Watch "Going for the Juggler"

[ysabetwordsmith]

I admire juggling and related skills. This video takes a while to get to the impressive part, but once the stunt is assembled, it's really impressive.

What makes it impressive?

* Once the plates are in place, he can't look down or up, only straight ahead.

* Juggling 4 things is harder than 3 or 5 because the pattern is different and more challening.

* Any juggling while standing on a devilboard is much harder than on the floor, because of the added instability.

* The presence of the spinning plates overhead requires perfect control of the juggling clubs, which have to stay far enough away to avoid hitting the plates.

* So that's almost entirely kinesthetic intelligence at work, because the ability to use visual checks is greatly limited by the constraints on head motion. You can see him feeling out where the devilboard is, for instance.

Juggling is so awesome. :D

Comments

[kellan_the_tabby]

*a whole lot of really impressed expletives*

[acelightning]

I remember when plate-spinning acts always used to appear on variety shows (anywhere from the Ed Sullivan show to Johnny Carson). I think there even were such acts in the big circuses. (And for some reason, the performers always seemed to be Chinese.)

My son learned how to juggle when he was in high school. We'd be in the produce aisle at the supermarket, and he'd take a grapefruit, a lime, and a peach and start juggling them until he drew a crowd. (Once the store made us pay for each fruit.) I can't juggle at all, or else we would have been passing fruits and vegetables back and forth all afternoon.