ordinary juggler. Everything is used for his art—even the towel he uses to wipe his sweat becomes an excuse to juggle.
Like a tireless child, he invents movements, obstacles, and circuits for his balls, or new tricks for his juggling with all sorts of objects: sticks, scarves, plates, rings… He defies gravity and even juggles with his arms, hands, and fingers. And to make things even more challenging, to make the game even more enjoyable for himself and the audience, he performs his moves and displays his virtuosity to the rhythm of ever-faster music.
Wes Peden is an extraordinarily likeable artist who speaks to the audience in excellent French to share his love of play. You can’t help but wish you could peek through the keyhole of his home to see how he lives. It’s impossible not to imagine him surrounded by the everyday objects we all have, constantly playing and having fun, tossing them in the air and catching them in the most complicated ways. Everything in his show is carefully crafted and colourful, from the juggling props to ordinary little toys—even down to his own body parts, which he treats as playful accessories.
Wes Peden offers a generous and humorous show, never taking himself too seriously, as he performs simply for the joy of playing and to inspire us to keep playing with everything around us.
Rollercoaster, by Wes Peden
Direction and performance: Wes Peden
Music: Mika Forsling
Set design: Félix Chameroy
Lighting: Vilhelm Montán Lindberg, Joel Johansson et Zoe Hunn
Costumes: Maria Peterson
Outside eyes: Viktor Gyllenberg et Florence Schroeder
Sound and lighting technician: Florence Schroeder
Production and distribution: Gandini Juggling
Images: Florence Schroeder
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