Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Traditional Samoan fire tricks light up the day
COLFAX - The Whitman County Library hosted an entertaining event filled with dancing, live music, juggling and fire at Shmuck Park on Friday, June 21.
Jenks Children's Music & Juggling performed the free and live entertainment.
Families in town could watch Corey Jenkins "Jenks" of Salem, Ore., juggle balls, rings, clubs, diabolo, plate spinning, torches and Samoan fire knife dancing.
"Colfax is such a great place to perform. The park is gorgeous," said Jenks.
Jenks last performed in 2016 for the Whitman County Library.
Jenkins grew up playing a lot of music. Now, he writes and performs his own music for his shows.
"I played drums and then was in a couple of small bands. We didn't do much but I wanted to be able to do music for money or as a part of my life but I knew I wanted a family. I knew I didn't want to play in bars or clubs because I wanted to be with my family," he said.
Jenkins learned to pair his music with juggling tricks he taught himself.
The cool thing about the children's music is it totally goes with my style of humor. "I learned juggling before YouTube. I started with three balls, then I got clubs." He said. "I invented all of my own tricks to find out later on they had been invented already and had been done for decades."
He began his career performing children's music in Spokane. He remained in Spokane performing for seven years before moving to Oregon with his wife and children. They have lived there for ten years.
Jenkins is the father of five children and reports that they attend nearly every show and help set up. Some even participate in the show.
He states he got into the fire tricks when he was 21-years-old and visiting his parents in Hawaii. Jenkins received one-on-one classes at that time and grew to enjoy the dangerous aspect of fire tricks.
"The fire knife I have was specially ordered and was made by the guy who makes them for professional performers in Hawaii. It was one of those things that spiraled out of control. When you learn one juggling element, it spirals from there," he said. "It was this fun thing where you never know what you'll learn next."
Jenks performs all over but focuses on Washington State, Idaho and Oregon.
"The furthest I have played was at a reindeer farm in Anchorage. I don't know if the humans liked that show but the reindeer seemed to like it. They didn't complain," said Jenkins.
The show will return to Whitman County at the Garfield Library at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, July 24, the Albion Library at 1 p.m. and the Uniontown Library at 3:30 p.m.
In addition, Jenks has a fourth album coming out in the next few weeks. He says the artwork for the cover is all that is left.
Jenks music can be found on Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube, Apple Music and his website, http://www.jenks.com.
Olivia Harnack is a Journalist at the Whitman County Gazette. Olivia is enrolled at University of Idaho and is majoring in digital film studies. She serves in the United States Army National Guard and is proud to serve Whitman County.
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