Flying Karamazov Brothers

The Flying Karamazov Brothers (FKB) are a juggling and comedy troupe who have been performing since 1973. They learned their trade performing as street artists in Santa Cruz, California. They began by busking, but have gone on to perform internationally, including on Broadway stages.

The "brothers" take their act's name from the Fyodor Dostoevsky novel The Brothers Karamazov, and draw parallels between themselves and the characters of the novel. Though they refer to themselves onstage as "brothers", none of them are actually blood relatives. The troupe is led by co-founder Paul David Magid (Dmitri), who is also its Director and Producer.

The current members of the troupe are:

The troupe originally consisted of two members; "Ivan" (Howard Jay Patterson) and "Dmitri" (Paul David Magid). "Alyosha" (Randy Nelson) joined some time after 1975. One-time FKB crew member Timothy Daniel Furst soon joined the other three onstage and took the name "Fyodor". The line-up remained intact for several years until Nelson took a leave of absence for family reasons. He was replaced by Samuel Ross Williams ("Smerdyakov"). Nelson eventually returned and the group performed as a quintet from 1983 through 1989. Other members have passed through over the years, each taking a Russian name, such as "Misha Karamazov" (Paul Hudert, also known as Paul Garbanzo), and "Rakitin Karamazov" (Michael Preston). Preston was also seen in the film Eight Men Out and directed one of the shows in the Karamazov repertoire.

Randy Nelson ("Alyosha Karamazov") left the group in 1988 to pursue a career in computer programming and education. From 1997-2009 he worked for Pixar as the Dean of Pixar University. He has also worked for Apple Inc., and Dreamworks. Williams, who retired from the group in 1999, died in November 2016.

In late 2006/early 2007 founding member Howard Jay Patterson ("Ivan Karamazov") announced his retirement from the troupe after 30+ years, which would leave Paul "Dmitri" Magid as the sole remaining original member. In mid-2007 Patterson was replaced by Nick Flint ("Maximov Karamazov"). Flint performed with the group for one year before being replaced by Stephen O’Bent ("Zossima Karamazov") in the summer of 2008. The troupe launched a new show in 2007 called 4Play. The Karamazovs debuted their new show Flings and Eros for four weeks in late 2009.

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