Juggling study and a career in the entertainment industry is child’s play for Rossall School pupil, Thomas Senior, who, at the tender age of 16, has launched a web-based business to generate bookings for his unique, bounce-juggling stage act.
Thomas, 16, of Great Eccleston, shot to prominence locally with a second place in the 2010 Big One Pleasure Beach Competition and a third in the Blackpool Gazette Young Talent Competition in the same year. Since then, he’s won the Judges’ Choice Award, the Silver Award, and was voted overall second in the British Young Juggler of The Year 2011. At the event he also won two Convention Awards, inviting him to perform in Milton Keynes and Crawley; the first time the awards had gone to one person.
In addition to his juggling prowess, Thomas manages to keep several plates in the air at once by combining GCSE study at Rossall with extra-curricular activity, which sees him sing in the School’s internationally acclaimed choir, play several musical instruments and feature in Rossall’s Combined Cadet Force band. .
The young entrepreneur has already attended a business course to help him develop his business management skills and has been included recently in the International list of Bounce Gods (a web list of the world’s top bounce-jugglers). He’s also looking forward to leading another bounce-juggling workshop at the British Juggling Convention this year in Southend.
The young entrepreneur has his sights set firmly on a stage career, and recent bookings indicate he’s likely to be a big hit with his skills in one of the more difficult and rare forms of juggling. For now though the focus is on GCSE’s, A-levels and then hopefully study at university, but weekend and holiday time performances will soak up any spare time the talented youngster might have.
Rossall’s headmaster, Dr Stephen Winkley is delighted to see one of his charges fulfilling his promise. He commented: “Thomas is a credit to Rossall and his family. He’s extremely talented, but also a very likeable young man, so everyone on campus is keen to see him succeed. Children here live such full lives and are expected to juggle school work and extra-curricular commitments to play their part in school life, but Thomas has taken that literally and I must say his skills on stage belie his tender age. I think he’s destined for great things in the future.”
The young Rossall student is anticipating great fun with his new venture and said: “I’m passionate about bounce juggling and I’d like to take my performances to as high a level as possible. So far, my school friends think it’s great, so I hope the public enjoy it as much.”
Thomas will have a chance to gauge public opinion when he performs for Old Rossallians and members of the public at a Rossall open evening at Fylde Rugby Club from 6.30pm on Thursday 15th March. For those looking for a taster in advance, his new website: www.thomasbouncejuggler.com features video of his performances.