Cool Juggling Video

Just got this.

Chris Bliss performing an amazing juggling routine



HP

glad i turned up the sound while watching that!

juggling is hard to be impressive with, but apparently Mr. Bliss has put a lot of work in to doing just that.

thanks, that was fun!

JUGGLING SOLO!

awesome

I could do that, I just don't wanna

And, the demonstration of why you should not be impressed by what Chris Bliss does:

Bliss Diss

Thanks for the link.

I have to agree with some of the comments I've read about the Garfield video. Garfield did more difficult juggling, but Bliss was timed to the music better. Plus Bliss did his live in front of an audience and Garfield edited his video. They were both entertaining though.

I find it funny that this may be the beginning of a pissing match between jugglers. I guess there's drama everywhere. HAHA!

HP

I've seen Garfield juggle in person. I'm pretty sure that's one take with different camera angles.

I don't know much about him, but he seems to be a very talented juggler. I don't doubt that he could have done it all in one take. Maybe he used to the multiple angles to show the routine better. In hindsight, he should have used one camera and uncut footage to eliminate this criticism.

HP

WOW even jugglers can be jocks.

The thing these guys gotta understand is a good juggler is not entertaining, a good act is

Bliss has a good act. as a performer myself, a musician, when you can do something and technically its not a problem, you stop overplaying and begin to learn what makes a song is the space between the notes

the bliss diss jugglar is obviously technically superior, but was no where near as entertaining

i would have preferred he held back for a while and blew me away during the song change. maybe acted clumsy in the begininning and blown me away. he started cranked up to 10 and really had no where else to go (until the 5 balls in each hand bonus thing)

being a great juggler may impress your friends, but you won't earn a living unless you can actually entertain people with it

and btw, i sat 2nd row center twice for the flying karamochov bros, and whether they are the greatest jugglers on earth don't really matter, i left entertained...

thanks for the links

This, in a nutshell (to mix metaphors horribly) is the crux of the issue. That what the lay person finds impressive (and to an extent, entertaining) and what a juggler finds impressive (what is actually hard to do) are not terribly well correlated.

This is actually a large part of Jason Garfield's stage persona (which is close to his actual personality, I'm told): he is near the top in technical skill in a discipline that the general public doesn't appreciate, or if they do, appreciate the "wrong" things. He plays on this a lot in his act (being pissed off about it), and knowing who he is and what his act is, this video fits right in with that. This is really best seen as part of how Garfield makes his living at juggling - yes it's entertaining above just the juggling, and the added entertainment is about this very stage persona of being irritated at stuff like this.

He is making a direct parody, doing the same tricks and weird awkward moves that Bliss does, but with 5 balls. It's entertaining as a parody of Bliss' act (and in itself if you ask me), but it isn't intended as a stand alone thing.

Actually, I have watched both, and have come to the following conclusions:

1. Bliss is a showman. He not only was able to the juggling, but to time it with near perfection with the music. His movements were not 'poor form', but actually him exaggerating his movements in order to telegraph them to the watcher.

2. More balls can be good, but they can also be a distraction. The truth is, Jason has almost zero showmanship. While I can easily see that the skills he used were of a higher order, it makes not a lick of differance. For all we know, Bliss might have been able to work with more balls and decided to downshift for visual simplicity.

3. If I was going to spend time watching a juggler for entertainment, Bliss would win every time. If I wanted to learn the skill of juggling, then Jason would have my vote.


But truthfully? Bliss was just enjoying himself up there, and it showed in his act. Jason? He was just tossing balls around.

Nuff said.

My confusion came in when watching the Jason Garfield video, I thought he'd be performing it in a similar situation: live on stage without so many jump cuts (which some will say lends way to further editing). But it was very lonely... in a gym with poor lighting that looked more like Saw than Shine. It felt more like one of those vids--also seen at YouTube.com--where two girls are lip-syncing to a recorded live version of a Backstreet Boys song, giggling whenever there's cheering from the audience. And it got very repetitive and boring for me. His face looked so disgruntled and angry.

It reminds me of when I used to do classical piano: there were some absolutely brilliant technical performers that had the audience yawning. They were like robots without style. Now, I couldn't define style, but part of that is the charisma that comes with having an adorable personality. Garfield came off to me like a bully. I'd rather see a "superior" juggler more constructively helping Bliss improve his talents, as he already has the smiles down pat.

Exactly, that made the difference for me, too. Jason may be technically superior, but I'd rather watch Chris Bliss any day. He's having so much fun with it, I can't resist smiling every time I watch that video. That's the first time I've seen juggling made to seem like a dance.

I completely agree with everyone here, Bliss wins hands down.

I know someone has already said this is not the case, but it's very very obvious that the Jason Garfield video is doctored. There are lots of times during the end parts where the motion has quite clearly been speeded up "Charlie Chaplin" style and you gotta think that if it wasn't, he probably would not be staying in sync with the music.

Since "Being with the music" is the whole point of the Bliss performance, perhaps that is the reason why he chose to use only three balls?

Also, (someone has to say it) Jason Garfield looks like the kind of guy that would steal your purse at knife-point in an alley, whereas every juggler I ever met in RL looked more like Bliss both in general physical appearance and body language. So for Jason to criticise Bliss's "physicality" and "grace" deserves a big belly laugh.

As a juggler, and having hung out at juggling conventions with performers and ex-performers, I must respectfully disagree. As with any other physical activity it is possible to learn to do it, but do it with bad posture (leading to greater chance of injury and making it much more difficult to get better than how good you are). It's difficult to describe what he's doing wrong, but one example is how he does backcrosses (when the ball is thrown behind the back). His very last trick is to do 5 backcrosses in a row. As he's doing it he has to sway back and forth to make each one. This is bad, it's a lot of extra movement which makes it much harder to do them quickly (which you'll need if you want to do more than 3 behind the back).

I'm quite certain, given the way he moves, that he can do 5, but I would be surprised if he could do more, or could do 5 reliably enough for performance.

Dianne: the Charlie Chaplin speed up bits - you're right, I hadn't noticed those before, I take it back.

ROFL.... he really does! I can't stop giggling about this.

i know he's trying to be a comedian.. and people are laughing.. but still, i'm chiming in with others opinions here..

further proof Garfield comes across as an ass..