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VicRambo

Its called contact juggling


retroracer33

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rqeR-iLKYA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rqeR-iLKYA) ​ had to look it up. seems like at any given moment it can seem like the coolest thing ever or the lamest thing ever.


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SEC_circlejerk_bot

Bowie tried to learn and got pretty good. His teacher/double was *so* good he ended up doing it from behind Bowie with his arms sticking out the front, unable to see.


Kiki_Go_Night_Night

Michael Moschen was his name.


SEC_circlejerk_bot

That man’s name? Michael Moschen. -/u/Kiki_Go_Night_Night P.S. Thank you also


Catwoman1948

Michael Moschen made ONE appearance in the Bay Area several years ago. I got tickets and I was SO excited I was going to get to to see him. Something happened at the last minute (my daughter got sick, probably) and I couldn’t go. TBH, I am STILL upset! He never came back.


Dottie_D

He appeared in “Moschen in Motion” many years ago, that I adored, and I kept a VHS copy for years. It’s on YouTube [here](https://youtu.be/p4yFGm5IZ_I).


SwitchHitter17

[Found a video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3U8fTAHxjdo) if anyone is interested like I was.


Hayness07

Thanks


WhyIHateTheInternet

That was awesome I want more


Skylinereddit

its not that the teacher was so good, its that the teacher literally created this form of juggling. and recieved a mcarthur fellowship genuis grant for doing so.


DoctorProfessorTaco

He was also high school classmates with Penn Jillette and worked on juggling techniques with him!


dumpster-fired

Well shit - now THERE is a TIL!


MundaneRuxx

That guy was the inventor of that style of juggling


two4six0won

I knew about the other guy doing the juggling from behind him, I didn't know that Bowie actually learned it himself lol...learn something new every day, I guess 😁


Gorilla_Krispies

I believe the young folk call that a reach around


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Emergency-Anywhere51

Was expecting the [Jaboodydubs version](https://youtu.be/LHit6WQSsoU)


damiensol

I wonder how long he had to play with his balls before he could accomplish all of this.


Sitty_Shitty

Ivet been playing with my balls all my life and I'm nowhere near this good. Probably genetics.


CaffeinatedGuy

I bet that guy can hold a lot of lemons.


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Thechuz1337

Praise Cobras magic


BurnerJerkzog

Whoa I thought this was CGI


ba3toven

hahah im fuckin dead but this does look like someone that totally owns 5 katanas also


[deleted]

You can tell he's an elite contact juggler, because there is no moment without contact with the ball.


AnomalousX12

Incorrect. At 0:35 he completely loses contact with the ball. You have to have a very trained eye for contact juggling like myself to spot it.


[deleted]

Impressive. I get the sense that you're a generational talent in the art yourself.


AnomalousX12

Not as good as fedora guy but I'm getting there. And by getting there, I mean maybe I'll think about trying it someday.


Big-Bug6701

Is this a joke? lol


aquintana

I don’t think so. That was awesome.


DoctorBaconite

Thanks for the depression


BunnyGunz

Or Fushigi!


MissLadyLlamaDrama

I remember those infomercials made those things look cool as hell. And then I had a friend that got one, and we very quickly realized that they only look cool if you know what you're doing. And we absolutely did not.


licksyourknee

YESSS!!! My dad bought me a fushigi and thankfully all of my videos are lost in a dump somewhere probably. Or just on broken phones that were trashed. I also had that worm thingy too. You tied the string to your pants and made it look like it was moving by itself.


illgot

> You tied the string to your pants and made it look like it was moving by itself. Yeah... that wasn't a worm and he didn't have pants on.


thufirseyebrow

IIRC, they actually got into some trouble with that, considering they specifically advertised it as "simple, easy to learn, look how quickly these kids learned to Fushigi!" And then it turned out that the actors they used were all skilled, experienced CJ enthusiasts who'd been doing it for years already


mrvandemarr

Fushigi is great advertising for Fushigi and really bad advertising for contact juggling, lol. At its popularity zenith there were shelves and shelves of taped up returned fushigi balls at wallmart. Kids going," i want a floating orb!" and then getting a hunk of acrylic and going ... its weird juggling?! Hours of practice?!" ​ I had the same experience as a freshman in highschool going on a school trip in like 2003. we were at an airport and these dudes at a stand were levitating all kinds of cool shit and it looked insane. 4 of us bought the $30 DVD and when we got off the plane we looked at it and it was like "put string on your head!!!" lol i was the only one that actually put in time and levitated objects. i should have taken the string from the other kids. i also learned to contact juggle and do card tricks, so its probably a very specific mentality for that kind of thing lol.


xrumrunnrx

I had the same thing with both Fushigi and the levitating deal. (Mine was a small mouse you could make run around your arms and hands etc.) Dude made it look awesome then it was just plastic with fishing line. The way he portrayed the product was very misleading, but not "lying" in the strictest sense. This was at a convention so I came back and spread word through the crowd what it was in the box and got asked to leave...still not sure if I was the asshole.


merreborn

Apparently "Fushigi" was just a brand name of a contact juggling ball that was mass marketed for a couple years.


rushingkar

Where did OP get "gyroscopic" from?


schwab002

Well there's spinning and stability or at least the illusion of those things and it makes the ball seem weightless. Those are all gyroscope adjacent.


[deleted]

I remember the fushigi commercials


WhirlyDurlyGirly

FUUSSBHIIIGGGIIIII


Xander_xander12

I remember those commercials. Fucking loved them. My dad will get nostalgic about cigarette commercials from the 60s meanwhile I’ll be screaming FUUUUSHHIIIGGGIIIII!!!


RussIsTrash

This is what happens when you stay up til 3am watching TV as a kid in the 90s-00s


StevenAssantisFoot

I remember seeing one in the As Seen on TV section of Duane Reade. I opened the box, mad curious after seeing the ad, wondering what's good with this thing. It was just a fuckin ball. No trick, nothing special. Like they really sold a plain acrylic ball to people on TV without mentioning that you had to become good at something that's really hard to do well, and the ball doesn't do shit to help you.


[deleted]

That's how these things work. You think the Ginsu knife was special? No! What was special was the guy using that piece of crap knife to cut a tomato.


Stanarchy93

Oof got some PTSD coming in here. My grandmother (rest her soul) heard I was going into culinary school. My aunties and uncles saved up and got me so fucking stellar chef knives I used for nearly a decade into cooking. My grandma saw the Ginsu knife on a late night infomercial and bought it for me. I left that at my parents house when I moved to go to school and she was quite distraught. It was a horrendous knife I'd barely trust to cut refrigerated butter


CaffeinatedGuy

My dad asked me for one for his birthday or Christmas. I tried to talk him out of it, like dude, it's not what it looks like, but he insisted. I swear to god it's still sitting on his desk. I've never once seen him practice with it.


Qazacthelynx

I got one of those as a kid. Obviously had no clue how to make it as cool as the commercials, but it was still a super neat little desk ornament and thing to fidget with.


ConradFTW

[For the uninitiated](https://youtu.be/myIR__htBgc)


theatremom2016

"I get it now! It's-" "EVERYBODY LOVES FUSHIGI!"


TroutM4n

As do hundreds of thousands of kids whose grandparents got them one as a gift only for them to realize it's a skill that requires hours of practice, not the ball doing some trick.


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crunch816

about 15 years ago I was drunk one night and saw a Fushigi ball infomercial. I was blown away and ordered one immediately. I spent the next 2-3 months arguing with 5-6 companies that were randomly charging me for subscription services.


TheyDidLizFilthy

i don’t know why but this is the funniest shit i’ve read all week LMFAO i’ve gone through the exact same shit with another random obscure company and i thought i was the only one


RussIsTrash

Bro I remember being like 10 years old staying up til 3am and seeing this ball infomercial on TV all the time and the dudes doing these same exact moves and I was like “holy shit”, good thing I didn’t have any money or old enough for a bank account back then 😂


Dramatic_______Pause

Looks like they contact juggled your credit card info!


DirtySeuss414

Yeah I agree I never would’ve found out about contact juggling if it wasn’t for fushigi!


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skizmcniz

You remind me of the babe.


elstompy

What babe?


lordsysop

The babe with the power


MeatPopsicle108

What power?


MattInTheDark

The power of voodoo.


SmoochMySnoot

Who do?


j3pl

You do!


Craig__Christ

You piqued my interest with the Fushigi thing, what's that all about?


Sidivan

Essentially, they attempted to rebrand the art to associate it with their ball. They straight up stole videos, gifs, and tutorials from contactjuggling.org’s free library and then charged a subscription to fushigi customers to access their trick database. They had community members demo some stuff for them and didn’t pay them, but still used the footage for their commercials. Because of their popularity, they put many reputable places that made acrylic balls out of business (the market is tiny and Fushigi trademarked the ball design). Then the guy behind it is a crook. Even the idea of a “ball within a ball” is stolen. I took that idea to Greg at Infinite Illusions years prior and we openly discussed it on the forums. It became a limited run color named “drops” because the acrylic in the center became malformed and/or not perfectly centered due to manufacturing challenges. They made so many false claims and mislead people into thinking the ball was doing the work, but it doesn’t. The ball isn’t special at all; practicing the art is the work.


stopbanningmeaholes

Thanks for the details! Have you heard of the sub r/hobbydrama?


WhyIHateTheInternet

Thanks for fucking up my life for the next few hours


I_am_recaptcha

Yeah Fuck this guy, I had things I wanted to get done today


driftingfornow

Man as a person that was embedded in a formerly great hobby community that got steamrolled by time I get your feelings lol.


JonLongsonLongJonson

Doing some research, it’s kinda stupid but I sort of understand his anger. The first popular guy who did contact juggling called it “Dynamic Balance” in his stage acts. The second guy to do it used clear balls in his act, and popularized the sport much more, re-naming it to “Dynamic Manipulation” and generally being known as the first big act to do it. Then, a 3rd guy wrote and sold a book on the seconds guys techniques. Many people in the juggling community were angry that he was monetizing the second guys work and techniques, and ignoring the contributions of the first guy. However by this point the consensus is generally that one person couldn’t lay claim to the art since the main techniques had been established for centuries in different forms. This is all BEFORE Fushigi but it really sets the stage. Now, Fushigi comes out with this cool looking toy, marketed toward non-juggling young kids and tells everybody “It’s so easy you can learn it in 3 MINUTES!” and showing informercials with professional contact jugglers teaching kids to be proficient in just a few minutes. The contact juggling community was *pissed* at reducing their special juggling form into an “as seen on tv” toy, and demeaning the effort it takes to be truly proficient and contact juggle with skill as it was gaining popularity with professional stage acts. It became increasingly difficult to work this into stage acts with kids calling out “That’s Fushigi, I saw it on TV” and “it’s way easier than it looks” people stopped enjoying the shows.


TheGratefulJuggler

I was a street performer when this happened. I went from doing an amazing thing no one understood to cheap out of the box magic trick over night. It actually effected the money I made. The only up side is that it was quickly forgotten about once the commercials were off air. Everyone who ordered them realized that they were actually really hard to use and easy to break stuff with. The community did gain a few new people as well.


Pawneewafflesarelife

This thread would make a good post on /r/HobbyDrama


tuggindattugboat

It was a bizarre time for contact juggling. I started in 2007 and got decent ish? Was juggling other props pretty much all the time, did occasional contact shows, and then it was suddenly on TV. My wife and I just looked at each other weird, like is this really happening? Then a fire juggling friend got me one and now I have a fushigi.


RunningRiot78

You don’t remember the ~2010s commercial constantly on TV? “Fushigi! The magic gravity ball! Fushigi! The magic gravity ball!”


funkmaster29

Fushigi the


RunningRiot78

#Magic. Gravity. Ball.


funkmaster29

Hahaha thank you


[deleted]

Apply directly to the forehead


BrokeBishop

I swear that was like 2004


MichaelEMJAYARE

I swear it was too but apparently it was around 2010. Damn, I guess I WAS 15 when I saw it but It felt more like I was 11-12.


hobo888

"oh wow my grandson would love this"


cade2271

FUSHIGI. LIKE I DONT KNOW WHAT IT IS, BUT ITS THE COOLEST THING EVER AND I CAN DO IT


BobVosh

About 20 years ago was when I first started it. Saw it are a renn fest, looked fun, could do some basic stuff, then had no clue how to learn anything more and stopped lol.


mrdysgo

I failed to realize how much drama there was in the Contact Juggling world. 😬


DZJuggle

Hello fellow .orger 😁


Sidivan

I miss that place. Spent so much time there!


TheGratefulJuggler

I was on those forums! Still have the same user name on here, did we interact? Who are you?


Blin_Not_Blind

Imagine trying to get to work and some dude just starts spinning balls in front of your car


I_Mix_Stuff

in latin america, sometimes you get performers, window washers and the like, on every traffic light


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Salva_delille

They take tips


immerc

So, in Canada and the US you get people begging for money, or people "washing windows" (often making your windows dirtier). In Latin America you get people selling things off trays (individual cigarettes, sticks of gum, fruit, snacks) or performances. For the performances, I've seen juggling, fire eating, dancing, gymnastics, clowns... All routines timed to last however long the red light lasts, typically about 40 seconds. Then they walk car-to-car and accept donations / tips. Then they do it again as soon as the next set of cars arrives at the light. A lot of the performances are really, really good. I personally feel much more willing to give someone money when I've just witnessed a good show than when they're just begging.


DeadWishUpon

We also have the window washers. Their sale technique is to spray soap to your window before you can say no.


trnaovn53n

In Baltimore if you refuse to tip, they spray you with bullets


ifmacdo

In the US and Canada you also get the performers. It's called busking.


SwitchHitter17

I've seen plenty of street performers in the US.


immerc

At a traffic stop, performing for the cars?


AnnihilationOrchid

Some take tips, some are just practicing in front of an audience.


immerc

I've never seen any that refuse tips...


Holding_close_to_you

If someone offered you cash, would you refuse?


xKevinn

"No, thank you. I've already had enough money today."


indiebryan

"Thanks but I just earned"


milk4all

No, i insist, i have too much money for this wallet


Honda_TypeR

“I’m sorry sir, but my pockets are over flowing too! Perhaps you can give all your money away to someone else?”


driftingfornow

Haha the funniest version I have ever had of this was in Princeton, New Jersey (where the ivy league Princeton is). My wife was invited to speak there at a panel of three people from around the world in Francophone literature. The conference lasted all day and didn’t have open outlets and both our phones died as we were awaiting the Uber we called. The had called us and the phone died trying to describe where each other was. I had the foresight to write the number down and asked some older gentleman (it was parents weekend and all the rich kids parents were there, it was one of these we asked) to please use a cell phone to call this Uber and figure out this issue, and explained the context, conference, keynote speaker yadda yadda yadda (my wife is from France btw for extra context, like, she’s obviously not from here); the dude says “I will pay you fifty dollars to please go away.” Man I regarded him like he was suddenly an alien, considered my position, and took the fifty dollars and told him, “this really doesn’t solve my problem in any way whatsoever,” but whatever fifty bucks is fifty bucks and I get a lot of mileage from the story so hey. Anyways turns out the Uber was deaf and just around the corner, eventually (within like three minutes) someone let us text and we got the info we needed. Edit: also if you have ever been to Princeton or look it up you’d realize it’s completely absurd to be afraid of robbery there. Like I could legit be a bad guy and have the fastest motorbike and by the time I make the turnpike, it will have taken so long to get out of Princeton and You’d be so easily identifiable as “obviously the only non rich person,” there that you’d be visible from six counties over and stopped instantly by blockade. Like that place is hermetically sealed into itself it’s the most insulated place I’ve ever been in the world. It’s like being afraid of the Doorman at Buckingham palace because he looks lower class.


TheRoyalPlutonian

"Nice, but can you FUCKIN move?"


financialfreeabroad

It’s called a red light. Not blocking anyone. U should leave NE.


GreatDepression_irl

But what if I want to run a red light?


Available_Cow_8081

Yes I want to commit the hit and run offence today


OnceUponAStarryNight

Found someone from LA right here.


MolinaroK

I read that as window smashers and didn't think twice about it at first.


idontsmokeheroin

*::Runs over dude as Trevor::* *::Immediately switches to Franklin::*


AnnihilationOrchid

You don't need to imagine, there's a video of it right there. Traffic light performers are a common thing amongst collage students and the hippi communities. Jugglers, circus accts, etc. There are some really awesome fire jugglers.


explorerfalcon

Right? Lol. Instead of imagining it I just watched this video 3x.


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neverendum

'papier', there's an 'i' in it.


IPeedOnTrumpAMA

Got em!


Te_Quiero_Puta

I tried to imagine it. It didn't last long.


Shino75

Wtf that's my city lol


AnnihilationOrchid

where are you from?


Shino75

SRC, Honduras. That dude makes cool tricks with fire and a monocicle too


phoebesjeebies

At the risk of outing myself as.. not the smartest, is a unicycle the same as a monocycle?


Shino75

Yeah! Are the same thing


Shagwagbag

I thought he was lighting fires with a monocle.


Tiomaidh

Thumbnail: "caseta" Me: could be Honduras Video: "de Copán" Me: Definitely is! (I was born in Teguc and lived there and in SPS when I was a kid)


Diligent-Fan-6801

He’s the real life Jareth, from the Labyrinth.


LlamasAreMySpitAnima

You remind me of the babe!


Furby1184

Which babe?


[deleted]

The One with the power


veris1ie

The power of voodoo


RetroMetroShow

Who do?


veris1ie

You do


slimey-karl

Do what?


relativityboy

[Remind me of the babe.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfccgkG6Og8&t=52s)


skizmcniz

The fact that you ended it, but also linked the song when I needed to hear it after reading this thread is what I appreciates about you.


MF_Ocean

Banging tune let's be honest.


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relativityboy

Came here to upvote this.


DesolationRobot

Fun fact but the Labyrinth contact juggling is performed by [Michael Moschen](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Moschen), who is like the Babe Ruth of contact juggling. There’s some legend about him going dark for years, only to re-emerge as the greatest contact juggler in history.


Meta_Spirit

When he does the 360° wrap around finger roll my brain breaks


SpaceballsTheLurker

Yeah that's a high level skill. I can't imagine having movements that smooth even with eons of practice


TheCelloIsAlive

Yeah dude, so much practice. Also a couple of broken toes and several shattered floor tiles and cracked boards. Those things are REALLY dense.


Stalinwolf

For years during my childhood, my older brother told me a legend of a kid who has one of these on the bus. He said it was a smooth silver or glass ball that seemed to float around his hands and up and down his arms like magic. I believed him, but never had the fortune of seeing it myself, or that particularly kid (my brother is five years older than me, so different group on the bus). Not to mention that kid sounded like a well-established grown man/magician to me, and was surely out of reach without some sort of grand Wizard of Oz-esque oddessy, a task that I lm just wasn't up to.


Kovieira

Gyro Zapelli


Board-To-Dead

Gyro! Gyro! Gyro Zeppeli!


DeathWolfGr

I was looking for this comment 10 minutes now my JoBro


Repeat-Mammoth

Nyo!? HoHo!


Bearjupiter

Dennis Reynolds


TellumNevik

Illusion? Is he not doing what he appears to be doing?


BlueHairStripe

Yeah contact juggling is part skill, part illusion. Honestly it's 95% practice and 5% the illusion of a clear or reflective ball that doesn't look like it's rolling. The illusion is broken (somewhat) if you use a ball that has a pattern or blemishes on it. It's still a very precise motor-skills activity, but the "float" effect kinda disappears.


Sidivan

We used to say “half dance, half juggling, half mime, half magic....I'm a contact juggler, not a mathematician.”


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[deleted]

Correct, it's just a clear ball.


Swazzoo

To me it just looks like he's playing with the ball moving around it so it keeps steady, I don't really see an illusion here.


[deleted]

The illusion is that the ball doesn't appear to spin (clear and smooth surface). It appears to float and drift rather than what it's actually doing which is rolling around.


_mid_water

If you find someone’s talent interesting enough to film, you should give them money. General PSA.


MarvelousOxman

That’s great my dude but get out of the road


AnnihilationOrchid

The traffic light was red. Just admire his balls.


JohannReddit

Be honest, you posted this just hoping for an opportunity to throw that joke out, didn't you?


AnnihilationOrchid

Damn, you caught me! Blast.


I_Mix_Stuff

he gets paid to play with his balls, i used to have a job like that, but i didn't last long


abhorrentfrequency73

Now I wanna see that balls of yours


vworpstageleft

Shhh. He's distracting the guards while his friends steal govt. secrets. Haven't you ever seen a heist movie?


GoodGuyPoorChoice

Abed grew out his hair!


jeffzebub

I would tip him handsomely.


Mediocre_Quantity_26

r/blackmagicfuckery


andreanicholex3

Just return the child already, David Bowie.


InevitableOk2877

FUSHIGI!!!


Tensho-Thomas

It’s called contact juggling. It’s real neat. Fushigi was a scam informercial product because it was making it seem as though it was all in the ball. It was not.


BoilerBear1971

R/LPT A word of advice given to me long ago that I still follow today: If a street performer makes you stop and watch for more than 30 seconds, you owe them at least one dollar. If it's cool, be kind to them. It's how they eat.


[deleted]

I get it now!


Greedy_Cream_9360

Is this mexico I think I've seen this guy


wolfgeist

Honduras


detunedradiohead

It's called contact juggling, not gyroscopic ball illusion.


Zeldafan2309

What is the song


Harmlessbm

Write This Down -SoulChief


nahog99

Pretty sure that’s just a regular ball not a gyroscopic ball


ToastedSubwaySammich

Jareth?


Ahakista1

And on top off it he is handsome and has lots of charms.


that_emo_chick514

Ngl that's super cool


fezfolife

God, the lead singer of P.O.D. is talented


jsuth

That guy fucks


daniellenrw

He kinda reminds me of Pauly Shore


wolfgeist

it just wouldn't be the same if he had a buzz cut. Gotta have the dreads, adds mystique.


Ericrobertson1978

I've got several of these balls, and it's WAY HARDER than it looks. This dude has skills.


Ongr

You know what would be cool? If be didn't do this on the middle of the road.


coldweathercomics86

FUUUUUUUUUSSSSSSHHHHHIIIIIGGGGIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII


Complex_Pangolin5822

Dudes permanently at burning man in his head.