Polish Beat Box Competition

Yes, another music-related skill. But this time I have no conception of the difficulty involved. I've done my share of singing and playing instruments, but this combines the two and makes something quite unique. The sounds this guy makes would put him in the category of percussion music, except he's not playing the drums. He says words, but he's not rapping. It's really unique.

Pot Manipulation

Once again, I'm amazed at what someone can do with a heavy object. This guy tosses a large clay pot like its a beach ball, spins it on his head, and could probably do it while eating an apple. Impressive, but just imaging what he could do with THREE of those pots, spinning, flipping, knocking him unconscious because of lack of concentration.

Double Dutch in San Fran

This video makes me smile. The skill and choreography in this video just amazes me. Really, I never thought there was so much to do with double dutch jump rope. I like their transitions from one to two people holding ends of two ropes. It reminds me of take-outs and the wally walk while passing clubs. Some of the ideas they had for interaction while jumping were cool too. Since they offer lessons, that's just one more reason to go visit San Francisco.

Floor Exercise with Ball

I'm not one for one-object manipulation. I know there is almost an infinite variety of things to do with one of anything, but it just seems so.... boring. Of course, when you bring a person with a rubbery spine, some interesting things can happen. Like, people making innuendos about handling their balls. For some reason people outside the juggling world are not familiar with these? Or maybe we've just heard them so often, they aren't funny anymore.



P.S. I disapprove of the title for this video, but the gymnast is very skilled, both with her gymnastic moves and with the manipulation of the ball.

Dice Stacking

Yet another skill that cannot be explained by random chance. This guy has some really cool moves in this movie using just a few die and a cup. If only it could be a little more useful, maybe stacking them with certain sides showing. I was really disappointed when I found out that dice stackers don't really care about the side showing. How are you going to impress the gamblers in the streets of Turkey?

British Contortion

You don't often see those two words together. And I think this is actually kind of a misnomer here, because the woman in the video is definitely Asian. And she's definitely not a circus performer. This woman, who was on Britain's Got Talent, makes your joints hurt just looking at her. And your teeth. Also, I'm not sure she has bones at all. Maybe some form of squishy cartilage, instead.

A Capella Live Looping

I'm not sure that I've ever seen anything quite as cool as this. This guy uses software to record his singing, then loops that to create a background for his next loop. I explored some of the multi-instrument people doing this, and their stuff just sounds like garbage. This guy, on the other hand, has a great sound and I really like this song. I think the human voice has a bigger range and better harmonies than the improvised works from a plethora of different instruments. And it doesn't hurt that he's recording this while driving!

Trix with Brix

Cigar boxes started when a guy thought "Hey, I can use these old pieces of trash to make a fool of myself" over 100 years ago. A juggler, if I ever heard one. They have diverged from toss juggling since then that many people consider cigar box manipulation its own unique art. Since all the tricks can be replicated with props of different shapes, I'm not so sure I agree. This video gets one and a half thumbs up. The only thing wrong with this video is that it has a guy dressed like a mime.

Extreme Unicycling

I just heard that one of my good friends, who is attending a prestigious circus school, is going to take Extreme Unicycling as his second specialty. So he will be both an amazing juggler and crazy one-wheeled wonder.

Golf Ball Bouncing on a Wedge

I'm disappointed in the quality of videos and tricks out there right now for the golfball on a club. There is so much you could do with that. Stupid Tiger Woods, for bringing it to national attention, then letting the skill lapse. Why do we have to live in a free market, where he isn't rewarded equally for bouncing a ball on a golf club and playing golf? I mean, they are both just hobbies!

Wannabe Ninja

Remember AskANinja.com? Or realultimatepower.com? Ninjas have been cool for a number of years now, but there just weren't enough people actually emulating them. This video is what the cool ninja kids are doing now. Seeing him performing these stunts in a mall, I wonder if any security guards tried to chase him. And if they would ever have succeeded.

Shadow Puppet Sex

Saucy puppet can involve shadows too. The guy doing this must have both a lot of time on his hands and the imagination of a string of Larry Flints. He uses hand puppets to do the nasty. The horizontal mambo. The monster mash. The bed boogie. Hanky panky. The mommy-daddy dance. The wild thing. And now we can add shadow lovin'.

Basketball Manipulation

I've sold out!!! Why, oh why, did Nike have to do such a cool basketball manipulation video for a commercial? Why?!?! Oh, wait, I'm not getting paid, so I guess I couldn't have "sold" out. Maybe I just got "awesomed" out? It would fit with my current status in the world.