A member of the Tesseract Troupe since 2001, Bob Cates grew up on a farm in southern, Ontario, Canada. A quiet, unassuming young man, he had his head in the stars. One day at high school, Bob saw the most magical sight – someone juggling several balls.

He experienced what his audiences now experience: the oxymoron of juggling. It’s the most magical looking thing in the world, but it is totally real. It’s within the grasp of most, but few will take up the challenge to learn it. It was this “air-born” love affair that would take this small town farm boy to undreamed-of heights. Learning to juggle with tennis balls as a teenager, he was a relative late starter to be considered a real contender for the Canadian Juggling Championships, let alone a full time professional. But he practiced hard; learning advanced juggling, unicycling, balancing skills and performance technique.

His passion for the theater and the art of juggling continued to develop during his 5 years of post secondary education, earning a Bachelor of Commerce degree from McMaster University and a diploma from the Baptist Leadership Education Center.

In 1994 he would quit his job at the bank (not missing the comments about “juggling the books”) and went on to win the Canadian Juggling Championships. By this time Bob had also won other People’s Choice and Best Novelty Act awards, which contributed to his flourishing reputation as a clean, professional, and amazing Canadian entertainer. During the winter of 94/95, Bob had a chance to perform in Eastern Europe, while doing several months of volunteer work in Lithuania. He has been performing full time ever since with about 20 weeks a year living and performing on cruise ships around the world. He is a professional comic variety entertainer with an amazingly funny show that is remarkably adaptable to all ages and most venues.

He has been characterized as a juggler, comedian, artist and new vaudevillian. He’s a variety comic with big talent, and Canadian charm. Bob was fittingly awarded Best Entertainer of the Year at the 1999 and 2001 Molson Canadian FEO AWARDS. The Comedy in Motion shows contains advanced juggling, wild unicycling and balancing skills, giant Chinese Yo-Yos, special theatrical effects (including black light, laser and strobe), and tasteful volunteer participation. Best of all, the performance is packed with interactive comedy, appropriate to your audience. One of Bob Cates’ signature routines is seen VERY rarely today. In his Ed Sullivan style plate spinning routine, Bob gets up to 21 real plates spinning while running about like a mad-man to keep them going. This routine has been a smashing success with young and old alike and has audiences cheering, and on the edge of their seats as the tension builds to the exciting finale.

Bob brought Jane into the act in 2006, married her in 2007 and we are all excited about the new direction and dimension the act is taking.

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