The Juggling Equipment Blog

The first Yoyo video of the week!!!
I personally can’t really understand what’s being done over there, but it looks impressive, and the video is very well done.
So, yeah.. maybe all of you diaboloists could enjoy that more than me!

the yoyo player is Miguel Correa – a 5A specialist, and if you don’t know what 5A is or how many yoyos are used in 2A, you should consider writing that in youtube and see what you’ve been missing.

Name: Luke Burrage
Country: British, but live in Germany
Age: 29
Favorite prop: Clubs, due to passing and combat and backcrosses. But rings, due to how cool they are. But I have more ball juggling in my show than anything else.
Started Juggling: At the age of 11
Currently working on: A routine made up of squeeze catches with clubs.
Website: http://www.lukeburrage.com

Short Bio:
I’ve been juggling for 18 years, seriously for 13 years, quit my last “real” job six years ago, and have been making my living from juggling ever since.
Defining moment in my juggling history:Performing my 3 ball and video routine for the first time, and getting such a good reaction that I thought “Hmmm, maybe I could do this for a living.”

Spoiler! »

Favorite Cereal: Crunchy Nut Cornflake. Of course.
2 things you didnt know about me:
1. I have an identical twin brother.
2. I write science fiction novels, one of which you can download for free from my website.
If I werent a juggler, I would be: a movie director.
Time it took me to learn 5 balls: It depends on how you define “learn”, but I guess I started working on it in 1996 or 1997, and I beat Ben Beever at 5 ball endurance in the games at a convention in 2002.
Is juggling sport or art? It depends on the venue and the attitude of those taking part. I play a lot of combat, and that is 100% sport. As is Volleyclub. There is no subjective judging, nor does the aesthetics of the juggling count in any way towards winning or losing. At the other end I perform on stage all the time, and I always consider myself an artist. I did a whole 45 minute podcast on the issue, so it feels a bit strange summing up my thoughts in a single bullet point.
If I were a juggling equipment, I would be: One of Gatto’s props, so I wouldn’t be dropped very much.
Jugglers in my family: my twin brother can juggle, and makes it to various juggling conventions in the UK.
Juggling equipment that has not been invented yet: I’m working on it.
Famous juggler i’d love to pass with: For me a passing relationship is not merely a passing relationship. It has to develop over time, as you find the strengths and weaknesses of your partner, and become comfortable together. If I had the option of passing once with a great juggler, or pass every week with a beginner, but know we can improve together, I’d rather have the long term partnership. That said, Get The Shoe is my favorite passing act, so I’d love to pass with those guys. Thankfully I live in the same city, and have passed with Jochen and Florian quite a few times over the years. For some reason I’m as good at 10 clubs with Jochen as I am with 9 clubs with anyone else, and as good at 5 club takeouts with Florian on the first attempt than I am with Pola, with whom I’ve performed the same tricks for years.
after the invention of a time machine – what advice would you give to your younger self?
No advice, because finding your own way with juggling is one of the most exciting things. There are no rules. There is no set path. However, if you want to become a professional performer, you MUST perform as much as possible, at every opportunity. I did this, but it was more because I liked performing, rather than thinking it could be my career, but now I look back I see that everything I’ve done as a professional comes from that basis of trying stuff out on stage all the time.

Yet again, our videoftheweek features Luke Burrage!
This time he’s even cooler in one of the coolest videos of the year (watch the double meaning)….!
Inspired probably by “Where the hell is Matt”, Luke shows us where he has been during 2009 and make us all slightly jealous.
Props to Luke who also created the song accompanying the video!
All in all – well done!

Name: Matthew Christian Hall
Country: U.S.A.
Age: 40
Favorite prop: Balls
Started Juggling: 11 when I learned the cascade, and then quit until 27, which is when I really started.
Currently working on: 4 club Mills Mess, 3 club Mills Mess on half-spins with oh-shits (from Tony Pezzo), 3 club reverse backcrosses, and 5 club singles. I’m trying to get my clubs level up.
Website: scweb.esuhsd.org/programs/jugglesensei

Short Bio:
All my life I’ve been passionate about Asian scholarship, performing, and service to youth. So what did I do? I became a high school Japanese teacher! Perfect!
Defining moment in my juggling history: Buying Charlie Dancey’s Encyclopaedia of Ball Juggling when I was 27 and freaking out about how much you could actually do with 3 balls. I was hooked from that moment on.

Spoiler! »

Favorite Cereal: Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs
3 things you didnt know about me:
1. I have a black belt in Aikidou.
2. I can’t balance anything on my chin.
3. In high school I wanted to be a politician.
If I werent a juggler, I would be: fatter and less connected with the global community.
Time it took me to learn 5 balls: About two months, if I remember correctly.
Is juggling sport or art? It is what it is–just juggle.
If I were a juggling equipment, I would be: a Kendama, for sure.
Jugglers in my family: My wife Lisa can do 6 balls, 4 clubs, and 2 diabolos. Cool, eh?
Juggling equipment that has not been invented yet: Clubs that you can really devil stick with…
Famous juggler i’d love to pass with: The Passing Zone–I would love to be a part of their act one time.
after the invention of a time machine – what advice would you give to your younger self?
Start working on clubs immediately so that you don’t have a 5 year skill-gap between clubs and every other prop you do. Oh yeah, and don’t work so hard to convince Bill Berry to compete in IJA in 2003. =P

Luke Burrage is doing it again – counting and presenting the top 40 favourite jugglers of the past year.
What started as a funny TV show script eventually became a real video.
More information as written on the video’s description bar:
“Put your 10 favorite jugglers of 2009 as a list in the comments section. Not in any special order, no numberings, no explanations, and try to spell the names correctly.”

A reminder for all the past years’ rankings:

2003 (text)
2004 (text)
2005 (text)
2006 (audio)
2007 (audio)
2008 – part 1 | part 2 (video)

Voting closes at the end of January, so hurry up!

Name: Peter Åberg
Country: Swedish but now living in Finland
Age: 26
Favorite prop: Clubs
Started Juggling: When I was 16
Currently working on: 6 club stacks (3 club cascade but throw 2 each time)
Website: www.igiveyoume.com

Short Bio:
Grew up in the north of Sweden, basically in the forest. Dreaming about becoming a rockstar or a ninja. Playing in lots of bands and skateboarding. Started with a friend to juggle on the side. Realized it was super fun and started to practise up to 6-8 hours a day. After 2 years auditioned for the circus school in Stockholm and got in. And from there it started for real.
Defining moment in my juggling history: Got in to circus school and started to perform much more. Realized that a trick needs to be really solid in practise to be solid on stage…

Spoiler! »

Favorite Cereal: Don’t eat them but I’ll answer Cinemon toast crunch
3 things you didnt know about me:
1. I play the trumpet
2. I am sometimes really superstitious
3. In my hometown it can be -40 degrees in the winter
If I werent a juggler, I would be: Musician
Time it took me to learn 5 balls: from when I started work on it about a week.
Is juggling sport or art? It’s up to the one doing it.
If I were a juggling equipment, I would be: A ball, then I could roll around and just be fat!
Jugglers in my family: me
Juggling equipment that has not been invented yet: the kind that never drops.
Famous juggler i’d love to pass with: Francis Brunn, but it’s not possible anymore…
after the invention of a time machine – what advice would you give to your younger self?
I would ask him to start earlier!

So this week we have a little bit of self promotional stuff…
I recently started making and uploading short trailers for the big Happy Oree Friends video that I’ve been working on in the past half a year or so. The Video will feature ______ and also a lot of ______!!!
It shows a glimpse of what and who is going to be there. More to come.

My goal is to finish this BIG (currently untitled) video in the upcoming couple of months. We will post updates about the video periodically, but for those interested in knowing what goes on right when it goes on – why don’t you become a fan of HOF on facebook?

Enjoy -

Name: Jorden Moir
Country: Canada
Age: 22
Favorite prop: Footbag
Started Juggling: at the age of 14
Currently working on: 5 clubs
Website: www.zacadacircus.com (no personal site yet)

Short Bio:
I started footbag 1st year of high school in 2001.
Soon after came ball juggling, but not serious training.
2003-2007 saw my competitive footbag career, including participation in 4 World Footbag Championships (with a few top 3 finishes).
I began combining ball juggling with footbag in 2006 while at college. This is what interested me the most so I quit college after one year to pursue performing.
In 2007, I joined Zacada circus School, where I learned basic acrobatics, movement, and acting.
Here I created an original act for their show. It debuted at the RIT festival in April 2008.
Since 2008 I work on improving my act.
Defining moment in my juggling history: Cirque de Demain festival committee accepting my act for 2010!

Spoiler! »

Favorite Cereal: Shreddies.
3 things you didnt know about me:
1. I’m left-handed.
2. I’m self taught.
3. I have a black belt in Taekwon-Do.
If I werent a juggler, I would be: Depressed! (hmm…probably a math teacher)
Time it took me to learn 5 balls: 2 years
Is juggling sport or art? Juggling by itself (standing; trying to do difficult standard tricks) is most like a sport.
Adding in elements like movement, different body positions, unique tricks/props, and personality it can become art.
The higher number/strength of new elements, combined with clever composition, the higher the artistic level (I think!).
If I were a juggling equipment, I would be: A ring, because you can see right through me! haha, jk.
Jugglers in my family: I taught my parents 3 ball cascade. That’s about it.
Juggling equipment that has not been invented yet: 3 ring-halves attached at 120 degree angles. Or combine a ball with a spinning top. That’d be an interesting juggling routine.
Famous juggler i’d love to pass with: I’d love to create a hands and feet passing routine with Peter Irish at some point!
after the invention of a time machine – what advice would you give to your younger self?
You are more capable than you think.
The tricks that seem impossible now can become easy with persistent training. Coordination, muscle memory, strength and reflexes all require time to develop. In some cases this will take years, regardless of how much you train per day. Just relax and know that you will get to the level you want eventually.

While it’s true that we do tend to put videos as video of the week that have some juggling tricks in them, this one is a little different. There is however a short scene of balancing an unusual prop!

Anthony Gatto has been part of the Cirque de soleil Kooza Show for a while now. He is in the process of joining another show, Le Nouba and has decided to put on camera his 30 minutes make-up routine.

And here a look of how the make-up looks on stage. This video is actually the press conference held on April 11, 2007 – it features the first part of Anthony Gatto’s juggling act. You will notice that the make-up has indeed changed, as stated in the above movie.