We’ve long noticed that many of our customers are also musicians. This makes a lot of sense, as both juggling and music require using both sides of your brain. While many have combined juggling and music in the past, and handful of musical juggling acts stand out. Here is a sample of some of our favorites.
Chip Ritter tears it up on his drum set on the Letterman Show, juggling drum sticks while drumming!
The guys from Gandini Juggling syncopate bounce juggling to create an excellent drumming effect. This took a lot of practice…
Dan Menendez uses silicon juggling balls to bounce juggle on an electric piano. Ellen is impressed.
Do you have a musical juggling act? Please let us know!
Ever since attending my first juggling festival, the First Annual Berkeley Juggling and Unicycle Festival, I was introduced to the magical world of juggling fests that has become a huge part of my life today. Ever since then, it has also been a dream of mine to host a well-known juggling festival that is free to all interested in juggling and the circus arts. That dream became a goal, and now that goal has been accomplished. My attempt at creating the Santa Cruz Juggling Festivals is also powered by the fun and inspiration I had from other festivals as well such as the IJA Convention, Humboldt Juggling Fests, Isla Vista Juggling Festival, Berkeley Juggling and Unicycle Fests, Johnston Juggle Jam, and other fests I have been to. I have also been inspired by many of my juggling friends like those in the Vulcan Crew, Humboldt Circus, Santa Clara Jugglers, Stanford Jugglers, Silver Creek Jugglers, Klutz Jugglers, Berkeley Jugglers, Santa Cruz Jugglers, and many other jugglers I have met.
As a very special juggler once wrote in my high school yearbook upon my graduation, “I love this page because it has those 2 words on it right next to you [struggle: n. a long fight to attain something] [unique: n. unusually good and special]. You and I both know what a struggle it is to make something unique. But you’ve done it, Chris. You are in my opinion, a great juggler and a great guy. Now go share your gifts with others. That’s my only advice.” This is the man who also “defines the most common paths in juggling as Performance, Art, Sport, and Hobby. But there is a Fifth Path, the one he himself has followed: that of the talented artisan who shares his skills and knowledge to facilitate others’ journeys down a juggling path.” This man has been my main source of juggling inspiration and is like a juggling father to me; he is Matt Hall… and now I follow his Fifth Path.
Last year I started the Santa Cruz Juggling Festival as a one day event in honor of World Juggling Day on June 18th, 2009. The festival took place on UCSC’s East Field on a hot sunny day and there were about 30+ attendees. There was music, workshops, a renegade show, and a fire show; it was a good step to a festival just born to the world.
This year the Santa Cruz Juggling Festival took a huge leap from what it was last year. I spent many months and countless hours planning to make the event more like the juggling festivals I have attended. One huge plus about this year is that the festival actually had a gym. It also had some other cool things like a nature walk/parade, Renegade Juggling Store Happy Hour, public variety show, juggling games (with some cool UCSC slug plushies as prizes), a raffle, and Sunday fire juggling by the beach. I also did the “Blind Juggler Project” a few weeks before the festival, which consisted of me juggling blindfolded across campus to spread word to my fellow colleagues about the fest. We had many sponsors (as seen on the right side of this blog) that donated prizes to the Sunday raffle. There were a total of 110 festival attendees during the duration of the 3 days (according to all who signed the waiver). This year we gained about $300 in donations and from the raffle for next year’s festival.
But as all festivals have their good things, they also have some bad things or things that didn’t go according to plan. This year SCJF didn’t have a Friday renegade show as we had a small number of people Friday, but instead all of the people there went to Taqueria Vallarta for dinner, which was pretty fun too. We didn’t have the gym on Friday, although it was a nice day so it didn’t matter too much. We also didn’t have an actual stage for the public show, but the show still ended up being AWESOME. We didn’t have a set list of workshops during the festival, but I did see some renegade ones happen. One huge obstacle that I had to deal with as an organizer was having a very small budget to run the festival off of. I only had about $230 to work with to make this event happen; $100 came from the UCSC Juggling Club doing an event for our college the week before the fest; $100 from J.C. Sue and his family as a donation; and about $30 or so from J.C. and I street performing in Downtown Santa Cruz; and of course some money out of my own pocket, although I cant recall how much. Unfortunately, I did not submit a grant proposal to UCSC in time to get funded by the college this year. Well, its like they say… learn from your mistakes; these are some things I will keep in mind for next year.
Overall, I feel that this years Santa Cruz Juggling Festival was a HUGE success; all the hard work that went into this event paid off. Thank you all for supporting my and the UCSC Juggling Club’s efforts and coming out to have fun at the Santa Cruz 2nd Annual Juggling Festival. Until next year everyone!
People have been practicing circus arts in Japan for hundreds of years, demonstrating great skill in manipulation, equilibristics and acrobatics. Near Tokyo, Naranja juggling shop sells plenty of our equipment. We are curious to know whose hands the cigar boxes, devil sticks, shaker cups, and more ends up in. Because we can’t read any of the rad Japanese juggling blogs out there, we turned to YouTube to show us the way. The following are three of our favorite videos from Japan (with and without Dube props) ranging from skilled, to flashy, to bizarre. Take a peak:
This girl is one of the greatest unicyclists we’ve ever seen, but we can’t find any other information about who she is, or why she’s so unbelievably good.
Some outstanding flair bartending skills.
Hyoga, I choose you! Hyoga is a yellow dragon with some impressive juggling skills…
In a recent post on Facebook, I asked the question: If you could create the ultimate juggling prop, what would it be? Anti-gravity juggling balls? A hover rola bola? Lazer-guided throwing knives?
The question resulted in a flurry of responses, ranging from possible to impossible, practical to impractical. Here’s a sample of our favorite responses:
Sean J: How about a static cling contact juggling device? It would have to be round. It would operate on similar principals to rubbing a balloon on your head.. We may have to recharge it from time to time. Though I like this idea of an under-elbow-stall!
We’re not sure if that possible, but you can always contact juggling while suspended from your feet!
Emily L: I think it would be cool if there was a prop that made different sounds so that as you were juggling it would make different rhythms for different tricks. It would add a new dimension.
This is a great concept. You could always fill the balls with different material so they make different sounds when juggled (think of the rhythm Russian balls make). What would be really cool is inserting some sort of computer chip into the balls, and have the balls programed to make different sounds when thrown at different heights or different angles. Though this seems possible, it would take a lot of creativity and technological know-how.
Kit S: A unicycle that you can ride sideways.
As far as we know, there actually is a unicycle that you can ride sideways, though it may not be the most practical mode of one-wheeled transportation.
Creative people are always pushing the envelope by creating new and innovative juggling props. It wasn’t too long ago that LED lighted juggling balls seemed like a fantasy. Now they’re a standard prop. We’d love to hear your ideas, please let us know!
Viveca Gardiner, New York City juggler and combat referee, cascades five balls on Friday evening.
No laws, but plenty of clubs, were passed a week ago at the 18th Annual Continental Congress of Jugglers at the University of Maryland in College Park. About 50 jugglers gathered in Ritchie Coliseum on Friday, May 8, to start things off. The night was filled with informal juggling and relaxing in the gym.
The next day, Bob Swaim, arrived with his imaginative cycles, including a three-person bike with forward and rear-facing seats. JoAnn Swaim and Kelly Heck each managed to juggle five balls while Bob steered the vehicle.
I led a 3-ball bounce and 3-club workshop and club treasurer Matthew Bishop taught basic poi. Games started around 3 p.m., ranging from 3-ball Simon says to the crowd-pleasing diabolo in a box. Game winners include: Chris Hodge (7-ball endurance, 5-ball endurance), Andrew Hodge (3-ball Simon says), John Chase (club gathering), Kelly Heck (diabolo in a box) Brian Knobbs and Chris Hodge (6-club passing race).
Tomer runs a seven ball cascade.
The Saturday night show, from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the gym, featured a wide variety of talent and performance styles, emceed by Phil DePalo. Tomer, a young juggler who was performing for a large audience for the first time, amazed everyone with a run of seven balls and many other advanced tricks. Ashley Ellis presented an exotically themed routine with uniquely choreographed club juggling and her usual three-baton flair.
Chris Hodge astounded the crowd with his highly technical juggling and musical timing. Brandon Barnette mixed it up with some pop-and-lock dancing, sliding across the floor and smoothly transitioning from slow to fast movement. Alan Hodge, father of the Hodge juggling dynasty, performed a novel three-club routine in which he swung clubs seamlessly throughout the pattern. Heather Hackett Marriott and Neil performed an acrobatic juggling and hula-hoop routine. I showcased a three- to seven-ball bounce routine and three-club sequence I’ve been working on since the summer. Matt Baker, a Seattle-based entertainer, closed the show with some stand-up comedy and garden weasel juggling.
In between acts, Jason Garfield presented his new Major League Combat games – zombie, sumo, kill the king and 360s combat. The explanations featured demonstration rounds of combat between Team Hodge (Alan, Chris, Andrew and Jason “Hodge”) and Team Non-Hodge (Matthew Wise, Adam Van Houten, Brian Knobbs and myself). The evenly matched contests provided some athletic, at times comedic, displays of combative skill for the audience to enjoy.
After the show, a few brave souls attempted fire juggling and spinning in windy and cold conditions, while onlookers huddled to stay warm. Several jugglers seemed to develop a zombie-like addiction to playing zombie combat, which proceeded well into the evening before the gym closed at Midnight. Sunday featured more informal passing, combat, and reminiscing about a weekend well-spent with juggling friends.
The club would like to thank Dubé for its sponsorship and for everyone who showed up to make the festival a success. Stay tuned for the next congressional session in 2011!
We’ve all experienced it. Every now and then, we hit ourselves with a club, fall off a rola bola, or trip over our diabolo string. It happens to everyone. Usually, these embarrassing and sometimes painful moments last only an instant, and are only witnessed by a small group of people. Sometimes, however, these moments are captured on video. Here’s our top three juggling fails:
I once had a similar accident, and had a black-eye for a week.
The rider was unscathed. I wish I could say the same about the escalator
The horror, the horror!
Please feel free to send us your funniest or more embarrassing juggling moments.
Cirque Du Soleil, the legendary French-Canadian circus entertainment company, has landed on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Audiences have come to regard Cirque’s shows as a blend of whimsical story telling, costumes, and sets populated by impossibly talented circus artists. Banana Shpeel, running from May until the end of August 2010, retreats from Cirque’s tented surreal history and steps uptown to New York City’s glamorous Beacon Theater.
Banana Shpeel is a vaudeville show within a Cirque show with a twist of ironic self-awareness. In one scene, as a flamboyant mime pranced across the stage, the cynical cigar-chomping lead Schmelky quipped that the ladee-dah French are into that kind of thing–a jab at Cirque’s artsy reputation. Perhaps the creators are aware of their Manhattan home, taking advantage of audience goers who may be more comfortable in a Broadway style show rather then Cirque’s magical big top. Banana Shpeel may be winning some new fans with this ticket, but reviews from the show’s previous Chicago location prove they have disappointed much of their base.
As the show went on, glitter, glitz, black light and live music complimented what we came to see: the talent. Tap dancers, singers, and vaudeville acts mixed with circus style contortionists, acrobats, jugglers, and more appear throughout Banana Shpeel. Some acts transitioned more smoothly then others. Hat juggler Tuan Le’s act was a welcome fit with traditions in both vaudeville and the circus. Tuan manipulated 4 bowler hats head, to hand, to foot, pirouetting and kicking up with ease. Tuan’s sombrero style flying hats soared high into the theater for a lofty spectacle. World class antipodist Vanessa Alvarez stunned the crowd with her foot juggling skill. As the show’s center piece, Dima Shine’s hand balancing acrobatics on a pole warped the laws of gravity bending and balancing in any direction he pleased.
Preview tickets of Banana Shpeel are currently open to the public. The show fully opens May 21st. On a visit to Dubé this week Banana Shpeel‘s always on and always kooky clown Claudio Carneiro alluded that the show continues to improve. Any direction Banana Shpeel slip and slides guarantees a funny fall!
Vanessa Alvarez and Tuan Le outside the Beacon Theater. Photo by Raymond Bono.
Photo by Naomi Donabedian, shirt design by Matt Guzzardo
By Kyle Petersen
In a recent posting on the Dubé Facebook page, I posed the following question:
Do you get upset when non-jugglers call clubs “pins”? Do you find it necessary to correct them?
This innocent question led to a flurry of responses (43 to be exact) with a variety of opinions and attitudes towards juggling terminology. Some people were hard-liners, insisting that it is important to enlighten the ignorant. Others were ambivalent, saying that a club by any other name still juggles. Here’s is a taste of some of the choice comments:
I get even more upset when _jugglers_ call clubs “pins.” You really should know better…
-Wyatt H
Whenever I hear a juggler correcting someone’s word choice, I think: “Well, we just lost another potential friend/fan/juggling partner.” Why not hand someone a so-called “pin” and let them learn to toss it from hand to hand? No reason to act superior because you know a different word.
-Neil T
I’d correct them, but in a nice way. I mean, really…if you are a juggler, you know what those people are talking about. I think it’s more offensive when people find out you can juggle and they say “oh, so you’re a clown or something?” NO!..we are NOT clowns!
-Brandon P
In French the word “quilles” is used by jugglers and bowlers for their different objects. Vive l’indifférence!
-John G
A recent New York Times article about the Brooklyn-based Jugglers Anonymous club refers to clubs as “pins”, rings as “hoops” and cigar box as “cigar-box”. It seems the renowned New York Times Manual of Style and Usage doesn’t cover juggling terminology.
Kip, of the world-famous King Charles Troupe, calls his unicycle a “bike”, even though “bike” refers to a two-wheeled vehicle.
I frequently refer to my cigar boxes as “blocks”. Cigar box manipulation is somewhat esoteric, and few people outside of the juggling world know what I’m referring to when I say “cigar box”. I find that calling them “blocks” makes life much easier. For the record, I frequently refer to juggling clubs as “pins” for the same reason. When I say “club juggling”, laypeople often think of juggling in a night club. When I use to word “pins”, I find I am understood much more readily by non-jugglers.
Four riders, five boroughs, forty-two miles, all on one wheel.
Sunday, May 2nd, was the 33rd-annual Five Borough Bike Tour. Among the more than 32,000 cycling enthusiasts were Keith Nelson, Rob Hickman, Jason Kahn and myself, who rode the length of the tour on unicycles.
A mild morning quickly gave way to a hot-and-muggy afternoon, and the four of us struggled to stay hydrated. Jason, an 8th grade science teacher, was a useful guy to have around, as he came prepared with all types of anti-dehydration and anti-cramping remedies. If I ever get stranded on a desert island, I want to have Jason there.
Along the way, we ran into Ray Hoffman, an accomplished juggler and long-time Dubé customer, near his home in Astoria, Queens. Ray took some video of us, and gave us some much needed water as we headed to my home borough of Brooklyn.
Upon arriving in Brooklyn, we stopped at Rob’s apartment in Williamsburg to refill our water and to use the bathroom. Rob’s son is a 10-year-old unicycle enthusiast. He pleaded with his father to let him participate on unicycle in the 2011 bike tour. Rob’s response was “we’ll see…” After inhaling clementines and water, we were back on our way.
At this point, the four of us were experiencing varying degrees of dehydration and fatigue. I neglected to wear sunblock, which proved to be a costly mistake. The last quarter of the race was something of a blur. Riding down the Brooklyn Queens Expressway was completely surreal. I have many memories of being stuck in never-ending traffic jams on this stretch of highway. The lack of shade and the heat from the asphalt made the last quarter of the ride extremely challenging.
Maggie Russo
Exiting the BQE was a huge relief. The cool breeze from the Atlantic Ocean was a god-send, as temperatures were in the 80’s and humidity was unseasonably high. Even more exhilarating, however, was the opportunity to ride across the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. Not only did we forgo the ridiculous $11 toll to cross the bridge, we also got to enjoy some breath-taking views of Upper New York Bay. The finish line was at Fort Wadsworth, in the shadow of the Verrazano.
I dedicated my ride to Maggie Russo. Maggie is a toddler with retinoblastoma, a cancer of the eye. She was my inspiration, and kept me going when dehydration and fatigue began to get the better of me. Please visit http://www.maggiesfund.net or http://www.retinoblastoma.net/ to help.
