Bounce & Ooo La La
Bounce & Ooo La La – “Bashert”
Bounce and Ooo La La were meant to be together – bashert.
Steven Margil (aka Bounce) and Karen Grant (aka Ooo La La) are a very special Key West couple. They don’t consider themselves true Key West musicians but have been associated with music in many ways since the 1970s.
Margil hails from Sharon, Massachusetts. In 1967, he attended the University of Massachusetts to study gymnastics. He studied sociology, education and quit school a couple of times ending up in Boston.
Ooo La La at the most recent Green Parrot Ukelele Society meeting.
Grant grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. Every year, the family would vacation at Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain. They would watch Florida State University’s “Flying High” Circus train. She and her sister learned to juggle and perform other circus acts. Karen went on to study theater in the United States and England. The funding grant for theater school dried up and Karen got hired by a dinner theater company in Nashville, Tennessee. She learned to play bass guitar and the accordion.
Bounce Margil was the first juggler ever at Mallory Square in 1975.
During Christmas break in 1973, Margil hitchhiked to Key West and immediately felt like he was home. On New Year’s Eve, a person dressed as a clown had about a thousand-people bouncing up and down on Duval Street, between Sloppy Joe’s and The Bull. He had been interested in a stage name for his new clown juggler act – the image stuck in his head and “Bounce” was born.
In February 1975, Bounce became the first juggler at Mallory Square where he met Gary Zimmerman and the Solares Hill String Band. In 1976, he was hired by Ringling Brothers to teach juggling. Bounce met a few others, formed a touring act of performers known as Locomotion Vaudeville.
Bounce and Karen first met at a juggling convention at the University of Delaware in 1977. She claims their meeting was bashert, a Yiddish term for “meant to be”. Karen, a clown, mime, juggler would introduce herself as “La La” and the crowd noticing her beauty would say “Ooo La La”. She became Mademoiselle Ooo La La.
In 1980, Ooo La La broke up with her boyfriend, toured Europe for six months, and returned to the U.S. to perform in a theater festival in St. Petersburg, Florida. Bounce was touring with Locomotion Vaudeville, performing in Orlando. It was there Bounce and Ooo La La met for the second time. 
Soon, two members of his group left, and Bounce recruited Ooo La La for his Locomotion Vaudeville group.
They almost immediately fell in love and have been together since. They soon moved into a small two-bedroom home in Key West that Bounce had purchased in 1979. The home was soon a haven for visiting performers of all types, and they were practically overrun.
A reunion of the Solares Hill String Band in 2014 at Boondocks -Dick Morrill, Cindy Jefferson, Bounce Margil, Steve Allerton, Gary Zimmerman, Ooo La La
In 1981, Bounce and Ooo La La began performing in Mallory Square in the winter and touring in the summer. While performing at Mallory Square the Solares Hill String Band, with good friend Gary Zimmerman, would stop playing during their juggling performance. As soon as their performance ended, Bounce and Ooo La La would join the Solares Hill String Band. She played the washboard and Bounce played his musical saw. The band (8-12 performers) would often end the evening at their home, playing music in their backyard.
Throughout the 80s vans parked in the front yard, tents pitched in the backyard, and bodies were everywhere. The small two-bedroom single bath home was quickly overwhelmed. Bounce and Ooo La La rebuilt the small house into a larger more visitor friendly place.
In 1983, Locomotion Vaudeville ended and they began touring as a duo. They formed a company called Crowd Pleasures Performance, featuring Bounce and Ooo La La’s Vaudeville Circus. They toured in the summer and returned to Key West in November, from 1983 through 1990 when their son Daniel was born.
Whenever traditional musicians were in town, they would also perform with the Solares Hill String Band at Mallory Square. Afterwards, the visiting performers, members of the band, and friends would congregate at Bounce and Ooo La La’s home. The evening would usually end cooking fish in the backyard and playing music.
In 1982, while touring Chicago, they found a ukulele at a flea market that was in very bad shape ($10). Bounce restored the ukulele and Ooo La La learned to play it. After the repair, she took it to a music store and there was very loud music playing. As she held her ukulele, she could feel it vibrating – it wanted to be played. 
She bought strings and a book, and learned to play the ukulele. Later, while Bounce was rehabbing a shoulder injury, he learned to play the ukulele and expanded his musical horizons.
While replacing strings on the ukulele, Ooo La La noticed a label inside Kamaka which is the oldest ukulele company in the U.S. and still based in Hawaii. She contacted Kamaka through their website and based on the photo and information she gave them, they estimated their $10 ukulele was built in 1954 by Sam Kamaka – making it worth thousands.
The monthly meeting of the Green Parrot Ukulele Society is in its twelfth year and is now co-hosted by Bounce and Ooo La La. It’s an opportunity for people to get together and have fun with music. The late Beatle George Harrison once said, “You can’t play the ukulele without smiling.”
Ooo La La and Bounce ended up running a ukulele club at Grateful Guitar and later at Shanna Key that became known as the End of the Road Ukulele Gang. They will be performing at this year’s Customs House Holiday Concert on December 13.
Their favorite musical experience was playing their final song, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”, at sunset. Ooo La La playing her accordion and singing, Bounce playing his musical saw, and their poodle Sparkplug would gently and perfectly howl the melody in backup. You gotta love Key West.
An amazing portrait of the Solares Hill String Band in the early 80s (photographer unknown) includes Rich McCay holding Sparkplug.
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