The Amazing Aaron

The Juggler Explains Facilities Management

2010-12-11T06:04:00.000-08:00

Here's a great example of an orthogonal approach to a juggling routine. Funny stuff.

Cigar boxing

2010-10-14T20:00:00.000-07:00

Another photo from this summer's show for the Bulverde/Spring Library. Taken by a library volunteer.

Another Bulverde photo

2010-10-01T18:00:00.000-07:00

Another post from my Bulverde/Spring library show this summer, taken by a library volunteer.

The Balance and Motion Show

2010-08-20T17:00:00.000-07:00

I do a Balance and Motion juggling show that lines up with the Texas Second Grade curriculum, which includes a Balance and Motion FOSS kit.

It's a 30-minute show aimed at demystifying juggling by showing how the physics of balance and motion makes it possible to make props fly through the air.

Bring me to your school, gather your whole second grade in your auditorium or cafeteria, and put a bit of fun in your science.

Here's a quote from some second grade teachers who brought the show to their classrooms:

The Amazing Aaron's "Balance and Motion Juggling Show" created a balanced learning environment, where our kids were able to concretely relate the balance/motion TEKS and vocabulary concepts with an exciting visual dimension. The presentation, itself, was clear and concise yet thorough and valuable. Aaron's positive and genuine attitude connected with the students and made them become almost hypnotized by his performance. I hope that we can get Aaron to come to our school again next year!

--Adam Turner and Kelly Matlock, 2nd grade teachers at Townsell Elementary, Irving ISD

Juggling show at the Bulverde/Spring Branch library

2010-08-04T19:28:00.000-07:00

I had a blast doing a show for this nice new library. Lots of kids and parents turned out for the show...150 kids and 90 parents, I'm told.

Plus the library had a volunteer take sixty-five photos, and was kind enough to send them to me immediately. Here are my favorites.

Opening for a Shakespeare play

2010-07-30T19:01:00.000-07:00

I'll be doing an opening act for The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, a free show in Round Rock. They're playing August 5 through 22; my opener is just on the 22nd. So get there early!

Wooden unicycle from Austin Jugglefest 2010

2010-03-02T18:33:00.000-08:00

I failed to make it to the unicycle room this year, and this is what I missed.

"Devil's Triangle" variation on devil stick

2010-03-01T18:30:00.000-08:00

I frequently perform devil stick routines...but I've never seen a Devil's Triangle. Check this out, via a YouTube video.

Video from the 2009 University of Texas Madrigal Dinner

2010-02-08T18:47:00.001-08:00

I just found a video on YouTube that someone posted from their iPhone....they took some video during this past December's Madrigal Dinner. And they have a tiny snippet of me juggling knives embedded in it, at the 1:27 mark.

Here's a link directly to the spot where I juggle.

And if anyone wonders why I keep going back to this show, here's a snippet of the same video where the choir sings the Carol of the Bells.

Juggling for the middle school

2009-11-14T06:03:00.000-08:00

I juggled at the Murchison Middle School fall festival last night. It was fun. This is the second time I've done this event. Since the majority of my shows have been for elementary-aged kids, it's interesting to see how older kids react.

One big challenge at this event, and events like it, is the noise. I like to do patter, and patter gets destroyed by the background noise at a thing like this, unless you have a microphone, and I don't, yet. I plan to go that route eventually, but right now my act uses no electronics, and it's hard to resist that simplicity: I can show up at a place and open my trunk and get started, with no setup.

The older kids like my material just fine, but they show a much greater interest in trying things out. I spent a lot of time teaching half-juggling and plate spinning.

They can replace us...with blind heartless robots

2009-09-18T19:38:00.000-07:00

Continuing the theme of mechanical replacement of skill, here's an interesting physics project, a mechanical apparatus that 'juggles'...it's really a mechanism for bouncing a ball that is self-correcting. It's a fun device though.

Motorized, self-balancing unicycle from a Slovenian inventor

2009-08-20T19:49:00.001-07:00

This one looks like fun.

Using a bike like a unicycle

2009-08-19T05:51:00.000-07:00

...and other amazing bike tricks, via an indoorcycling contest in Germany. Youtube video.

29 hovers on the unicycle

2009-07-09T05:58:00.001-07:00

Hey, when you get to 29 it starts to seem like something you could really do for a while. Then you fall down.

22 hovers

2009-07-06T16:14:00.000-07:00

Unicycling daily has its rewards I guess. 22 moves, new tiny personal record, and now juggling while hovering doesn't seem impossible.

16 hovers, new record

2009-07-05T10:55:00.000-07:00

I need to get out there and unicycle more. Still, made a little progress today.

Yesterday I rode the uni and juggled in the Milwood Neighborhood 4th of July Parade. Introduced some kids to the wonders of plate spinning.

They had an orchestra this year -- a bunch of winds and a drummer. Nice stuff.

11 unicycle hovers, new personal best

2009-05-09T12:00:00.001-07:00

11 ain't much, but it's more than I've done before. I hit this height last night. I'm counting each forward or back move. I thought about counting each pair of moves, but more increments/higher numbers is more motivating. More importantly, I'm starting to feel like I can control the motion.

Unicycle hovering magically improved by biking

2009-05-04T18:00:00.000-07:00

I was practicing hovering on my unicycle last week, and it seemed like I was suddenly a lot better than I used to be, without having actually practiced any. I'm crediting lots of biking for this. Hovering takes a lot of muscle.

Of course I intend to learn to juggle while hovering. I hadn't thought about it, but someone at a TJS meeting told me it was much harder than juggling while moving forward. Stands to reason; you're changing direction constantly. And he was right: I can't manage it at all yet, though I can't hover for very long yet, either. Nonetheless, this is encouraging progress.

Been going to juggle club more often, so...

2009-05-01T18:30:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd go ahead and mention the Texas Juggling Society here, for anyone who bumps into my page before they find the TJS page.

TJS, I often say, is the least formal organization I'm involved in. After you do some volunteer work with PTA or a professional organization or scouting, hooking up with a group where you can just show up to events now and then, and there are no dues, is fantastic.

Show Calendar

2009-05-01T14:01:00.000-07:00

Augsust 22, 2010...opening for the Penfold Theatre's Complete Works of William Shakespeare.

Wheels of Wonderland

2009-05-01T12:02:00.000-07:00

The Austin Bike Zoo and some UT folks are combining with the Texas Juggling Society to put on an "Alice in Wonderland With Bikes And Unicycles and Juggling" show this month, with four showings at various parks around town. I'm going to be unicycling and juggling knives. And carrots. They really seem to want the carrots.

The first show is tomorrow, May 2, at 6pm, at 91 Red River.
Then 5/3/09 at 6pm at Republic Square Park.
The following weekend, 5/9/09 at 11:30 am at the Toney Berger Center.
and 5/10/09 at 6pm at Republic Square Park.

Here's a picture of me from JuggleFest 2009

2009-03-18T20:48:00.001-07:00

JuggleFest: Just a Big Room Full of Jugglers

2009-02-22T07:56:00.001-08:00

I never feel like I can explain why JuggleFest is so much fun. Mostly it's just a bunch of people hanging around in a big room juggling. But I got someone to show me how to do a rope spinning trick, and learned some new contact juggling tricks to try...you can hardly avoid learning new things in that environment.

Jugglefest is this weekend

2009-02-18T06:09:00.000-08:00

Jugglefest 2009, the big annual Austin juggling event, is here Friday through Sunday, on the UT campus. More info here.

Grandpa's Trunk show

2009-02-07T06:43:00.000-08:00

My "Grandpa's Juggling Trunk" show is an exploration of the props and memories found in "Grandpa's" old trunk, the relic of his world-spanning career as a juggler.

From my beat-up trunk come an assortment of juggling props, each with a story that relates to Grandpa's travels around the world as a juggler.

I start the show by teaching the audience how to be an Amazing Aaron audience...when to count me off, when to applaud, and especially how to shout "That's Amazing" if I should drop something. I mean, you wouldn't want me to get embarrased.

This is silly and works like a charm. I now find that people I hardly know holler "That's Amazing" to me when I run into them on the street.

The prop routines neatly divide the show into chunks, so I can adjust the length of the show by adding or omitting routines. I start with a three-ball routine, and then perform the devil stick, followed by spinning plates and then clubs. Then I may do my Dice Box routine, a four-object juggling set using large rubber dice. Then I do cigar boxes (hey, I've got video of that), some audience participation tricks, and finish with a balance board act...juggling clubs while spinning a plate on a stick in my mouth, all while balancing on a board on a roller.

Each routine is two to three minutes long (the audience particpation takes longer), and the whole is about 30 minutes long.

I'm not currently using any sound amplification or lighting, so I can show up to a site, open the box, and get started right away. Before I get started, I lay out a rope line to let the audience know where they can sit and where they can't.

If you're interested in booking a show, go here.

Spin a plate on a knife?

2009-02-05T18:08:00.000-08:00

I was trying to come up with knife tricks, and I thought of this one. A casual search doesn't reveal any references to it. If you've ever seen this done, spot me a comment, willya?

Jugglefest is coming, February 20-22, 2009

2009-02-03T06:00:00.000-08:00

The big annual Austin juggling event, Jugglefest 2009, is coming up fast. There will be a free public show on February 21. The festival itself runs the whole weekend long, on the UT campus. More info here.

Boar's Head pageant 1/10, 1/11/09

2009-01-12T18:40:00.000-08:00

I found another way to use my renaissance costume this season. I got hired to juggle in the St. Albert the Great church epiphany pageant, called the Boar's Head pageant.

I don't think I've seen an event quite like this before. It' s not a play, precisely -- there's no narrative -- it's mostly about getting groups of people into costumes and having them parade around. This is in the grand tradition of church pageants, historically. But here it's accompanied by singing and music. They had a 25 piece orchestra, which was nice to see.

The pageant enacts the epiphany story, combined with a board's head feast. The costumes were amazing. There were so many people involved that it was a major feat of logistics: there were swiss guards, jesters, nobles, king and queen, the three visiting kings, angels, on and on and on.

The church has been doing this show for six years. Admission is free-but-please-donate.

I didn't think a middle school medieval feast would be a big deal

2008-12-05T18:30:00.000-08:00

I didn't expect, when I went down to Hill Country Middle School to perform this morning, that nearly all the kids and a bunch of adults would be set up in elaborate Renaissance costumes.

On the way over there I started to worry, because the impression I'd gotten was that I'd be on a stage in the cafeteria, while the kids were eating, and I thought I was going to be up there alone for a full hour, and that it would be hard to interact with the kids since they'd be eating.

But because it WAS a chaotic cafeteria environment, I instead wandered from table to table, got right in the kids faces, and did my bit. It was a lot of fun.

They even had baskets of french bread on the tables, so I was able to break and juggle the bread, a favorite Madrigal Dinner trick of mine.

I get to use my medieval costume again this year

2008-12-03T13:24:00.000-08:00

I had unpacked my renaissance costume for the University of Texas Madrigal Dinner, and was just glorying in the fact that I can still fit into my tights (maybe it's not a feat to fit into spandex, but humor me...).

Madrigal was a ton of fun, especially since last year was the first year I've skipped it in many, many, many, many, too many years -- years which reveal how very long it has been since I was in college. But here I was, looking at my bright green costume which has lasted for so many years (since it only gets used for one week out of the year)...and then a post on the Texas Juggling Society mailing list asked for a juggler to do a middle school renaissance fest.

So that's my Friday thing this week, juggling for some middle school kids while wearing tights. Should be fun.

Video from school show

2008-11-07T10:19:00.000-08:00

I did a show for Highland Park elementary last spring, and someone shot some video of it, which is hosted here. I didn't even know about this...I bumped into it while vanity Googling. :)

Getting a show via Craigslist

2008-09-08T18:44:00.000-07:00

Someone on the Texas Juggling Society's mailing list posted a job that they found on Craigslist. I followed up with the person and now I'm going to be juggling at a corporate party on 9/15.

It hadn't occurred to me before to keep an eye on Craigslist for things like this, but now I'll be searching it on a regular basis.

Booking a show from the Amazing Aaron

2008-09-08T13:25:00.000-07:00

So, you want a juggling show? Here's what you need to do:

View the available shows page to get an idea of what is available, then send e-mail to aaron AT damommio DOT com.

Let me know:

The date of the show.
The age range of the audience.
Any special requests (fire? unicycle?) or things to avoid (fire? knives?)
Your contact information (e-mail and phone, including a day-of-the-show phone number for emergencies).

And consider what I'll need:

Performance space: Usually a 10' diameter semicircle, unless I'm doing a wandering juggler act.
Light: Juggling takes light....lots more than a music act needs.
Sound: I don't require sound amplification. But are there other activities going on that will drown out my mostly verbal act? I'll need to know about them; we should discuss the situation. Are there noisy machines? Air conditioners? Musical acts? Yes, I have a painful anecdote for each of these. :) Hey, I can do a silent act if I need to, but I'd like to know that before I get there.

When I get your message, I'll get back to you to let you know whether I'm available, quote you a price, and talk about any remaining details.

Ringling show this past Saturday

2008-08-26T15:32:00.000-07:00

Went to the Ringling Bros. show on Saturday with my oldest daugher (9 yrs). We had a blast. Hardly any juggling at the show, but the graphic design was great. I enjoyed the all black-and-white costumes in the show opening.

There were a lot of height-oriented, heart-stopping bits....some antics at the top of a sway pole and the show climax, a wheel of death.

The sway pole act involves climbing to the top of a long flexible pole. At the top is an apparatus for holding on, and then you make the pole sway. I have to stop there, I might faint. Here's a photo of a sway pole.

The show was heavily aimed at the young, I'd say, except for the danger acts. I doubt the kids got the heart-stopping thing. But after you pay $12 for some cotton candy, your heart is already in danger. :)

Casual juggling at the Round Rock Express game

2008-07-25T21:51:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'll pick up things and juggle them whenever I get bored; that's a given. I used to worry about seeming like I'm showing off. But hey, why learn to juggle if you're not going to show off now and then?

We went to a Round Rock Express ball game with my sister and her husband this week. The parklike atmosphere of the .... ball park ... always makes me want to juggle, and I actually juggled there when the cub scouts paraded on Scout Night. But I hadn't brought anything to juggle.

The giveaway that eve, though, was Mr. Potato Heads (with baseball player paraphernalia). So I ended up carrying three or four of them around. And so I had to juggle them.

They were funny things, too. I mean, the potato part was a good juggle item, but everything was in a plastic bag along with it. I noticed that even though THIS version of Mr. Potato Head doesn't have an opening for storing accessories inside it, the makers had scribed a groove for a pretend opening anyway. I'm not sure what the point of modeling a pretend compartment is.

So I'm standing around juggling these things when we're walking around the park, or when I'm waiting for my family to go to the bathroom (three kids, it takes a while). I heard some teenagers hollering things at me..."Oh, you should be on TV" or something like that, but in a snide way. It was nice to be grown up enough to ignore that. And then a few people stopped and were really enjoying the juggling. Same sort of material...pretty routine ball juggling, although I hammed it up for the nice people, of course. But the reaction was completely different.

I'm glad it came in that order, anyway: the bad reaction and then the good one. :)

I spend a lot of time elaborating my act with lots of additional props. It's interesting to see the fun people can get out of something so simple as me juggling three objects I happened to bump into.

Juggled for a big Vacation Bible School program

2008-07-09T21:00:00.000-07:00

On June 12 I went and peformed a small piece for the Riverbend church's Vacation Bible School program. The church's VBS program was huge: 840 kids, and the portion I was involved in took place in a giant 3-story auditorium.

The work put into this program was impressive. There was a Nickelodeon-style game-show game, where some of the kids had to attempt to juggle eggs, and when they dropped them, eggs dropped on them from above. And they were gonna drop them. They gave each kid four eggs. :)

The theme was an amusement park, and there was a large motorized ferris wheel, maybe 20' tall, with cardboard seats and riders. And there was another 15' model of an amusment park ride. These were heavily decorated with painted cardboard.

I like to come up with cardboard projects, but these folks put me to shame. Someone told me they used something like 85 9x6-foot pieces of corrugated to do the stage dressing. They had stapled the cardboard to wood frames and painted it all...and the paint job was good.

I shudder to think of how long it would take just to diagram out the complex mural they had for their backdrop. I shudder more to think that it's just going to get torn down after this week is over. :)

There was an impressive amount of creativity in this program, as well as a lot of hard work and some neat engineering. You could tell it really wowed the kids. There was one thing that was super odd about it to my eyes, though: the theme.

All the stories and text were heavily oriented towards the theme of obedience. The script was pretty heavy-handed about this. Now, that's not surprising, I'm sure, in a Vacation Bible School. But it seemed like just the sort of thing that would turn the kids off. Which was odd, because I thought everything else was so well done.

Here's an example: the stage play had three teams of kids. They did an activity where each team had to assemble a puzzle under orders from their leader. The two teams that finished last were told they had "not obeyed quickly enough" and so they had to do the egg juggling activity. I'm sure they loved it. But these highly authoritarian statements made me cringe.

I asked about it, and was told that the script came to them that way. I hadn't thought about it, but I did know that one can purchase bible school programs like these, with scripts and activities prewritten.

Eh, it's probably not much different from what the kids get in school. Am I complaining? Heck no. I want to do more shows like these. I want to see more big flashy carnival-style bible schools. In my mind, each of these should have a juggler on retainer. :)

New show idea: The Massacre of the Carrots

2008-06-12T20:44:00.001-07:00

I'm working on a new routine called "The Massacre of the Carrots." The idea is that I'll come up with 20 or more ways to kill a carrot. I've got a list.

It's not so much that carrots have ever hurt me. It's just that they're so darn smug.

Carrots are sort of the canonical thing to use when you do knife juggling and you want to prove the knives are sharp. They're great for that because they're not too messy, and because even dull knives can cut carrots. Heck, you probably know that you can cut a carrot with your finger. Well, my kids didn't know, so I was able to pull that trick on them. It's going into the show.

I need something to tie the whole thing together though. Maybe some way to transition from one carroty death to another.

Oh, it'd be neat, too, to be killed by the carrots myself at the end, maybe. Somehow.

If you've got ideas, add 'em in the comments.

Maybe I need to add long sleeves to my costume...for multi-plate spins

2008-04-02T19:28:00.000-07:00

The other week I was at the Texas Juggling Society meeting, had my son along, which was great, and I happened to be wearing a long-sleeved shirt...which I usually avoid when juggling. I don't like having anything down near my hands that might catch on a club handle or whatever. But having the shirt enabled me to come up with a new little trick when spinning plates: it's possible to put a stick in the sleeve of one hand, with a plate spinning on it, and then spin up another plate and hold it in your hand. Might be possible to get two plates going in each hand this way.

5 catches of behind-the-back

2008-04-02T19:27:00.000-07:00

I can do five catches now. Just, you know, not every day. I set a goal of 10 catches by the end of April. I think I can get there. Once I get to 10, I think 20 will come pretty quickly.

Juggling for small children

2008-04-02T19:11:00.000-07:00

I juggled for my daughter's Mother's Day Out program on Monday, and it got me thinking about juggling for the smaller kids.

Most of my main repertoire is heavily verbal and uses a lot of audience participation and interaction. And I've learned that that's not what goes over well with the smaller kids, the two- to four-year-old set.

I used to think that juggling in general didn't go over all that well with kids that small, actually. But I've learned to tailor my act for the smaller ages. It's not hard. We all have a good time if I:

Make sure I speak slowly and clearly
Focus on making everything big, broad, and flashy
Drop material that that requires participation from the kids
Use an adult if I absolutely have to have participation
Avoid teasing and subtlety unless aimed at the adults
Skip danger-based tricks like knife juggling...they're not really into that
Change my expectations...small kids take longer to get jokes and they don't see why some of the tricks are difficult.

And I thought about these things when I planned for this show...in fact, I'd made some notes about this sort of thing the last time I did a show for kids this small. As a result, the last couple of shows I've done for the wee ones have gone really well...very satisfying for all concerned. Not the least of which was my smallest kid. "You were funny, Daddy!" she said. I could have wished she wasn't so surprised... :)

Balance and Motion show at Summit Elementary

2008-03-26T06:07:00.000-07:00

I did a Balance and Motion show for the 2nd graders at Summit Elementary last week, and it went really well. I did a thirty minute presentation where I talked about the physics of balance and motion as it relates to juggling tricks, explaining each trick in terms of the vocabulary from the 2nd grade Balance and Motion unit. The kids get a huge kick out of it, and the teachers loved how it ties into the science unit.

I want to perform this routine at more elementary schools, I just need to get contacts at more schools around town.

Of course my daughter really enjoyed it, since she got to be my helper during the show. I brought out my unicycle for this act, which I'm doing more and more lately...I've developed more strength and it's easier to use the uni in smaller spaces now -- and it's a lot of fun.

Closing in on continuous behind-the-back throws

2008-03-16T19:55:00.000-07:00

This month I'm trying to master continuous behind-the-back throws in a 3-ball routine. So far, the most I've done has been 4 catches. But I think I've got the process dialed in...I learned I have to throw the balls quite a bit higher than I expected to gain the time needed to free my hands for the next throw and catch.

I'm actually doing this mainly as preparation to do continuous behind-the-back throws with clubs. Oddly, on my first attempt at that, it didn't occur to me to work with balls first and it took a suggestion from someone at a Texas Juggling Society meeting to give me that little breakthrough. I mean, if I was telling someone else how to learn to do anything at all with clubs, I'd suggest that they learn the trick with balls first....but I didn't figure that out on my own, when it was me.

Of course, part of that is because I can already do individual behind-the-back throws in the middle of a club pattern, so I felt like I ought to be able to move forward from that. But continuous behind-the-back throws is a whole 'nother animal.

Jugglefest 2008 Montage Video

2008-02-19T10:49:00.000-08:00

Here is a sort of montage-video someone made of Jugglefest 2008.

Jugglefest 2008: first thoughts

2008-02-17T19:09:00.000-08:00

As usual, Jugglefest was really inspiring. I've got tons of ideas for tricks and routines now. Some highlights:

It's now becoming a sort of annual routine to take one of my kids on Saturday and then tak e a different one on Sunday. Neither really juggles yet, but they're starting to try some things out.
Nothing is as cool as watching some fantastic juggler from out of town, like the Belgian guy who performed Saturday night, Stijn, do his public show...and then getting to walk right up to him at the festival the next day and talk to him, get some pointers, and try out some tricks.
Someone had a 3' diameter walking ball. I used to use one of these way back in ... sheesh, 1989 or so... when I was working at a summer camp that had a circus program.
I tried a 4-man box-shaped club passing pattern. I wasn't very good at it but it was a lot of fun. There was a lot of rotation involved. I don't know why we don't see more of this on the public stage. Oh, wait, I do: because 4 people would have to practice it. Still, it was really neat.

Jugglefest is this weekend!

2008-02-13T06:49:00.001-08:00

I can't believe I forgot to post about this. The Texas Juggling Society's annual Jugglefest is this weekend. It gets bigger and better every year.

There's (at least) two ways to enjoy:
- Go visit the festival itself, on the UT campus at the Belmont
building ($8 admission for the whole three day spectacle)

- Attend the public show. Saturday, Feb. 16, 7:30pm at the Texas
School for the Deaf (free)
Details are on the web site.

http://juggling.place.org/jugglefest/

Balance and Motion show coming up

2008-02-13T06:02:00.001-08:00

I'm going to do a Balance and Motion show for my daughter's 2nd grade class. The 2nd grade curriculum includes a unit on Balance and Motion, which is what inspired this show in the first place...my son's teacher asked me to do a piece about this a few years back, and then I took the show to some other schools.

All juggling shows use balance or motion in some fashion, so the props make a fun way to demonstrate some of the principles that the unit covers, like counterbalancing, forces, gravity, spin and roll, and an axis.

Learning to use a devil stick, for example, is all about balance. You allow the stick to fall to one side of the control stick, then tap it above the centerline to throw it to the other stick. You start a propellor trick by catching it below the centerline and following it as it rotates.

Blue & Gold Banquet

2008-02-13T05:58:00.001-08:00

I'm juggling for the Pack 90 cub scouts this February 28, at their Blue & Gold Banquet.

The libraries I've visited

2008-02-12T14:05:00.000-08:00

It turns out that I've now done shows for a lot of different libraries in the Austin and Hill Country area. Here are the libraries I've performed at:

Austin (about five different libraries in the system)
Bastrop
Cedar Park
Fredericksburg
Georgetown
Johnson City
Lockhart
Bulverde/Spring Branch

Answering questions about juggling, in a classroom

2007-12-10T12:12:00.001-08:00

Last week I went to spend the day at my kids' school. I visited several different classes, and mostly did basic school volunteer things, as part of a dad involvement program called Dads of Great Students (D.O.G.S.).

One of the teachers had me bring some juggling equipment and answer questions about juggling. It was a lot of fun. These were second graders. The teacher said she was trying to show the kids that you can grow up and get a job and still do interesting things too. :)

It's hard to remember any of the specific questions they had, but I tried to show them that juggling involves breaking motions down into small, easy-to-master movements.

Oh and there's this thing school-ages kids always seem to do, where they raise a hand to ask a question? But it's not really a question? Because they just want to tell you something? Something that they thought was cool? I think that's hilarious...except when you're in the middle of a question-and-answer session. :)

Quick, easy homemade juggling beanbags

2007-11-26T10:44:00.000-08:00

I actually tried this method out for myself this weekend for the first time, in preparation for leading a bunch of cub scouts through this craft. It's really fast and easy, and makes beanbags that are excellent for juggling.

I first saw this via the Texas Juggling Society's booth at the recent Maker Faire here in Austin. I looked for other writeups on the net, but didn't see any that used the bottle trick I'll be describing below. A variant method using a plastic bag is here.

All you need are some balloons (9" or 10" round are good), an empty plastic soda/water bottle, some birdseed, sand or rice for filler, a funnel, and a measuring cup.

I used these specs: 1/3 cup birdseed per beanbag, and 9" balloons.

Steps:

Cut half the neck off one balloon.
Use funnel to put 1/3 cup of your filler in the plastic bottle.
Stretch the balloon's neck over the rim of the bottle.
Invert the bottle to let the filler slide to the bottom.
Squeeze the bottle to force the filler into the balloon.
Pull the balloon off the bottle.
Cut all of the neck off of a second balloon.
Stretch the opening and wrap the 2nd balloon around the first. It's not hard to do. Make sure the opening of the 2nd ballon is away from the opening of the first, so that tension will hold the filler trapped inside.
Repeat with a third balloon for strength and durability.

You can make a set of 3 balls in about 10 to 15 minutes this way.

Benefit show coming

2007-11-09T19:53:00.000-08:00

Looks like I'll probably do a benefit show in February, opening for Joe McDermott, who has a musical act for kids and who lives in our neighborhood. Maybe. Nothing confirmed yet. Pretty exciting, though. Joe's audiences are always great.

I don't do a lot of benefit shows. I'd rather be paid, generally speaking. But this one's for my kids' school trip. I also do the school's fall festival every year. And if you've never been to a Joe McDermott show...well, you should go. He's a lot of fun. Everyone in our family sings his songs. He typically mixes a variety of musical styles into his albums, so there's a lot of musical and lyrical interest for adults as well as kids.

Spinning plates at a wedding

2007-10-29T20:54:00.000-07:00

Well, things at the wedding weren't quite what I expected. It was outdoors and there was a lot of wind...not ideal conditions for my act, which depends heavily on verbal patter. And most of the time it didn't seem appropriate to start up any juggling. But during a lull in the reception, I did get some items out, especially the spinning plates. My son Ethan actually started us off with some plate spinning; he's getting good at it. I was able to let several kids try it out, and do a few tricks myself, before we all went inside for the toasts.

I expect I'll get a wireless microphone set at some point. It's nice to not worry about speakers and wires and sound systems, but it's limiting in a lot of venues. It's nearly impossible to be heard in a windy outdoor environment without amplification.

Make high-quality homemade juggling clubs

2007-10-23T06:47:00.000-07:00

The Texas Juggling Society had a booth at the Maker Faire this past weekend, showing homemade juggling props. Among these were examples of Green Clubs, which are clubs made mostly from recycled materials. Homemade clubs can do a lot to lower the bar to entry for aspiring club jugglers, as you can easily pay $30 per club if you buy professional-style clubs.

The Green Club design has a lot going for it:

It's freely available
The design has been refined over time
It costs only about $2 for the parts you have to buy
The construction methods have been refined. For example, the process includes cutting a tennis ball in half. I've heard lots of stories about people hurting themselves trying to cut tennis balls. This procedure includes instructions for how to mark and cut the balls accurately.

When you're done, you don't have a crappy-looking homemade club. You have a nice looking club with professional features:

Padded bell for drops
An air space in the handle to cushion catches
Sized to match commercial clubs

If you're interested in juggling clubs, and feel at all crafty, give this article a look.

Stage show photo

2007-10-18T07:59:00.000-07:00

Here's a photo from a stage show in 2005...the Texas Juggling Society's public show.

Wedding jitters?

2007-10-17T11:10:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine has asked me to possibly perform at her wedding. I've never performed at a wedding before. Since it's happening in two weeks, I'll clearly be performing more or less my existing repertoire, but my usual costume and Grandpa's Trunk frame story might not work.

I love performing for adults and for mixed adult/kid audiences...the adults get more jokes and get them faster than the kids. But I am not sure how to frame my show to work best in the formal setting of a wedding.

I'll have to think about this one. I'm sure there are some fun ideas that can be applied. And I'll bet what my friend is wanting is some entertainment during otherwise dead time at the reception....something I'm sure I can provide. Should be interesting, though. I've done a lot of different venues, but not a wedding.

Dice stacking how-to video from YouTube

2007-10-11T12:20:00.000-07:00

Some traffic on the Texas Juggling Society mailing list linked to some dice stacking videos. This is a trick I'd seen before, but looking at the video recently made me want to learn how to do it, so I found a video that describes how it's done.

If you've never seen dice stacking, you should really just watch one of the videos on YouTube (here's one); it's a seriously odd idea....using an inverted cup in constant motion to grab and then deposit dice on a table.

I mention it here because at first glance this stuff really seems like magic, but watching a tutorial made it seem doable...with lots of practice.

Super-cheap juggling knives

2007-08-27T07:02:00.000-07:00

Last week I picked up three stainless-steel grill knives at Academy. They're shiny and they have long round handles. They were ridiculously cheap: $2 each. They had metal loops on the ends for hanging them up; I was able to remove those with pliers.

I anticipate that they'll make great juggling knives. I've been using grill knives that I got at Goodwill for about the same price, and those had flat handles that were not as nice to juggle, and the handles were wood. The contrast between the wood handles and the metal blades emphasized the long handles...I think the all-metal knives will look much more dangerous. They're certainly shinier.

Knives made and sold for juggling cost as much as $30 each, so I'm happy to try some for a lot less. I'd insert the usual pro forma disclaimer here...don't try this at home, kids don't do anything crazy like juggling a knife...but since I do it, that would be silly. Instead, I'll note that careful, close-up inspection of any knife actually juggled tends to reveal that it is quite dull, and that I plan to show my knives to a grindstone for that purpose, until they have an edge almost a millimeter wide. That's pretty dull, and yet still not something I want landing on an arm, a toe, or a face. Especially not mine. Also, it's really stupid to play around with a juggling knife over a laminate floor. Don't ask me how I know that.

Juggling seminar at Georgetown Library went well

2007-07-16T07:18:00.000-07:00

The Georgetown library asked me to do a juggling seminar in addition to my usual show this past Thursday. I ran one for about an hour and a half after my half-hour show, and it went well. I think it went well because we organized it well, and because it was not a venue where parents left their kids unattended; I think nearly all the kids had a parent in the room.

Plus there were several volunteers on hand to help with the kids, so I was able to divide the kids into smaller groups after a while.

The format I used was to teach everyone the basics of three-ball juggling, then set up stations with other props for folks to try out. I offered plate spinning, ring juggling, devil stick, and cigar box stations.

Some of the moms got into the act, too, and made significant progress towards three-ball juggling in just one session.

Doing a seminar/show at the Georgetown library this Thursday, July 12

2007-07-09T08:49:00.000-07:00

I have a show this Thursday, 2 pm., at the Georgetown library in Georgetown, TX just north of Austin. The show is free and open to the public, courtesy of the library. After a half-hour juggling show, I'll be hosting a 45 minute juggling seminar. The show is aimed at ages 7 and up.

Spinning plates...an easy juggling trick to learn

2007-07-02T14:07:00.000-07:00

I've done a lot of plate spinning in the past week or so and I thought I'd mention it here, because it's an easy juggling trick to pick up, and it might encourage newcomers to the hobby.

The essential thing you need for plate spinning is a trick plate. Spinning plates have a special rim on the underside and a cone-shaped indentation to help stabilize the spin.

Along with a plate, you need a stick....I use a quarter-inch diameter dowel sharpened on both ends.

Once you learn to spin a plate -- and I've seen adults and kids manage to do it after a few minutes of practice -- there are several tricks you can learn to do with the plates.

Some decent plate-spinning instructions can be found here. Plastic spinning plates are not expensive; many juggling suppliers sell them. Here's one.

My 10-year-old son has been having good luck learning to spin plates lately. Anyone with sufficient hand strength to hold a plate up on a dowel ought to be able to do it.

After you learn to get a plate spinning, try tossing it in the air and catching it, and then try flipping the stick during a toss. I like to hand a spinning plate to a kid to hold, and because it's a pretty easy trick, I complicate it by putting a kid on my shoulders, getting two plates spinning on sticks and having the kid hold them, then juggling with the kid on my shoulders.

Bastrop library show photos

2007-06-25T11:55:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of pictures from a show I did for the Bastrop library in 2004.

Cedar Park library: two shows this Thursday 6/28/07

2007-06-25T11:53:00.000-07:00

June 28, 2007
Cedar Park Libary, 2pm and 3:15. Free to the public.

Cedar Park Public Library
550 Discovery Blvd.
Cedar Park, Texas 78613

Old World Arts Show at Ruta Maya, Sat June 23

2007-06-19T11:16:00.000-07:00

I heard on the Texas Juggling Society mailing list that Connie Leaverton will be among those performing Saturday, June 23 in a kids' show at Ruta Maya Coffee House here in Austin (3601 South Congress Avenue). The show runs from 2 to 4 PM and it's a four-act variety show. Connie's show is always lots of fun. I'm not sure what Connie's going to be doing at THIS show....recently I've seen her do some fun things with a cowboy-themed unicycle act, where her unicycle is treated as a recalcitrant horse.

Old World Arts Show For Kids and Adults

Belly Dancing

Marionette Puppets

Fire Juggling

Music By The Just Desserts

Backyard Party Photos

2007-06-15T11:11:00.001-07:00

Here are a couple of photos from a backyard party I performed at in 2004. Well, I call it a backyard party. It was kind of a mansion. The area where I juggled was the lower terrace of an enormous back yard.

Contacting Aaron

2007-06-08T14:58:00.000-07:00

To get on my calendar for a show, send an e-mail to aaron AT damommio DOT com.

Let me know

when you want me, and for how long
what kind of event
age group of the audience
how to contact you

and I can then tell you how much it'll cost.

Available shows

2007-06-08T14:48:00.000-07:00

Grandpa's Trunk

A half-hour to 45-minute show

Includes an assortment of juggling tricks involving reluctant clubs, dancing balls, flashy boxes, and flying sticks. For a detailed description, click here.

Requires a 10'-wide semicircle performance area with a hard floor or berber carpet, indoor or outdoor

Festival Show

Unicycling and juggling
Festival Wandering

Table Tricks

Great for group parties
Cigar boxes featured
Most enjoyed by ages 10 to adult

Renaissance Repoirtoire

I have a renaissance-style costume ready so that I can provide your Madrigal Dinner, Renaissance feast, party, or festival with period-style juggling.
More than ten years of experience performing in the University of Texas Madrigal Dinner. I've produced 'em, written 'em, and performed in 'em.

Balance and Motion

A 30-minute show tailored for 2nd grade science curriculums using the Balance and Motion Foss kit.
Requires a 10' wide semicircle performance area with a hard floor or berber carpet.
See also this post.
Adam Turner and Kelly Matlock, 2nd grade teachers at Townsell Elementary, Irving ISD, say:

The Amazing Aaron's "Balance and Motion Juggling Show" created a balanced learning environment, where our kids were able to concretely relate the balance/motion TEKS and vocabulary concepts with an exciting visual dimension. The presentation, itself, was clear and concise yet thorough and valuable. Aaron's positive and genuine attitude connected with the students and made them become almost hypnotized by his performance. I hope that we can get Aaron to come to our school again next year!

Juggling at Pioneer Library in Fredericksburg next week

2007-06-08T14:33:00.000-07:00

I'll be doing a show at 9:30 a.m. at the Pioneer Library in Fredericksburg next week, on 6/13/07.

Juggling in the airport between flights

2007-03-08T07:29:00.000-08:00

I just got back from my first solo airplane trip in years. One thing I enjoyed was taking some of my juggling equipment and juggling in the airport between flights. Of course I know I'm showing off when I do this. But it's a great way to kill time without using up all of your
reading material. :) And a benefit that I didn't expect is that I feltgreat afterward. Rather than sitting and waiting and slowly melting into the lousy furniture, I was up and moving around. I even came up with some new tricks that I hadn't thought of before. Most of these were
minor variations which would be difficult to describe, but let's see if I can't come up with a few:

Working with my portable, modular devil stick, I realized I can practice balancing it on my chin, and can learn to spin it from the ends, by resting a control stick against the ball at either end. This devil stick is made from a 3-part painting pole, with foam balls attached to the ends. Those balls have 1" ridges that can be used as acontrol surface; most devil sticks don't have this. Of course, I can't actually do this yet...
Contact juggling tricks with two balls at once. For example, balance aball the top of each hand, with the hands held flat in front of your chest. Simulataneously roll the balls to the other side of each hand while rotating the arms at the elbows, so that you end with the balls on the palm of each hand and you're standing with hands out, palms up. I can almost do this one.
Twist and juggle: I can do this. I hadn't tried before: While juggling 3 balls, twist the body until you are facing backward, juggling all the time. Then return to the front. Your feet never move. Then do the other side. It's like stretching while juggling.
Stretching while juggling: I did several moves that involved taking long low stances with the feet wide apart, or stepping left and right while juggling. The idea was to maintain a wide pattern, sometimes so wide that I had to step from side to side to catch the throws.

I don't usually spend a lot of time with the balls or the devil stick, so having them as my only props led me to focus on them in interesting ways.