Juggler's World: Vol. 38, No. 3

Tips and Tricks

(from a list by Dave Castle)

The following juggling ideas were collected during years in different phases of show business. Some are old, some new, some changed and some will suggest other novel effects to you. I hope you can find at least a couple that you will use.

Three Ball Tricks

• Cross hands and cascade balls.
• To open, have three balls in one hand, toss them over your shoulder and let them bounce on the floor in front to begin cascade.
• Bounce ball off the floor with reverse English, catch it with your hand cupped outward by your side.
• Throw three balls down hard on the floor in front, pirouette to catch them and resume juggling.
• One ball is thrown high, reach up and catch it at the top of its flight, then bring it back into the pattern slowly while you do two in the other hand. You can wave your fingers at the audience while hand is high.
• Close a three ball routine with three in one hand.
• Hit and bounce a ball with your elbow or back of the other hand.
• Let a ball drop to floor and bounce several times. Slap it with the bottom of your foot, bouncing it back into the air and your pattern.

Special Effects

• Juggle three magic store light bulbs that illuminate.
• Juggle three throwing knives and throw them at balloons on a wood target in front of you.
• Blow soap bubbles in the air and steal three or four clear plastic balls from your pockets to juggle among the bubbles.
• Replace dolls' feet with wood handles to "juggle small children."
• Juggle three flashlights turned on with the stage darkened.
• Before you juggle and eat an apple, put a rubber worm in it to surprise the audience.
• If you balance a ball on a mouthstick, use a flute instead and end the routine with a tune.
• Juggle a napkin, doughnut and dark empty pop bottle. Eat the doughnut, wipe your mouth with the napkin and act like you wash it down with a drink from the bottle.
• Do a cigar box routine with three square bird cages containing toy birds.
• Vent jugglers can paint a face on one hand and then give running commentary as the other hand juggles balls.
• To comment on "how time flies," juggle three watches.

Dress and Decoration

• Cut circles or diamond shaped pieces of foil and glue to your rings for more color and flash.
• Buy a jacket from a uniform supply company and sew sequins to the lapels and hems to make a flashy costume coat.
• Make a waist sash from a five-inch wide piece of satin that fastens with sewed-in hooks.
• Laundry carts make excellent props holders. They have wheels and fold flat for packing. Decorate with red velvet or corduroy and sequins.
• Use different hats for different tricks. A fez for torches, clown hat for three balls, Mexican hat for devil's sticks, top hat for clubs, a turban for knives.
• Paint your spinning plates white to look like fragile ceramic or pottery instead of metal.
• Plate spinners can also use arrows instead of plain sticks.
• Big old socks stretched over clubs protect them and keep them clean.
• Dip three dime store balls in glue and cover with glitter. It wears off, but looks great for a while.
• Pin or tack dollar bills on your suit and prop table to get attention and comments. People like seeing real money!
• Variety stores sell broom clips that hold clubs on the outside of a prop stand.

Most people trying to do six balls would initially try three in each hand, as a logical extension of four ball juggling. However, a crossing pattern where balls are thrown almost simultaneously might be easier.

Dan Bennett uses it in IJA numbers competition. Edward Jackman, who reported on the pattern in 1977 in an IJA Newsletter, said he learned this pattern up to 24 throws before he could do three in his left hand.

Start with three balls in each hand. Raise one hand slightly above the other so throws don't collide and then make the crossing throws in unison. All throws pass in front of your nose, which makes them easier to see. Eight balls can be done in the same manner.

by Phyllis Chinn and Danny Sleator

At a mathematics meeting in Kyoto, Japan, we began exploring the mathematics of passing three balls and three clubs on an "every other" count. We noted that the progression of who had various numbers of balls and clubs seemed to depend on the starting configuration. We analyzed the possibilities theoretically, then checked our predictions by juggling.

Let us think of the pattern of six objects as forming a circle, with objects moving around the circle clockwise as they are passed. With three balls and three clubs, there are only four basic distributions of the objects.

With every other passing, in the first three configurations each juggler always has two clubs and a ball or two balls and a club. In pattern A, the number of each type changes with each exchange. In B and C each juggler has two of one type for three exchanges in a row, then switches to an excess of the other for three exchanges. In D, each juggler goes through as regular pattern of -- 3 clubs, 2 clubs, 1 club, 0 clubs, 1 club, 2 clubs, and back to 3.

Throwing a right-to-right double in the pattern causes similarly interesting results. Given the following configuration of objects:

+--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+
|       2      |       2      |       2      |       2      |
|       @      |       @      |       @      |       @      |
|              |              |              |              |
|   1 O   O 3  |   1 @   O 3  |   1 O   @ 3  |   1 @   @ 3  |
|              |              |              |              |
|   6 @   @ 4  |   6 O   O 4  |   6 O   O 4  |   6 O   O 4  |
|              |              |              |              |
|       O      |       @      |       @      |       O      |
| A.    5      | B.    5      | C.    5      | D.    5      |
+--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+

The following table can be constructed showing the resulting patterns of a right-to-right double given the starting pattern indicated:

                      (object number)
              1     2     3     4     5     6
        A     A     A     A     A     A     A
        B     B     D     C     C     D     B
        C     D     B     B     D     C     C
        D     C     C     D     B     B     D
        (down the side are listed pattern type)

By the way, at two math meetings where we juggled, in Kyoto and Hakone, many Japanese people gathered around, interested in watching and anxious to learn. We're sure they look forward to their next juggling encounter!

by Bruce Fife

• abuse -- What to try when an argument fails.
• acrobat -- The only person who can do what everybody else would like to do, pat himself on the back.
• actor -- One who plays when he works and works when he plays.
• B.A. -- A degree which means that the holder has mastered the first two letters of the alphabet.
• exercise -- 1. When you feel like exercising, just lie down till the feeling goes away. 2. The only exercise some people get is when their nose runs.
• guillotine -- The first real cure for dandruff.
• hobby -- See "nudist."
• joker -- A jesternut.
• juggler -- People who juggle for a hobby seldom go crazy, but those who have to live with them do.
• Mason & Dixon's line -- The boundary between "Ya'll" and "Youse guys."
• medicine -- The art of fooling the patient while nature cures the illness.
• misery -- See "diet."
• nudist -- 1. A person you can't pin anything on. 2. A person wrapped up only in himself. 3. Nudists must be right. They have millions of followers -- mosquitoes.
• poodle -- What you step in when it rains cats and dogs.
• skeleton -- A lot of bones with the people scraped off.
• tip -- The wages we pay other people's hired help.
• wheel -- The part of the car which causes the most accidents is the nut that holds the wheel.