August 1, 2005

Juggling artistry...

From time to time I've been known to juggle a club or a ball here and there...never more than three of either as I'm an amatuer enthusiast at best, nothing anywhere nearing a professional or even what I'd call a really good level in the least.

Today, I present for you a few links to juggling videos - in various formats - of some of the more impressiv performances that I've been able to find online. I do warn you that many of these are quite large file sizes and are probably best viewed via a high-speed connection.

First up is five minutes of Anthony Gatto, widely regarded as the greatest juggler living today and in the argument for greatest juggler of all time. What he does here in this video is simply amazing. The inital ball and ring work isn't bad, but wait until about two minutes and ten seconds in when he starts performing with the clubs. From there onward, he works showmanship and numbers juggling in what is easily the most impressive display I've ever seen.

I'll balance Anthony's routine with a few videos from someone who apparently has some sort of beef with Gatto. Check the performances from Jason Garfield - and particularly the rap video (which does have some slightly offensive lyrics, but is hilarious in showing that apparently the East Coast-West Coast rap wars have begun to spill over into the juggling world. This is a man who's more about the numbers than about the overall performance. Doesn't do it for me, but I don't think I'd tell him to his face. It's not like he isn't a great juggler, but I'd rather see him juggle than hear him jabber about it.

If you want to check out some other videos, head over the the IJDb to see some of their 2000+ videos.

And we'll close with a demo of the trickiest trick that I know how to do. Here's a video that'll teach you how to do Mill's Mess. This is the best that I'm able to do, though I'm not the guy showing it off in this video.

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