Once upon a time there was a juggler called Chris Bliss. Chris had a routine that was the finale to his act, where he juggled in time to a Beatles song. It was quite impressive, to the untrained eye (I am mainly an untrained eye, let me say). Watch it:
Now, this video did the rounds on the internet. And caught the eye of a juggler called Jason Garfield. Jason wasn’t that impressed by the video, he felt it was simplistic compared to his skills. So he made the Chris Bliss Diss, where he mimicked the original routine, but with 5 balls, and mocked the pomposity of the original act. I have never seen sarcastic juggling before. See it yourself:
There are moments in this second video that just had me wide-eyed at the skill. Now when I said earlier that I am mainly an untrained eye, it is because I have an interest in a similar area, the Diabolo. I’m alright at it, but watching these two videos suddenly got me wondering if there was any Diabolo activity on youtube now. Yes. Yes there is:
I’m not up to this standard, but I can do some of the tricks, and am using this as inspiration to try more. If I ever got really good, I would try and recreate the Chris Bliss Diss in diabolo form. A lot of work mind.
Comments
3 responses to “A tale of two jugglers”
Regarding the “Chris Bliss Diss” video, while I have no doubt that what the juggler did was real, with no jiggery-pokery, the fact that there are semi-constant camera cuts makes it difficult to judge.
In short, while it’s a great viddy, I don’t know for a fact that he really did that routine all in “one take,” if you will; that’s one of the impressive parts of the original routine.
Still, I WAS blown away by it, and the thing that makes me believe that it was really done was the little 10-ball tag at the end.
Oops, hit “publish” too quickly. Forgot to mention that the anime series “Kaleido Star” has a LOT of diabolo in it… might want to check it out!
Yep, there are definitely a lot of different angles and suchlike, which doesn’t suggest a single take. However as you say, the skill on show was stunning. Inspired me to have a go at my personal Holy Grail of two diabolo at once. And I have got further with it than ever. Still not there, but I am on the way I reckons.