I started when I was bought a set for Christmas when I was about 7. What else can you do with 3 squashy poor quality bean bags. Now 10 years later I am very glad to be able to juggle!

I saw a guy juggling on TV (no idea who it was...I suspect it was probably Dick Franco) and I thought: Cool I was later shopping in Glasgow and saw the Complete Juggler by Dave "hi diddly ho" Finnigan and got it, along with 3 rubber dog balls (note to beginners: don't learn with rubber dog balls!).

That book, and the success I had with it, set me off. I already had an interest in magic, and I then met a guy who did various sideshow acts. And I've been doing this ever since (15 years now).

Cheers

ML

My first book was Charlie Dancey Encyclopedia of ball juggling, I can now do every 3 ball trick in there except for the fastest trick in the world and the siteswaps.

I presume you mean the actual claw/snatching trick rather than the winner of the "worst juggling joke in the world" award

ML

Sounds familiar only it's now almost four years, and I was 14 (I think... mmm...).
Paul

I am still trying to learn how to do it. I bought my first juggling book about 10 years ago. I thought it looked cool, and I fancy myself somewhat ambi-dexterous. So I figured it would be pretty easy.

Well here I am, today, and I am still trying to learn. But today I have a different reason for wanting to learn.

Why? Because I am getting too old to keep bending over and picking up the darn things.

BroDavid

Well... way back in junior high I had a friend who could juggle... he really wanted to start a juggling club at our school. I didn't know how to juggle at all, but I told him that I would help him start a club. Of course everyone laughed every time a
"Jugglers Anonymous" meeting was anounced, but I stood by my friend and went every week. By the end of the first meeting I was cascading with balls and by the end of the year I was juggling better than my friend (do to the natural effects of healthy competition).

Well, I started out just wanting to do Kinetic Juggling (contact juggling), because I thought the visual was perfect for my magic act. From there it was all downhill. Now I'm a three-baller, and I often do it using my acrylic balls in conjuntion with the Kinetics.

Sable

YES! I love the way acrylics look. Contact juggling... regular juggling... whichever. I think the whole crystal ball thing has the built in aura of magic. I've found that if you are doing walk around work, contact juggling an acrylic looks magical and gets people interested in you. Then you can easily segue into doing regular magic tricks.

Wow, this is a really old thread. ~Blows the dust and cobwebs off of it.~
Let's see, I started learning magic in 6th grade after my teacher showed us some card tricks. And sometime after that I got into mime because of the Shields and Yarnell TV show. So by the time I got to college, and ran into actual jugglers, I had to learn that too. And that lead to balloon animals and unicycling and clowning and slack rope. And somewhere in all that, I took up stage hypnosis and belly dancing. Any one of those interests takes a lifetime to master, so I really have my work cut out for me.

Click here to view attached image.

Way back in elementary school school our very excellent gym teacher did a little segment on juggling. A few years later a friend of mine learned and I've always wanted to pick it up, so early this year I found a random 'learn to juggle' website, picked some of the billard balls off my pool table and went to to:) I'm not very good, but it's a start:p

I learn out of jealousy. When I was in 7th grade I had broken my arm. While in a cast a juggler came to my school and taught everyone in my class how to juggle. I couldn't learn, because I had a massive cast on my arm. That night, angry that I couldn't juggle, I taught myself 2 in 1 hand. As soon as I got out of the cast I start working on a cascade. I taught myself everything that I learned in the first several years of juggling.
So I learned to juggler out of jealousy and ironically I started into magic out of boredom, but that's a different story.
Dan

I got started in juggling at the age of 10 when a circus skills workshop was organised during a school camping trip.

It was raining so we could't go out and do anything. So the guy that owned the campsite suggested using the marquee for a juggling workshop.

By the end of the week I'd mastered 3 ball cascade and started working on 3 clubs.

I taught myself up to the age of 14 and from then I was a member of Circus Maniacs youth circus school.

I stopped juggling for about 7 years, from age 18 to 25, but have recently got back in to it and am currently juggling 5 clubs and 7 balls.

I'm due to start working on 7 clubs within the next couple of weeks once work dies down and am aiming to get it qualified by Christmas and add it to the show by next summer.

Ros

Jugglers are born not made. The first jugglers meeting I went to they noticed the fire in my belly, and were sure I would become a regular. After going to every meeting for about two years they appointed me the president. When you have the fire in your belly you can't stop juggling.
Al Angello

I have a fire in my belly, but that's from eating my ma's spicy chilli.

I started juggling as an add-on to my magical talents when I was young I wanted to do it all. I wanted to be able to offer more than just magic. My first lessons were through the Klutz book with the three bean bags.

I am still learning as I recently picked up poi and staff spinning and added them to the show.

I am still playing with cigar boxes. Haven't quite got a good flow yet with them.

I am the same as mr.bill I have added it as more comedy to my show and am very glad I am now able to call myself a juggler

I read a book by Robert Silverberg called Lord Valentine's Castle. The protagonist learns to juggle and due to the fact that I was meant to be revising for my degree I was looking for a displacement activity and learnt to cascade that night. I didn't make much progress after that for about 2 years when I started going to a local juggling club. That was 16 years ago.

Nigel

Saw a video of contact juggling at a local magic convention several years ago and was totally mesmerized by it. Wasn't until I saw a lecturing magician do it as part of a warm-up before the lecture a few weeks ago that I decided to look into it a bit further.

I've purchased a 40mm set of Chinese exercise balls. I know they're not exactly the same thing as used for contact juggling, but I figured they couldn't hurt and I might be able to use them to start with.

I saw a really sweet documentary on TV my freshman year of high school. It focused on amateur jugglers that only did it for the love of juggling. A&E perhaps? Went in my front lawn with tennis balls the next two days. That lit a fire.

I'm not so obsessed any more. I juggle clubs and rings, close to cracking five balls. I always considered juggling and magic to be allied fields, but it hasn't been until recently that I've begun experimenting with combining juggling and magic into an act.

It does seem like a nice way to create a spectacle right away and grab everyone's attention.

A guy featured in the documentary said something to the effect of "Juggling is the closest to real magic you're ever gonna get."