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Despite the threats to life and limb (you don't mess with gravity), a comedic atmosphere permeated the Temple Bar Circus Festival in Dublin at the weekend, writes FRANK McNALLY

There’s a famous Californian juggling troupe called the Flying Karamazov Brothers, whose show-stopping trick is something called “the gamble”. It involves their audiences nominating three objects that the company’s best juggler – “the champ” – must attempt to rotate through the air 10 times. Certain objects are excluded on health-and-safety grounds: live animals, anything “bigger than a bread-box” etc; and “the champ” can also modify objects where necessary.