"Devil's Triangle" variation on devil stick

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

Using a bike like a unicycle

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

Unicycle hovering magically improved by biking

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.

Spin a plate on a knife?

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? 

New show idea: The Massacre of the Carrots

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

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

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.

Closing in on continuous behind-the-back throws

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.

Dice stacking how-to video from YouTube

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.

Spinning plates...an easy juggling trick to learn

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.