by Serendipity » Jul 27th, '07, 22:31
Actually, a lot more needs to be said...
(I apologise if this turns into a rant, but I'm a contact juggler more than I am a magician)
Firstly, don't touch that contact juggling DVD with a ten foot barge pole. From the trailer alone it's clear the guy has no idea what good contact juggling is. His multiball is fast and clicky, his stalls wobble and his isolations don't exist. Without meaning to offend anyone, don't go to a magic website for contact juggling DVDs, go to a juggling website.
I'd advise getting your hands on a lacrosse ball from a sports store, they're a good cheap ball to start with. If you want something a little more specialist, get a set of wooden balls, or a couple of 3 or 4 inch stage balls from a juggling site. Also, visit contactjuggling.org and read the essays, look at the videos, read the forums etc. It's the nets biggest CJ community, and they're all very nice people. I don't get a chance to post on their much any more, but if you look on their forums, I'm called Spare.
So, learning. If you want a book, then I'd recommend Contact Juggling by James Earnest for 1 ball stuff. If you're interested in multiball, then I cannot recommend highly enough a recently published book called Multiball Contact Juggling by Andrew Batchelor, he taught me, and it's brilliant. If you want DVDs, I'd recommend Contact Juggling Parts 1 and 2, available from most good juggling stores online, they're really very good.
I'm not sure what the best stores to buy juggling gear from in America are. Dube are pretty good I'd imagine.
Sorry if that got a bit longwinded, but Contact Juggling is worth doing right, because done well it's beautiful.