By Melanie Heimburg

Amazed “Oohs” and thrilled “Aahs” fill Greer Elementary School’s multipurpose room as the man in front—the one wearing a slightly faded black T-shirt with a large white recycling symbol on it—rapidly juggles three red balls with the greatest of ease. But this isn’t your typical juggling act, and this isn’t just any juggler.

This is Doug Nolan, founding member of The Sippy Cups, the phenomenal kid’s rock band out of San Francisco renowned for their happy, hilarious, super-fun shows (and their appeal to every parent who has every dreamed of chucking a Wiggles CD in the microwave). Covering songs by bands like the Velvet Underground, The Beatles, the Kinks and Nirvana, and mixing in circus-style entertainment, ginormous puppets and comedy skits that get giggles from both parents and kids, Sippy shows are something like the kind of party that Max and The Wild Things might throw, complete with preschooler mosh pits and plenty of interactive moments.

While Nolan doesn’t play an instrument, he steals the show as The Sippy Cups’ entertainment front man, performing all kinds of circus tricks, including juggling, unicycling, stilt-walking, magic and leading conga lines of dancing children. Nolan also plays several comedic characters, including “Super Guy,” a super hero who derives his powers from getting kids to use their words.

Nolan’s day job involves more of the same fun, performing for Sacramento and Alameda county school kids while teaching them about his other passion: environmental conservation. In today’s show, “The Recycling Wizard,” (sponsored by the Sacramento Department of Waste Management and Recycling), Nolan weaves recycling education into his theatrical presentation with phenomenal comedic timing. The Greer students listen and watch, wide-eyed, as they munch on a late afternoon snack of individually portioned nachos, washed down with Kool-Aid juice boxes.

“This is what I do,” Nolan tells me after the show, “I entertain kids, and sometimes I feel like I have the greatest job in the world because I go into a sold-out show, I make a big splash, and I try to empower the kids to go home and make a difference.”

Nolan’s shows (his company is called Rock Steady Juggling), free to all of the schools, are funded by contracts with various recycling and water agencies and municipalities. The Sacramento Area Sewer District, for example, supports Nolan’s “Go With the Flow” show about proper disposal of fats, oils and grease—not exactly the stuff of playground conversation, but with Nolan’s performance skill it makes for gripping edutainment.

Kim Floyd, public outreach consultant to the Sacramento Area Sewer District, says Nolan was chosen to headline the program because of his talent for “translating” the information into language the students can understand and remember. “Ultimately,” she says, “the students have fun while they’re learning.”

Those three red balls, for example, are cleverly named “recycle,” “reduce” and “reuse.” He encourages the youngsters to keep an eye on “the Mr. Recycle ball” after discussing ways to effectively and easily perform all three eco-friendly tasks, such as using both sides of a piece of paper or using a refillable water bottle instead of the disposable plastic variety. His audience is practically on the edge of their seats when they learn he’s going to introduce a fourth ball, “rot,” into the mix. The fourth R is a quick and painless composting lesson, and then it’s back to the juggling excitement.

Eco Bound
Nolan now performs up to four “eco-tainment” shows per day, but life wasn’t always so green for Nolan. “Growing up in Queens [New York] during a time when recycling wasn’t even in anybody’s [consciousness], it never occurred to me that there was an environment out there,” says Nolan.

Upon entering college at the University of Vermont (which, at the time he felt was the farthest away from the Big Apple he could possibly get), Nolan fell so deeply in love with the natural world that he obtained his Bachelors in environmental studies and went on to work at Outward Bound, a non-profit, outdoor adventure-based educational program.

A fellow Outward Bound instructor and juggling enthusiast encouraged Nolan to move to San Francisco to perform educational juggling shows. Thinking the performances would last a year or so, Nolan agreed, with the intention of returning to Outward Bound to work as a guide.

Their first performances were at children’s birthday parties. Nolan, who had never been a theater enthusiast in his younger days, was hesitant. “At that point in my life,” he explains, “I hadn’t hung out with kids much. But I loved it and it was just sort of something that was like—” (Doug snaps his fingers and enthusiastically raises his light colored eyebrows) “this is why I’m here on this planet—to connect with the kids—and I can also having a message in there about making the world a better place.”

Nolan was so impassioned by his newfound calling that he opted to stay in San Francisco, honing his acting chops at the American Conservatory Theater while his friend returned to the East Coast for Outward Bound. Armed with an MFA in acting and environmental show know-how, Nolan got to work, and Rock Steady Juggling was born! Nolan's family was also born around the same time.

Nolan now lives with his wife and children, Jasper (age 7) and Sadie (age 4), in the quiet coastal town of Montara, south of San Francisco. Having a family has changed Nolan’s life, his vision and even the way he works. “I always knew I wanted to save the world but being a dad makes me want to make the world better in all ways, not just environmentally,” he says.

The Nolans, like many families, try to minimize their environmental impact. In addition to bamboo flooring in their home and composting in the backyard (just two of their many efforts), Nolan drives a biodiesel car fueled by recycled vegetable oil. During the first year he had an environmental show contract in Sacramento (a cool hundred miles away from Montara), Nolan would lump several show dates together, spending nights away from home and family. But even the Capitol City’s tree-lined corridors couldn’t distract Nolan from missing his children, children who love to participate in his shows, despite taking their Dad’s extraordinary skills for granted at times (doesn’t every dad juggle?).

Nolan is excited to see his eco-edutainment message reach more kids. After The Sippy Cups finish their next EP, due out in fall, they have plans to immediately follow up with an environmentally empowering version of their hottest melodies. Nolan even wants to take Super Guy in a more green direction, perhaps encouraging kids to both “use their words” and recycle their water bottles. “And that’s why I love playing this superhero character,” says Doug, “because I can save the world… at least on stage.”

Kids and Adults Drink In the Sippy Cups (Monday, July 16, 2007)

The Sippy Cups, a rock group for kids, performed originals and played covers of classic rock songs at Jammin' Java. And one guy juggled. (By David Magnusson)

It was an anti-Barney and Wiggles-free zone at Jammin' Java in Vienna on Friday morning as the Sippy Cups delivered a rock-and-roll show for the under-8 set that was high in energy and, for adults, mercifully low in treacle.

There were no songs about fruit salads, hugs or big red cars from this San Francisco-based band, which preferred to get the crowd going with covers of songs by the Velvet Underground, the Ramones and even Pink Floyd.

As parents gave knowing looks to one another as the band broke into "I Wanna Be Sedated," slightly altered to "I Wanna Be Elated," or the Velvet Underground's "Rock and Roll," the pint-size mosh pit kids pogoed appropriately -- as if they were front and center at CBGB in the 1970s.

Some of that bouncing may have been because of the Rice Krispies Treats and Fig Newtons selling rapidly at the bar, but the band had plenty of tactics to keep the audience motivated during the one-hour set.
Streamers shot from the stage were a big hit, as were oversize balloons being volleyed about the crowd by little hands, causing more than a few patrons to fall down and go boom.

Doug Nolan ("Sippy Doug") is the band's star, despite the fact he doesn't actually play an instrument. Rather, Nolan's juggling and unicycle-riding (on a very cramped stage) made him the one the kids wanted to be and the moms in the audience wanted to be with.

If the band, led by lead vocalist Paul Godwin ("Sippy Paul"), didn't always quite hit the high notes, no one seemed to notice. For good or bad, most of the Crocs-wearing crowd probably got their first taste of psychedelic music with original songs like "Drinking From the Sky" and "Little House of Jello."

The band also wisely changed the pacing enough so as not to create too much excitement for this apple juiced-up crowd. So the highly danceable "Use Your Words" ("The super guy told me / sooner or later / got to use your words / all second-graders / got to use your words") was followed by a more mellow and slightly haunting Pink Floyd-inspired "I Am a Robot" ("I have a metal head / My feet are made of lead / My story must be said").

That song featured Nolan wearing a decent-looking robot costume. The kids, and mothers, were starry-eyed.