by Naomi Donabedian

4-sided cardboard juggling club pattern to be wrapped ovre a broom stick.

We know the price of perfectly engineered and balanced juggling clubs can seem high. Like power tools, duct tape, tennis balls and washers? Really into the DIY channel, Instructables.com, and Make Zine? Snowed in with time on your hands? Us too!! We think there’s a well of knowledge in building your own equipment and perfecting the weight and size to your own juggling style. You can build practically everything we sell from scratch or objects around the home.

How to Make Juggling Balls (tennis balls and balloon style)

Online tutorials

“Green Clubs” made from Tennis ball and Soda Bottle on Wiki How. Or download a PDF from the Green Club Project’s website.

Newspaper juggling clubs on Instructables

Rag Juggling Balls on Maya Made.

Otedama Japanese beanbags on Things That Make Us Happy Make Us Wise.

No sew beanbags on EHow.

Juggling Rubber Chickens from FuzzCo, hilarious!

How to build a juggling torch on Instructables.

Cigar Boxes also on Instructables. Plus, they stole an image from our website as the “final goal.” Please don’t take images without our permission, and if you do at least give us some credit.

Upgrade to two-color or color changing juggling rings video tutorial on YouTube.

Devil Stick video tutorial on YouTube.

How to Make a Juggling Pin (ed. note we prefer juggling club!) on a Lathe

Some of these projects are for the experienced wood worker. Please be careful when using any power tools. Wear protection and remember what your shop teacher told you, usually something about not letting loose hair near the lathe or blammo there goes your scalp.

Successfully make some juggling props at home? Email us pictures, info at dube dot com, or put them up on our Facebook wall.


By Ross Berenson

Well balanced jugglers

Pulling up to an old cathedral that was converted into a circus school is quite a sight. You enter the building and see smiling faces all around. You take a quick walk around to feel the space out and you are already excited. The thrill and the fun of circus is going through your mind. You see some students practicing and already get a glimpse of the high talent level. A ceiling so high up, you can’t even hit it if you tried. Welcome to Turbo Fest at École de Cirque de Québec located in Quebec City, Canada.

The weekend of January 7th, the school hosted one of the best regional in North America. It cost $45 if you pre-registered and $50 at the door. With this price tag you get fun, sleeping space, access to the Saturday night show, and of course access to the schools space. Well worth the price.

There are two large rooms that are open for the public to juggle in. There is one room upstairs and one room downstairs. When both rooms are full, they are larger than some East Coast juggling festivals. The room downstairs is the tumbling room with mats all over the floor. The room doubles as a bedroom where many people set up camp and sleep for the night. Well… nap for the night. No one wants to sleep at this festival because there is so much going on.

Upstairs is the party room. Bright blue ceiling that houses many jugglers. There is a lot of space for everyone to do his or her thing. Up here is where the show is held and where the canteen is. Food and Beverages are sold on site, and they have a nice sized sitting area for everyone to enjoy their meal.

The fact that the festival it is held in such a high energy place adds to the energy greatly. The talent level is extremely high here. This is not your beginner festival. There are some beginner workshops though. Everyone that attends is very welcoming and friendly. You will see groups of people just exchanging tricks and tips.

Friday was the first day of the festival and there was already a high turnout. This was my fourth Turbo Fest and I think this had the largest turnout by far. The music is blasting and people are juggling. It’s a juggling party all weekend. Some people late at night weren’t even juggling and were just dancing. Friday night hosts the Juggle Jam and the Renegade (AKA the late show). You get to see amazing talent demonstrate some new tricks they are working on. The juggle Jam is fun. It’s rapid fire juggling. One person goes up; attempts a trick then someone else comes up and attempts a trick and so forth. This goes on for around 10 minutes. In the past there renegade shows consist of people trying hard tricks and some routines but this year they tried something different. Francis Julien was the host that night. They did a 45min improv. There were two teams of jugglers and Francis gave each team a theme they had to follow. It was fun to watch at first but it went on too long. That’s my opinion though. Many people seemed to enjoy it a lot. To each their own. After the improv, everyone went back into juggling and dancing.

Saturday is when some of the games were played, workshops, the Saturday night show, and thanks to Jason Garfield, Major League Combat. They have the typical games then some of their own. Many people are competitive here so it is fun to watch and to compete. Workshops went on all day. Before the show, the school offers a catered meal for attendees for a low price. Some people take it and others leave the school to eat at a nearby restaurant.

The show is always incredible. They have great talent from the school perform, École Nationale de Cirque, and many guest. This year they flew in the Gandini’s, Matt Hall, and Meghan Pike, Sean Blue, Eric Bates, and more. After the show the staff quickly cleaned up and juggling resumed. Shortly after, a round of Jason Garfield’s Major League Combat began. There were eight teams formed, which made quite the match up. It was the most intense games I have witnessed but I hear Madfest (Madison, Wisconsin) had even more of intense matches. Team Turbo may have to step it up next year! Not only did the competitors enjoy MLC, it also drew up a nice sized crowd. People enjoyed watching because its combat with rules. You see the teams thinking of plans and strategies. People are cheering and getting really into it. The Semi Finals were finished on Sunday because it was already 2am. The day flew by.

Sunday consisted of more games like diabolo high String and Balance Limbo. Games went on for a while. Every winner gets a metal and a prize. The Gandinis did a small surprise show for 20-30 minutes downstairs and you can see the passion they have for juggling. The fest ended at 6:00 and people stayed till the end. Good to the last drop (no pun intended).

Being around all the students is great. It’s a younger crowd than the average East Coast Festival. The talent is inspiring. The energy level is motivating. You just want to juggle and meet jugglers. It’s awesome. I look forward to next year’s festival the day the current festival ends. This festival wouldn’t happen if it weren’t for the Turbo Crew! Thanks! Turbo 6 is January 6th, 2012. Get planning!

Below, watch highlights from this year’s festival!

By Kyle Petersen

Watching cartoon characters juggle can be incredibly frustrating. Mickey Mouse doing an 8-ball shower? Give me a break! Why is so hard to animate a cascade pattern? Why have there been so few honest representations of juggling within the medium of cartoon animation? We dug into the archives to find our favorite cartoon juggling clips.

For those too young (or too old) to remember, Space Ghost Coast to Coast was a 1990’s late-night talk show hosted by Space Ghost, a 1960s Hannah-Barbera cartoon character. Confused? That’s ok, just watch the clip below.

In the following clip, Futurama’s Hermes shows us that it take a lot of juggling skills to maintain a bloated bureaucracy. In this video, our favorite Jamaican bureaucrat demonstrates a cascade, some spinning techniques as well as some old-school cigar box maneuvers. Well done!

By Kyle Petersen


Puerto Rico is one of the world’s unicycling hot spots. The tiny island nation (an unincorporated territory of the United States), is home to a number of unicycle communities. My recent vacation to the Island of Enchantment brought me to such varied locations as Rincon (to the far west), San Juan (capital city and major tourism hub) and La Silla de Calderon (a large mountain in the municipality of Adjuntas). I was struck by the large number of monowheeling young people I encountered on my adventures. Below, you can watch the highlights from my week-and-a-half long vacation. Enjoy!

Unicycling in Puerto Rico from Kyle Petersen on Vimeo.

By Kyle Petersen

Western Puerto Rico: unicycle hotspot

In a town called Aguada, far away from the tourist districts of San Juan, exists one of the strongest and most vibrant communities of unicyclists in the world. Aguada is located on the west coast of Puerto Rico, close to another town, Isabela, which is famous for its tremendous unicycle basketball team. Because Isabela is only 30 minutes from Aguada, it’s fair to say that western Puerto Rico is one of the biggest unicycle hotspots in the world.

Aguada is home the Bicicleteros de Aguada, a group of BMX bicyclists from the 1970s and ’80s who also embraced unicycle. One member, a man named Cesar, continued unicycling after the Bicicleteros disbanded. His love of monowheeling has led him to form clinics in his hometown of Aguada to teach the local children how to correr monociclo (ride unicycle). There aren’t any statistics to prove this, but Aguada must have one of the highest percentages of children that can unicycle in the world. Below, you can watch myself leading a group of children unicycling in a circle:

Isabela, to the north east, is the home of one of the best unicycle basketball teams in the world. The group, headed by Carlos Medina, is recognized as a force in the sport of unicycle basketball. Below, you can watch the team in action:

By Kyle Petersen

In the past year, a number of parody music videos have been produced by the juggling community. Here’s a look at some of our favorites:

Taylor Glenn, The Omnipotent Juggler, strikes again, this time with her spin on Travie McCoy’s 2010 breakout hit “Billionaire”. This clever pop parody, titled “I wanna be a juggler”, includes shoutouts to everyone from Doug Sayers to Michael Karas.

It was only a matter of time before someone created a Lady Gaga juggling music video. Chris Chiappini presents “Just Juggle”, a parody of Gaga’s “Just Dance”. The song references a number of New York City jugglers, and features a little bit of site swap humor to boot. After all, who doesn’t love a good site swap joke?

Finally, to prove that we’re not totally slaves to pop music, Mark and Dre present their take on Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer”. The video, titled “Psycho Juggler”, features a number of karamozovian tricks, as well as creative use of percussive juggling.

Did we miss something? Leave a comment so we can post it next time around.

Polishing our acrylic contact ball this morning we saw a blurry light that formed itself into a vision, a vision of the juggling world in 2011. Here is some of what we saw:

— Somewhere a child under the age of 7 is going to flash 12 balls. This event will probably be broadcast on YouTube.

— Teenagers will drop and crack their magic floating balls. A third of those teens will be upset for a moment before returning to video games. Another third of those teens will return the broken ball and get their money back. The last third will go online, complain, discover the meaning of contact juggling, and find their true path

— Jugglers will discover that hoops are meant for more than just dance, but nearly-human sized circles which unlimited manipulation tricks can be incorporated into performances. It’s unclear, but hoops may be the prop of the year. We might be misinterpreting hoops for trick roping. It’s that unclear.

— You ARE going to be on the cover of Juggle Magazine!

— Gas prices will rise. People will be criticize their elected politicians. The weather will be unpredictable, but the show will go on!

H A P P Y   N E W   Y E A R

By Kyle Petersen

As many of you may know, Dubé Juggling also sells professional grade hoops under the brand name Troo Hoops. Since hooping leaves your upper and lower body free, it’s only natural to combine hooping with other skills such as juggling and balancing. Juggling while hooping is surprisingly manageable. Balancing while hooping is more difficult. Here’s a look at what YouTube has to offer:

Below, the legendary Tony Duncan hooping while balancing a silicone ball on his head and contact juggling two more silicone balls. Fact: Tony Duncan spends 78% of his life with a ball balanced on his head.


Next, a mysterious unknown juggler juggles and hoops while balancing on a rola bola. Notice the cheesy and overly-dramatic music, as well as the furry white dog in the background and the small, messy apartment.

Below, the immortal Larry Vee hoops while riding a unicycle while spinning a ring round one arm while juggling! That’s four completely separate tasks at the same time! LARRY LARRY LARRY!


By Kyle Petersen

As far as we know, no animal (other than human) has ever been able to maintain a three-object cascade. That doesn’t mean that animals can’t do some pretty remarkable manipulation and balance tricks. Here’s a rundown of our favorites:

BEAR AND STICK

The following video features Claude the Bear from Japan showing off his fancy stick handling. Claude will be teaching a staff manipulation workshop in New York City this January!

DOG ON ROLLING GLOBE

This video features a Jack Russel Terrier balancing on a dog-sized rolling globe (AKA, a basketball). Go dog, go!

MONKEY BUSINESS

Below watch the Soviet juggling Gratchinow use a monkey as a juggling assistant and a juggling prop. We’re not sure what PETA would think of this, but that monkey has skills.

CANINE CONTACT

This well-trained dog gives Michael Moschen a run for his money with some fancy headstalls!

Do you have any videos of animals performing amazing tricks? Let us know!

By Kyle Petersen

Spaceballs!

The ball is one of the oldest toys on earth. For the vast majority of human existence, there’s been little innovation with respect to ball construction and design. With the advent of the industrial revolution, things began to change slowly. New synthetic materials and construction techniques made it possible to build balls of consistent weight and size. Even so, there’s been surprisingly few innovations with respect to ball making.

One group bucking that trend and trying to build a better ball is STEIM Amsterdam (STudio for Electro-Instrumental Music, Amsterdam), a “leading institution in research, development and facilitating live electronic music and arts”. STEIM has worked with Gandini Juggling to make one of the first electronic sound juggling balls. Each ball is implanted with a microchip, and makes a sound when thrown. The sounds are controlled though a mixing board, making it possible to play a song simply by juggling!

Juggling Sound Ball Demo from STEIM Amsterdam on Vimeo.

For another example of space-age balls, we have Australian juggler Phillip Edwards, who shows off fancy siteswap know-how as well as some fancy programmable balls. Edwards explains:

The balls are programmed to be a certain colour determined by the vertical distance from my hand. The colour ranges from purple at the bottom up through blue, green, yellow, orange to red at the top of the highest throw – like a rainbow.

It requires fairly precise timing to keep in sync with the programmed timing. Some siteswaps I do a good job with it; others are not quite as in sync.



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