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Roflcopter - #
How do you do it?
im not gonna try and correct my misspellings due to my shit keyboard so yoi may have to do a few double takes.
so I auditioned and made the cut for a talent show and have the act and song all together and even bought some knives for heending act. but lately i'm wondering "what was I thinking?" so I'm looking for help or just like what do those of you that perform do when preparing for a show?
When: all of a sudden tricksthat you can doand hve always done are extremely difficultand make you look dumb because you cant dothem to music or infront of someone?
theres no place to practice because there's horrid weather or slanted cielings.
when your out there busting your fingers apart and breaking your brand new stuff trying to snag the pesky part of the routine.
idk. tips on practicing a routine. have at it.
Roflcopter - - Vorredner #
helpful information:
I've been preparing for the act for half a month now.
there is no talking in my act.
itshowcases: 3-4 balls 3-4 rings 3 clubs 3 knives on rola bola
Owen Greenaway - - Vorredner #
I'm a keen juggler but I'm not a prolific performer. Anyway, here's my advice:
If you're performing to knowledgeable jugglers (maybe in a convention renegade/open show) then I feel you can get away with harder tricks as long as it looks like you are relaxed and it looks like you are having fun. They will be able to appreciate the tricks you are performing.
If you are performing to non-jugglers then I would focus on KISS - Keep It Simple, Stupid.
Remove all of the hard tricks. Remove all of the "pesky part". You know what you can achieve in practise and so your routine should be boring to you. The audience don't see you practise. They don't know these tricks are easy. They just enjoy your routine because you SELL the routine to them. Add expressions, mime and pauses to make the tricks look bigger, faster, harder and more impressive.
I think I've posted this on this site before but when performing to non-jugglers they will find it hard to tell tricks apart so make sure all your tricks are very different. E.g. do a high throw, followed by small tricks, followed by one body throw. Do things that the audience can immediately tell is a "trick" and immediately tell that it's difficult. You've seen each move a million times and so they are boring but your audience may have never seen the move before live and so will love it.
Use your current routine, with some harder tricks thrown in, to make an epic juggling video and then make a KISS routine for performing.
By keeping the routine really simple I believe you can focus on actually performing an entertaining routine instead of having to focus on the physical act of juggling.
thegoheads - - Vorredner #
I'm probably not qualified to answer this, but I will suggest that if you're entertaining a general audience (i.e. an audience of non-jugglers) the difficulty and even the amount of juggling doesn't matter nearly as much as character and stage presence. You can easily fill a few minutes of a routine with only a couple actual tricks, by adding a lot of fancy walking/dancing around inbetween tricks, picking up 1 ball at a time in creative ways rather than just running out on stage and blasting off right into a pattern. Audience engagement is important too. Be sure to smile and try to interact with the audience in some way, even if it's as simple as looking at them and smiling.
In other words, avoid just stringing together a bunch of juggling. In my experience 99% of people get bored of that in less than a minute.
I suspect you might not have been asking for advice on preparing a routine, moreso looking for advice about getting amped up to perform the routine you already have, but it's hard to tell with you sometimes :P Why not just proofread your posts and make one quick round of corrections? I find that beyond fixing typos, this will often help me gather my thoughts and express myself more clearly.
Anyway, the top paragraph is important because if stuff you used to be able to do easily is now very difficult, that stuff should NOT be in a routine. Audiences notice drops, but they don't notice when all you're doing is super-duper easy stuff and frolicking around. They leave saying "that guy was really good at juggling".
Roflcopter - - Vorredner #
it's a general audience, and I've tried to keep it simple.
I wanted to talk to the crowed and be engaging and sell it like you both have said. but after showing that to friends/family/crew they really just thought it was stupid. They insisted that I just let the juggling speak for itself. Actually how about I just post my routine?
I'm not a performer at all but I'm pretty sure that engaging with the audience doesn't have to include talking. By all means shows us your performance in a video so that we can give more specific critique.
Roflcopter - - Vorredner #
I will make a video and see how I can post it some where.
Robotic juggle - - Vorredner #
post it on juggling.tv i know your on their (hes a ginger)
p.s. im on there too but the videos are almost a year old and as ive only been juggling for a year and a half their baaaaddd
Roflcopter - - Vorredner #
Start:
my lovely assistant hands me three balls
3b behind back multiplex
right shower
left shower
columns
crossing columns
three in one hand
one up 360 x3 (this needs a little more work)
behind back x4
under leg x4
reverse mills mess
pause for applause
4 balls
async fountain to sync then back again
i throw one up high and then a three ball multiplex underneath that x3
4 ball shower (needs work)
pause
3 rings
colums
finger spins (maybe)
grind
grind under leg
they clap
4 rings
aync to sync and back
i take one ring and put it between my legs and switch back and forth like that.
all on the head (i can do it but not more than 5 times in a row)
applause
3 clubs
multiplex
doubles
circus doubles into
flats
columns
column variation
chops
behind back
under leg
club balance
reverse mills
scissor catch
bring out the knives
cut a potato in half
step up on the rola bola
juggle and make judges piss themselves
thegoheads - - Vorredner #
Hey that seems pretty good! If your friends/family think you need to put in more difficult tricks to better impress the judges, it's your call if you want to do that. But I think the judges will be better impressed by attitude and stage presence. Keeping it simple avoids drops though.
Good luck, let us know how it turns out :)
Robotic juggle - - Vorredner #
in my experience with crowds (especially with talent shows) no one in the crowd, bar a few, really know what their looking at and some tricks that you find to be arbitrary boggle their minds. im preparing for a talent show as well and i could pull out 5 balls and do the hardest tricks in my repituior (excuse my poor french spelling) i find that if i stick with three balls, and do mills mess and a 720 or something most people will be very impressed. in short i agree with the other guy who said take the tricky parts out just juggling the knives would be impressive enough. in short keep it simple and play to the audience. also non jugglers view drops as a sign of terrible dissaster versus a mistake thats made by the best so hard moves that get messed up can ruin the apeal of the whole show.
Yeah. I was doing an incredibly informal talent dealie awhile back. No routine or anything, just improv to music, really. Nothing hard, but I started with pseudorandom sequences of heights and inside/outside throws with 3 balls. At some point, I remembered what I was doing and broke into a basic cascade. That was what got the best response. A cascade. Way easier than what I had been doing just prior. Granted, it was a pretty tight cascade, and, as it was synched to the music, it was fairly low; but the improv was synched too, just not to every beat.
I shouldn't have started with the improv, but there I was, and had to work with it. If I hadn't, I probably wouldn't have seen that phenomenon in such relief. The usual progression is from easier to harder. Or maybe it had nothing to do with the patterns and was just because it was the first obvious transition between them. I can guess all day.
Anyway, this is just to confirm/emphasize the thing about general audiences reacting to trick difficulty in ways other than we might expect.
There's another explanation for the phenomenon you're describing, which is that the cascade formed an "applause point" at which the audience felt able to let loose all the applause they had been storing up during the earlier section.
Building tension and then releasing it causes applause; maybe the improv section was the build and the cascade was the release.
Little Paul - - Vorredner #
Yeah, this.
If someone is busily doing lots of complex stuff running one trick into the next on and on on stage... The audience is left waiting for a gap they can applaud in. So give them a gap!
Good point. I will have to bear this (and other things) in mind if I do any more performing.
Daniel Simu - - Vorredner #
I build upon everything that has already been said.
For most of the tricks you listed: It does not matter what you do, but how you do it.
Don't talk, it is a skill on itself and looks silly when done wrong. Better have music to cover up for you!
All the things I suggest are: Suggestions! I recommend you change a couple things, but the possible solutions are endless!
3b:
You end with reverse mills mess? That is not going to give you a big applause. End with something visual. High throw one up pirouette, catch while landing on your knees!
You do both right and left shower? Why? Is it because you are moving around in different directions on the stage while you do the showers, or just to show off? If its just to show off, cut the left shower and find a way to make the right shower more interesting (walking around, playing with your face, one up or a single high low shower)
One up 360 3x? why 3 times? The third time is not going to be as impressive as the first one..
My suggested new order:
Cascade! For a long time, and walk around a bit
Collumns & crossing
Cascade again shortly, move around
Under the leg, make it as big as possible, throw the last one under the leg too far so you have to chase it
Relax again, easy mills mess or reverse or whatever
spectacular backcrosses and your amazing finally
the 1 up 360! Open yourself up for applause!
If 3 in one hand is not stable (I assumed since you didn't list 5b) don't do it.
Same goes for all the other routines:
Start relaxed, do a variation, move around, big trick, relax again, impressive trick, even more impressive finish that gives a clear moment to applaud!
Little Paul - - Vorredner #
This. Reduce the complexity of the trucks, and add in some movement around the stage. Own the space, fill the space, pause in the cascade after the "big" tricks to give the audience space to react
Keep it simple, keep it short. Don't feel you have to use the whole length of your music. If it's a 6 minute track and you've only got 2 minutes of juggling, cut the music short instead of padding the routine.
Leave them wishing you'd done more, not wishing you'd done less.
Little Paul - - Vorredner #
Not too self, when posting from your phone, proof teas twice
Robotic juggle - - Vorredner #
he is right stage presence is huge regardless of what your doing (make that stage your !@%$#) its just the only way. you can be the best juggler ever but if you cant own the stage its useless to preform stick to teaching or construction idk.
In terms of the tricks you list this is excellent advice. Definitely drop all the things you wrote 'needs work' or 'maybe' against.
I'd like to offer some advice about the stuff that is not your juggling:
When I used to perform on stage I was always really nervous before my turn. My boss often praised my confidence but truth was I was always faking it! I developed a ritual where I would sit down alone out of the way before I was due on & did lots of slow deep breathing to calm myself down while running through the order of my routine in my head. Most of what I'd run through was how to move during the act. I wanted to look like I belonged on the stage, I always went out & greeted the audience as if I was welcoming a good friend into my home.
If you are going to move from one part of the stage to the other, don't walk, stride. Keep your head up & your back straight, use your arms. The stage is a long way away from a lot of the audience so all your movements, including (especially!) just putting one foot in front of the other, need to be big, clear & precise.
Don't shuffle while juggling either, if you can't walk with precise even steps (both rhythm & distance) without stumbling over your own feet or fumbling your props it is better to stop juggling, stride to your new position then resume juggling.
(On this point, does anyone have the necessary Google Fu to find the video of Anthony Gatto, Thomas Dietz & Toby Walker in a squash court, this was in the early days of the WJF & the video ended with Anthony in the middle juggling eight balls while Thomas & Toby juggled seven ball half showers either side, then they threw their balls down & shouted, "Sport my ass!" to the camera. There's a bit in it where they all juggle five clubs while walking in a figure of eight. Watch how Anthony moves compared to the other two.)
Also think about how you stand. When people are nervous they often stand with their feet close together, one foot slightly behind the other & with their weight on one leg (ready for flight) which is very unstable especially when juggling. If you are stationary at any point make sure your feet are firmly planted shoulder width apart with weight evenly distributed between both legs. This will give you a solid base to juggle from & make you look confident. Don't hop from foot to foot (if you find yourself doing this walk to another part of the stage). Also work on confidently getting into the standing position. You've just done a nice confident stride across the stage, you don't want to ruin it by looking down at your feet & doing a nervous little tap dance while you get yourself together. Think economy of movement. Put one foot down at the end of a stride, put the other down firmly in position so that you don't have to twist your feet about to get them closer together or further apart. & don't look down at your feet. You are a juggler. You should be coordinated enough to stand up straight!
Instead of practicing your juggling one night, use an hour or so to practice walking & standing, yes you will feel silly for doing it but it will be the most productive bit of practice you will ever do!
Watch Freddie Mercury or Shirley Bassey with the sound down & watch how they exude confidence through their body language (then watch again with the sound on for full effect).
...Forgot to mention the Matt Hall effect!
If people like you, your act will be amazing regardless what you do. Show respect to your audience & they will respect you back.
I remember recently I saw Penn & Teller on TV (Fool Us) did a trick where they took an audience member's pair of glasses which somehow got lost & later reappeared being worn by Teller after they smashed his head out of a comedy concrete block or something similar. What really made me smile was after the trick was done Penn handed the girl her glasses back & then handed her a disposable cleansing wipe from his breast pocket in case there was any dust on her lenses. He probably didn't need to do that, it didn't benefit the trick or the rest of the audience in any way (other than perhaps adding a bit of feel good factor for people like me). I love the level of thoughtfulness & respect for their audience that this showed. This is the sort of attention to detail that makes a great performer.
Little Paul - - Vorredner #
I *think* this link to archive org is the right video, but the download isn't particularly quick so I've only been able to watch the first 20 seconds or so.
https://web.archive.org/web/20060222132038/https://homepage.mac.com/anthonygatto/.Public/GDW-MPEG-1.mpg
It's certainly got the right people in it, and it's shot in a squash court.
If for some reason that link doesn't work, start at https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://homepage.mac.com/anthonygatto/.Public/GDW-MPEG-1.mpg and click on one of the circles
Little Paul - - Vorredner #
I'll let our glorious leader work out how to fix that second link ;)
Little Paul - - Vorredner #
My download finished, it's the right video.
I see what you mean about watching how Anthony moves compared to Thomas/Toby. Anthony strides confidently around the space where the others sort of amble. They've all got similar levels of control over the pattern but the easy practiced confidence of the one who has spent his life on stage shows clearly.
Also the "Dietz Shoulder" syndrome is more pronounced than I remember it being.
Yep, good find thank you.
& my apologies, you will now spend your life watching how jugglers walk on stage!
pumpkineater23 - - Vorredner #
I've very little experience with performing but I've always found 3b yo yo goes down well with non jugglers.
I agree with what others have said about making your routine simple, especially with a talent show as lots of judges on them don't understand juggling and are very harsh with drops, for some it's as bad as them not even considering your act too much if you've dropped a lot. So I'd recommend keeping it to trick you can do easily with no warm up.
One other thing to think about is that your tricks that you know this well will probably be boring to you, that gives you a great excuse to add some movement or actions to keep yourself entertained as well. If you find your routine boring it can be quite obvious when performing it.
Roflcopter - - Vorredner #
wow guys, thanks for all the feedback. I've read all the posts and I like what has been said. I'm really sick today so I wont be able to make a video but hopefully soon I can show you the whole thing on stage.
Roflcopter - #
The Shin Splitter.
This is what I have named my first unicycle. I bought her yesterday at a yard sale for ten us dollars. Which was great considering that my first would have been a 18$ machine that would turn into a 180$ mistake if I ordered it wrong or banged it up too bad. Anyway, its made by Schwin and is in pretty good condition. The seat is a little banged up and I can foresee the seat cap doodads coming off in the future. The seat post is I think just tall enough to sit comfortably. Cons being that the pedals are too small so if I don't leave half of my foot off, the crank will come around and either take my foot off by the heel or cut into my ankle. And I've measured the wheel to be around 19.5 inches which is kind of a downer because I need a 24 inch. I'm 5'10" and have an inseam of 33.5" and I think because the post is just a tad short it causes some chaffing in my legs?
I've learned to free mount and get down the road a little ways.
Any advice from the edge? I'm curious as to what you all wear when riding a unicycle. Like the shoes and pants?
thanks,
Roflcopter
Little Paul - - Vorredner #
I do indeed wear shoes and pants.
Also socks, trousers and some form of torso covering, because I'm not a monster.
Little Paul - - Vorredner #
I wouldn't want the belt to get caught in the spokes
It's quite possible to unicycle wearing a skirt so long as it's a very full skirt with something decent underneath. Don't think the shoes matter a great deal but make sure you tuck the laces away. That's important :-)
I can not see how wearing a skirt would work. Or maybe my liking and owning of large wheels is throwing of my mental imagery.
Which part of the wheel have you measured to be 19.5" as that sounds an unusual wheel size? If you look at the side of the tyre the size is often written on it
I am having difficulty visualising your crank/pedal situation.
Chaffing is one of the delights of unicycling, wearing clothes is recommended probably more than just underpants and shoes unless you are suffering unseasonably hot weather (and have tolerant neighbours).
Roflcopter - - Vorredner #
I fear I may have to resort to the underwear and shoes at some point. But is there anyway my clothing choice can prevent chaffing to a degree? And no, I looked on the wheel and couldn't find a size.
Maybe I'll film the pedal problem and you can see what I mean.
Get some properly sized cycling shorts and wear them as an undergarment. Chafing is caused by rubbing and moisture, both of which are prevented to some degree by cycling shorts as it is their raison d'etre.
Depending on vintage, a Schwinn may have a proprietarily sized wheel (older ones). It may say something like "S7" on it. Otherwise, it would be something more like "20 x 1.75". Wheel sizing is a bit, ahem, approximate. A 20" wheel might or just as easily might not actually measure 20" in diameter. Pedals are easily swapped out, but you must choose the proper thread size between 9/16" and 1/2" to match your cranks. The usual is 9/16".
Why do you need a 24? 20 is great for learning as long as the seatpost is long enough. Your height is the same as mine and is at the cusp between recommending a 20 or 24 to learn on. Either would work. Having the seat too low doesn't cause chafing so much as it causes sore knees and muscles, which you will get to some extent anyway. Some chafing and bruising is normal as you toughen up down there and develop your technique (not squeezing the saddle between your thighs so hard).
You will want to get another uni once you've learned to ride and have figured out what direction you want to go in with unicycling. They are a bit specialized like that. As a juggler, you might be planning to do stage work, for instance, in which case, a small wheel (like 20") is usually what you'd want.
Roflcopter - - Vorredner #
"sore knees and muscles"
that's what I was just getting on here to ask about. My knees will et pretty sore and if I ride more than 100 yards I suffer from some serious lactic acid in the quads. (and not because my legs are unfit) Is it any easier to switch out a seat post? or a seat? the current one is giving me unbearable pain in the ahem "saddle".
and yes that's what it says on the wheel! And yes stage work would be a factor but I also like to use it to travel short distances when it will be too slow to walk or its too inconvenient to run.
That sounds like you need to put more weight on the seat and less on your feet. It is common when learning. There is fit and there is fit. Unicycling uses your body in different ways than most other activities. There is a particular knee ailment common to cyclists that seems to be helped by exercising one certain muscle (VMO), but you may not be running into that yet unless you're practicing a *lot*.
Switching saddles is just 4 nuts/bolts. No biggie. Swapping seatposts is that plus undoing/redoing the seatpost clamp. Again, not a big deal unless it is rusted or fused in place. It is not unusual to need to cut the new post to get the right height without the post rubbing the tire. You do need to make sure your saddle and seatpost match as there are a couple of incompatible bolt patterns. Also, there are several seatpost diameters and you need the right one to fit your frame.
You can go that route with wheel sizes. It works. It is pretty normal to get different unicycles for different activities, though. Even a 24 will feel really slow if you try to actually travel more than a few miles on it.
Oh right; it's a Schwinn. Those seatposts go into the frames differently. Most of what I said still applies, but with those, there is no seatpost clamp and the seatpost has holes drilled along it at 1" intervals for that bolt, which holds the two halves of the frame together, to go through. I have seen Schwinn seatposts available online in in lengths up to, I think, 400mm.
It also tells me which bolt pattern you need, and any Schwinn seatpost will have the right one. Most modern saddles (UDC, KH, Velo, Onza, etc.) fit that pattern. Those saddles usually cite Schwinn for the bolt pattern.
Some Older Schwinns have a different bolt pattern, but you can get replacement Schwinn seatposts if you don't have the new bolt pattern.
Oh,ok, good to know. What was the old bolt pattern like and when/why did the transition occur? I don't plan to start buying Schwinns, but now I'm curious.
RegularJugular - - Vorredner #
I am 5'9" and The first uni I bought was a 24" because I thought I would use a unicycle for travelling in place of a bike. That never happened.
I prefer riding a 20" because on a unicycle the last thing I want to do is ride in a straight line, If I wanted to do that I'd ride a bike (shyness?) For me 20" is great, 24" not so much.
Straight line machines:
I tried a 29" once, easy to ride, slight challenge to idle over a 20"/24". I doubt it would sway me from bicycles, or other transport, should I want to do shopping though.
I briefly tried a 36". I considered myself a fairly compentant unicyclist, (I could wheelwalk a 20") I couldn't even get on the 36".
YMMV ;)
Roflcopter - - Vorredner #
Yesterday I used my 20 to travel to a friends hours (about .7 miles or so) and it worked really well. I had top walk it up some steep hills (and I mean steep) and learned that I can go up but not down speed bumps. other than that I didn't even chafe or have any falls.
Yeah. I am the other direction. I have a learner 24, and a nice 29 and a nice 36. I do mountain bike races, on the 29er up to now, but will see how the 36 goes.
20s feel really squirrelly now.... I should try learn more tricks though. At the moment I can ride and that is about it. :P
Glass bottles
Greetings, folks. I've been juggling glass for awhile, and nobody seems to talk about it outside of bar flair, so I'm assuming it is unusual or generally considered uninteresting. This is not flair. Just 3 bottle cascade and other such patterns. Held club-style, though I can do it the other way too. I'm working on "bottle" throws/catches, but I'm not there yet.
I am a hobby juggler as opposed to a performer, which means I mostly do it for my own benefit rather than for others, and I have found that 12 oz long neck beer bottles actually feel pretty darn good when juggled this way. They weigh about the same as a club, but they are obviously quite a bit shorter, which is good for low ceilings. They didn't feel right at all when I started with them, but they started to grow on me. 500ml Coke bottles work really well too. They're about the same diameter, but longer, so a little more club-like.
Oh, but don't they break? Well, yeah, of course they do. I don't juggle them over concrete, ceramic tile, etc., and they tend to survive falls onto a bed or even a wood floor fairly well, but they're not indestructible, and bottle/bottle collisions are a killer. Before juggling any bottle (ok, sometimes, I can't resist, but I'm tempting fate), I cover it completely in "duck" tape so that when it does break, all of the parts stay in one place instead of showering the area with shards and slivers. Taping them up is a big pain, but not as much as cleaning up glass. After breaking, they are usually still jugglable, just a little noisy and perhaps slightly squishy. If I continue juggling with them, they become progressively more so, which should surprise nobody.
The tape might help them survive collisions a bit better, but I have absolutely no metrics to support or refute that, so I assume it to be a wash or a trivial improvement for my purposes. The tape gets scarred in collisions, but that is easily patched with a small piece of tape. The object of that is mostly to keep pieces of glass from coming out of holes in it in the event of a break. I have probably less than a dozen broken bottles to show for having done this a year or so. Some went into the trash. Some have an afterlife as outdoor practice bottles.
Large furniture leg tips fit over the mouths, either naked or over a layer of tape, to form a rubberized knob. They change the balance a bit, but not badly. They help prevent noise when collecting if you can arrange for the rubber part to make contact instead of glass on glass.
Bottles are very hard. I don't recommend catching or deflecting them with your head, face, or clavicle. I've tried them all. It's like a one-man bar fight. Collisions are deafeningly loud, except for the ones which result in a break, which are a bit more muted.
Not limiting myself to beer bottles, I evaluate any glass bottle I encounter for use in this endeavour. Sake bottles are nice with their generally smooth transition between body and neck. I have a Bols bottle, which is nice, though that is not surprising since they make a plastic version of those for flairing. I also have a few heavier wine/champagne bottles which are a bit more challenging. The best use of those is probably to build up strength to make the lighter bottles easier to manipulate (working above the trick). The bottles, being larger, would be better for audiences, and, having thick glass, might survive drops/collisions better than lighter ones.
Plastic bottles just don't have enough mass. I can juggle some of them, but they aren't very fun, and if there's any wind, forget about it.
The juggling itself is sort of on a continuum between club and ball juggling. I operate mostly in club mode and in one where I am grabbing the body more than the "handle" and rotating the mass of the whole prop as I lift. This is true especially of the beer bottles, which obviously don't have much of a handle.
So, where to go with this? Heck if I know. There is the obvious party trick value. Mostly, it's just a particular rabbit hole that I have gone down with juggling.
Yeah, like he starts doing at about 1:55.
I can only do every third throw as a double right now, though, so I have a way to go.
Little Paul - - Vorredner #
https://youtu.be/Gf9SxF4zZdw
Is my favourite ever bottle routine (it comes after the fire, but the fire is a set up for some atrocious fake heckling which leads to the bottles)
Massimiliano Truzzi did lots of tricks with glass fish bowls. I'm glad I saw this thread, as it ties in perfectly with an article I'm just starting to work on about juggling breakable objects. It will include Jo Kamm's breakable clubs, balls, and diabolos, Truzzi's stuff, and number of other things.
David Cain
Daniel Simu - - Vorredner #
Cool! I recently got an interest in breakable objects. Don't forget to write about the history of chinese vase juggling :)
The guy in the blue bottles video explained me how to make ceramic balls, a project I hope I find some time for at some point. I heard a story about Sean Gandini juggling 5 ceramic balls on stage for a long run and then breaking them in the end.. Is it true, when was this and can anybody tell me more about the performance?
That performance came up briefly a while back in this thread. I believe we are all still waiting for the Gandini biography to come out.
Little Paul - - Vorredner #
I'm pretty sure there's a review of the show in question in The Catch, if I get time later I'll see if I can find/scan it
Yes, Sean did juggle 5 ceramic balls in the show "Neither Either Both And". They performed it back in 1994, and I think I traveled to York to see this show, probably one of my first.
The whole thing was mind-blowing. An amazing show full of dance, amazing technical juggling, passing, siteswaps, weird sound bites (I recall something about a truck passing school of deaf people?!) and more. As this was the first show of its kind that I had seen, it no doubt had the greatest impact. I did enjoy Caught Still Hanging, but it was never quite the same as Neither Either Both And for me.
I still have the tetraflexagon show programme in a draw somewhere.
Sean's juggling of the 5 balls was as a finale, and it made quite an impact. I remember him running a high and beautifully steady 5 ball pattern, until suddenly they all came crashing and smashing down. Quite unexpected.
Fond memories ...
Colin E.
Little Paul - - Vorredner #
According to the review in The Catch which I've just found (but which doesn't mention the ending, presumably so as not to ruin the surprise) says The puzzle wasn't made any easier by the dialogue. "what is more musical, a truck passing by a factory or a truck passing by a music school?" Personally, I don't know and - to be honest - I don't really care
Anyway, I've scanned in the review from Volume 1, Issue 6 (1994) and an interview with Sean Gandini about "nEither Either botH and") and slapped it up here: https://lpbk.net/misc/the_catch_v1_i6_dec-feb-1994_gandini.pdf (1.2Mb pdf)
Includes bonus cartoon illustration of a pleasing but simple columns variation.
Daniel Simu - - Vorredner #
I am so glad you guys are all so knowledgeable!
Little Paul - - Vorredner #
Old is where it's at.
Or at least, where I'm at.
Oh wow - thanks for that LP, I am surprised that my recollection of the dialogue is roughly correct!
Little Paul - - Vorredner #
No worries, trawling through back issues of The Catch isn't exactly a chore!
I had to dig through 2 years worth of issues to find that article, and I managed to only get distracted from my purpose 7 or 8 times by other articles I wanted to re-read (as well as finding Mike Bridges winning photo competition entry, which always makes me smile)
I thought there was a plan to index The Catch and maybe put the archive on-line, or was that just an idea?
Little Paul - - Vorredner #
That idea has been through several iterations. The closest we got to doing anything about it (that I was involved in) stalled when Stuart Ashman said he was in the process of creating electronic copies based on the original DTP files
But that was several years ago, and nothing seems to have come of it.
I've recently tightened up my PDF generation workflow and am getting better at producing small readable scans, although the catch is laid out in such a way (and uses all teh fonts) that OCR hasn't really been worth bothering with so far.
an article I'm just starting to work on about juggling breakable objects
Is it going to have a section about Passe Passe?
/allegedly
When you say bottle throws/catches do you mean holding a bottle as you would if you were drinking from it or something different?
I saw a street performer in Tunbridge Wells do a bit of bar flair in his act. He wrapped his glass bottles tightly with several layers of cling film, you couldn't tell that they were wrapped unless you were up really close. As well as looking better I'd imagine that applying the wrap would be less time consuming than using duct tape because it is generally a lot wider.
You continue to juggle with your bottles after breaking?! Surely it would be very easy for a broken edge to cut through the tape & slash your hand off?
I remember going to a beginners bar flair workshop at a BJC where the instructor handed out a load of bare glass bottles. It did not go well.
Yes, like you're drinking from a bottle.
I will have to try the cling film. I will have to test it to see how it performs in a few breakage scenarios. Fortunately, I have a number of beer bottles.
I can and have, though I don't do it a lot. They are remarkably stable. The duct tape sticks to the pieces and keeps them from shifting in a way that would slice through the tape. I did some high fall testing on one poor bottle (threw it as high as I could, multiple times), and while it was possible to breach the envelope, the results are what you would expect from a bottle made out of safety glass. The cling film might or might not perform differently in this regard. I'm more nervous that glass slivers might fall out of a hole in the tape that I don't know about.
Flair workshop: I can imagine. Wow. Is there an amusing or horrifying anecdote?
Nothing horrifying fortunately or particularly amusing unfortunately. Just a lot of very nervous people & a large portion of the workshop was taken up by cleaning up broken glass.
Workshop leader: "Now you try."
Workshop attendees who didn't bring a practice bottle look around apprehensively.
Workshop leader: "Go ahead it'll be fine!"
Smash.
Workshop leader: "Ok, nobody move."
Reflection during practice.
I'd be interested to know what you think. How important do you think it is? Is too much juggling into a mirror not such a good idea or the more the better? Do you find it more difficult or is it just something you get used to?
Thanks.
Generally, when I juggle, I need to look at the props - I can't imagine juggling facing a mirror would help, as I wouldn't be able to get feedback during the event anyway. A good old video camera is the best way to improve based on visual feedback, I think.
Little Paul - - Vorredner #
I think it depends what you want to get out of it.
If you're juggling for pleasure, or working on perfecting a particular pattern - then a mirror probably isn't very useful for reviewing your pattern. A video camera might be more useful.
However, if you're working on a performance and want to improve your movement, choreography, blocking or whatever then yes I'd say it could be useful. You'll be able to see the large movement in the mirror without having to stare straight at the mirror, so you'll still get to look at your pattern when you need to. To get the most out of it, you'll need a bloody big mirror though - like those found in dance studios.
Actually, I'd say if you don't have access to a dance studio - you'll probably do better with a video camera.
I used to use a mirror when practicing magic. Partly to work on my angles, and partly to try and break the habit of looking at my hands when I work. Unfortunately I found I was relying on the image in the mirror to guide me and without the mirror I fumbled. These days I rarely practice in front of a mirror, but do use one to check I'm going in the right direction from time to time.
But that's probably not a problem I'd expect you'd hit with juggling.
Early on, I had a go at that. It tripped me up. I imagine I could have made it work if I specifically practiced toward juggling while looking at my reflection in the mirror, but that is effort I could better spend on learning something else. If you personally want to do it for its own sake, then, by all means do; but I don't think it is going to help you in any other context. I don't think it will ultimately hurt you other than consuming effort.
As someone who does go in odd directions with stuff to see what they'll be like, I'll add that if you find yourself liking the mirror thing, you could go on to use two mirrors at a right angle so you'll see yourself as others do; swapped left to right.
Ditto what the others have said about a camera being better for practice/learning purposes.
Little Paul - - Vorredner #
"juggling while looking at my reflection in the mirror" can be a useful skill though.
I'm specifically thinking of being able to look "through" the pattern at the audience, or at your passing partner.
I've done it to try and make things "tidier" when working on tricks where the lines are important, and also as a kind of "posture check". The immediate feedback gives it an advantage over a camera if you're trying to work on one specific little thing.
You have to have some idea what you're looking for before you start, though.
Another option is to team up with someone else, let them know what you're looking for and have them give you yes/no feedback on each attempt for a while. For example - you go for 20 catches of 5 balls; they shout "stop" the moment it starts to look untidy or your shoulders go hunched, and you drop the lot and start over. This has the advantage that you can't accidentally just learn to self-correct by looking in the mirror (resulting in a trick that can't be replicated away from the mirror).
Wow! This is so good a little bit of pee came out.
https://youtu.be/af7dxq6Gl5I
This video is private.
If the owner of this video has granted you access, please log in.
Alas, I am not special :(
pumpkineater23 - - Vorredner #
I can't access it either now. Shame, it's a stunning juggling video by Gautier Tritschler. Hopefully it will be public again soon.
Rob van Heijst - - Vorredner #
The point is that that was a segment of a dvd they are still selling and they don´t want people to see it.
pumpkineater23 - - Vorredner #
Oh well, I doubt the 'leak' did too much harm. What is the DVD do you know?
Rob van Heijst - - Vorredner #
https://youtu.be/9JwFcDb7aS4 It looks like a great dvd and I almost bought it but at the last second I decided to buy More Fun Than Visting A Zoo #3
pumpkineater23 - - Vorredner #
Many thanks. You're right it looks great.
pumpkineater23 - - Vorredner #
Here it is again in case anyone missed it:
https://youtu.be/Ra4ehrdLr7k
Daniel Simu - - Vorredner #
HOLY
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