Threads involving mike.armstrong

Tom Derrick - 7/1/2022 17:37 #

Unfortunate news.

Hi all. Many of you here will have met my fiancé, Simon.

In the early hours of Tuesday morning, he had a seizure. Paramedics were present within a few minutes, but the seizure lead to a cardiac arrest that caused an unsurvivable brain injury. He passed away today, surrounded by family.

We don't have any answers as to why he became so ill so quickly.

He is loved greatly and will be very sorely missed.

Bendy Dan - 5/18/2022 03:33 #

Can anyone ID this devil stick / knows where I can get an equivalent?

A while ago I found a devil stick that had been lurking in a bag of un-played-with props for a long time and have been having fun learning something new. I figured I'd try two devil sticks, so ordered a couple of Mr.Babache ones so I've have a matching pair. They showed up, and I was immediately surprised at just how much heavier they were than the one I currently have.

I weighed them, and the one I had before weighs 150 grams, the Mr.Babache ones weigh 250 grams. So that would explain things -- it's just that I'm _used_ to the lighter one. (I'm not sure if less weight is good or bad, but it's what I'm used to and it feels a lot easier/faster to knock around). Looking at other places that make devil sticks, they all seem to be in the same range; Henrys ones are "circa 225 grams", Renegade's are 220-235 grams, play's are 250, dube are perhaps even heavier. There's a 'juggle dream supreme glitter' I saw mentioned that comes in a 'light' version but nobody has them in stock. (there's lots of flower sticks that are probably lighter but those are going to be even slower)

So, long shot -- does anyone recognise what I have? I would have got it at a BJC in the '90s, most likely, so it's a pretty big stretch to see if anyone can identify it but I figure if anywhere would have someone that can, it's here.

It looks like this: (the mr. babache one is on the left, for contrast): https://imgur.com/8AnRfZH

Not sure if the decorations are distinctive enough to be identifiable; the ends look like this: https://imgur.com/UGGSD1L if it helps at all.

Alternatively, should I just toughen up and get used to the heavier ones? What's the advantage there? (I assume there's a reason all the existing ones are about the same weight, after all)

Chris Freemantle - 7/11/2020 18:17 #

I'm mid 60's. Used to do a little bit of juggling / balancing a broom on my foot / spinning a plate or tray (people didn't like it when I did it with their best plate ;-). With lockdown have sort of started with 3 balls again - muscle memory is not bad, but reactions have taken a little knocking. I suppose I'm aiming for 5 balls, but may revise! Also learning to unicycle. What I really wanted to ask on the forum is : fountains are normally done with the same number of balls in each hand. While I understand it would likely be VERY difficult, is there any intrinsic reason you can't do fountains with, say 3 balls in one hand and 2 in the other, or 2 balls in one hand and 4 in the other? I've tried the trivial case of one ball in one hand (OK, not really juggling) and two in the other - seems possible with a bit of practice.

Cedric Lackpot - 4/18/2020 23:24 #

4000 Years Of Juggling - still at a bonkers price!

Nearly six hundred quid! Oof.

https://www.abebooks.co.uk/000-Years-Juggling-Two-Volume-Set/30613647637/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_UK&cm_ite=viewbook

Tom Derrick - 9/24/2019 20:25 #

I had a thumb through the Guinness Book of Records 1997 while packing up a bookcase, which has a page devoted to juggling. I can do more research than was possible in an internetless house in rural England in the late 90s.

I looked up Francois Chotard, who held (holds?) the record for most balls spun on one hand. It's quite a contraption he had, one which I thought others here might enjoy.
http://dev.juggle.org/history/archives/jugmags/images/42-3/42-3,p17-1.jpg

Dropped Again - 9/1/2019 21:06 #

Hello all. I can do juggle two balls, but have never managed to do three for more than a catch or two, hence the user name. But I do like watching other people do it..

Living in Newark meant I saw a couple of bits of the EJC 2019. Sadly, I was coming back from an event I help organise on the Sunday, so I missed the parade.

The Sunday evening fire show was ok - the issues with the sound did not help. Some of the acts didn't make me gasp either. A poi.. on fire! A staff.. with a firework on the end!! Or both ends!!! But it was often visually great.

Before it started, I could see someone practice with their equipment not on fire (the pair of staffs on fire on both ends?) behind the stage and they had rather a lot of drops, but performed it fine on stage.

I had the opportunity to see something midweek, but again other things got in the way. Grrr.

I did get to see the Gala as a guest and have been looking for something that had the line up - I can find some names, but not all of them: is that published anywhere?

I liked the afternoon show so much I went home, got a different lens for the camera (I'd brought one for being 'big top' away from the action to the afternoon), and came back to see the evening one.

Compere, ??: fine.

First act, Matthew Tiffany: I'll be surprised if he's not normally a street performer. It was fine, but I would also be surprised if a chunk of the audience couldn't do everything he did.

Second act, Florence Huet: balancing the rings as she moved around is presumably rather harder than she made it look? Very elegant.

Third act, ??: I really liked the science + juggling material, but I suspect you needed to be closer to the stage - and interested in the science side - to fully appreciate it. My partner didn't, but by the end I was reminded about how a fuel cell works. By jugglers!

Fourth act, ??: the main bit was the big ring, with some balancing and dancing thrown in. I thought was ok, my partner liked them much more.

Fifth act. Masayuki Furuya: some of the best plate work I've ever seen, with some lovely stage presence. He got easily the best reaction from the audience, which I happily joined in with, but interestingly my partner wasn't that impressed.

Sixth act, Sylvia Rosat and Bobby Scala: crack, crack, crack goes the whip, but there's a reason she's dressed like that - it's not otherwise a visual act. Especially with the lighting in the evening.

Seventh act, ??: the bar routine was fine, but none of it made me gasp. I did like the 'the bottle and glass stay stationary, but the hands holding them change, by the end rapidly' bit.

Eighth act, Thom Wall: the lens change meant I could see how impressive some of his balancing was. Interestingly, he failed to pull off one bit in the afternoon - the move of the ball from something balanced on his chin to one balanced on his forehead - and didn't retry it, whereas everyone else did a (single) repeat of their drops. I do have a shot of the final routine when it went wrong (both balloons bursting) in the evening - not mentioned in the "The trick worked both times" bit of his blog! - and he did repeat that.

There was an interesting difference in the atmosphere between the two shows. The lighting didn't make much difference in the afternoon (natural light swamped it) and should been better in the particular places in the evening. I was also near to someone who spent much of their time being rude about the quality of the acts in the evening, although they did shut up during the plates and the final act...

So it was great, and I wish I could have seen more of it.

I am aware that not everyone thought so - in the evening, I was standing next to someone who was making derogatory comments about nearly all of the acts. They did shut up during Masayuki Furuya and Thom Wall's acts though!