Spinning plates at a wedding

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

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

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

Wedding jitters?

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

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

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

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.