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Hello all,

Beside magic I do palmspining and contact juggling with cristal balls...

Here's my first video: 4-ball routine

Hope you like...
Comments welcome...
Thanks for watching!! ^^

Best,

That was great. I'm not a palm spinner or a juggler, so I can't compare your manipulations to others, but it's clearly a very smooth and polished routine. The video was fun to watch.

Normally I'm not interested in video's of men playing with their balls...
But this was really great!

Actually it was so great that I'm looking for some more info about it. But it seems hard to get hold of those balls, so far i only found 2 shops in The Netherlands that sell them, but they are a bit expensive. They also have 'stage balls' instead of the clear acrylic ones, which are a lot cheaper. I don't know what the difference is besides the stage balls not being transparant, but i think it's best to start out with those, to see if i can even do it a bit.

I only found 1 book with instructions (Contact juggling by James Ernest), but i think there are a lot of websites you can learn the basic moves. And maybe learning from a video is better than from a book, so do you know of any instruction DVDs ?
Maybe you have any sources that are nice to check out for someone who wants to try it?

Good stuff!!

Wait till contact juggling Lawrence meets contact juggling Lawrens!!

Absolutely mesmorising and brilliant!!

Martin

Hello!

Thanks all for your kind words!!

Glad you like my work...

Truly palmspining and contact juggling are very demanding...one must spend countless hours just to train the wrist, muscles, forearms, etc.
And during these early practice times nothing visual happens at all!!
It's like in magic, when we first learned, say, a classic pass with coins...no result, just pain!!

But one can be confident as after the first month, it's possible to do the most visual isolations and enigmaes, at least with one sphere...muscle memory do its own magic and one can concentrate fully on presentation. Don't give up!!

Multiball is even more demanding as you must control the pathes in several directions...but how rewarding!!

I do this stuff in all settings, from close-up to street and stage with equal success: people are truly mesmerized and often thought of it as a magic trick!!!
I heard many time the following: "this must be magnets"...or "where are the strings?"...
I love earing people comments after my show because they often inconscously give me ideas as for them perceiving the effect...

If you want I'll show you my work with only one 100 mm clear ball...

Thank you all!

Best,

Sure, show us more, it's real impressive to see.

I can understand that people might wonder where the strings are, the ball seem to really float with your hands just moving around it.

You say you can show us some work with a 100 mm ball, what size are the balls in this video? On a Dutch forum 64mm balls were recommended.
I think i'll get me 2 64mm balls of the cheaper 'stage' versions (not the clear ones) to start with and start practicing a lot. Maybe later on i can get some of those nice clear ones.

Bundy,

The balls are 86 mm...that's huge for multiball, but I have large hands and I gain in visibility.

64 mm...hmm, this sounds really tiny...afraid that the spheres disappear(!) in your hands.

In fact you have choice between the two main family in CJ:

- Palmspining and
- Bodyrolling.

For the later a 100 mm stage ball is recommended as you don't bother dropping it and/or damage everything around you...
It's very light, so you can learn faster than with an acrylic one.

There's a good alternative for multiball: the wooden balls > there're much cheaper than acry. and feature almost the same amount of friction.
You couldn't work multiball with plastic or slicone balls, unless to work with the balls always separated, which really difficult and advanced technique.

I'll suggest you visit this site.
There are tons of useful infos and advices, as well as free articles to begin with.
Plus people there are very friendly and willing to help beginners.

On a personal point of view, I would say get also an acrylic, say a 80 mm one, just to enjoy the beauty and inner properties of what is basically a big round lens!!

My first sphere was a 100 mm one, and yes I learned the hard way!!

Good luck!

I just saw your 1 ball routine on YouTube, which is the one you were referring to i guess. WOW

The shops i can order from (limited to 2 only since i don't have a credit card) have 64, 70, 76 and 100 mm balls in acrylic and stage versions. So i think i'll get an 76mm acrylic and two 76mm stage balls. Better to start with the stage ones because i think the acrylic one would be damaged if you drop it on the floor. (or are they nearly indestructible?)

Together with the website you provided and the instruction book it will keep me busy for many months i think ...
Hey, and i no time i'll be as good as you (yeah, i wish)

Hello,

Maybe you'd like to check this guide to help you choose your balls...

Thanks for the advice.

I'll get just one acrylic ball and the book to get me started. I can always get more balls later on.