Prop Shop

Juggling in the Dark

by Eric Bagai

 

It used to be that if you wanted to juggle at night, you juggled torches. Now there are dozens of juggling products that flame, glow or glimmer in the dark. A recent find is the street-hockey night ball, available in several brands for under $4 each at your local major toy store. These are reasonably well-balanced and weighted. But while they do light up, they aren't nearly as bright as Globalls - but then nothing is. 

 

However, a set of three Globalls and a charger will lighten your load by about $115. For me there is no question that the tenfold difference in price reflects a tenfold difference in quality and performance, but that doesn't mean I can afford to spend that much. A more affordable and quite good product is the Astro Ball, at about $18 each. And a slight step lower in visibility but still quite bright is the Juggling Night Hack, at $12 each. I've also seen balls that flash when bounced really hard, balls that turn on automatically for a few seconds after impact with your hand, and balls that accept a small Cyalume cartridge and glow brightly for a few hours. All are nice for an evening at the beach or the park, and any of them make a great addition to your bag o'toys. However, if you start at the top you'll never have to upgrade. 

 

Many jugglers (and all spectators) want real fire and real danger. Fyrefli Fyreballs showed up a few years ago, and they work. But they get too hot too fast for me. The idea is fine and the balls are very well made. But after about 90 seconds they become painful to hold, even momentarily. This is a problem, as they can burn for a good three minutes - so you have to measure the amount of fuel carefully or you wind up with a ball that you can't put down, can't put out, and can't hold on to! One solution is to pop them into a metal canister that has an air- tight seal. Another is to use them only at the beach. And I've heard of at least one juggler using leather gloves. 

 

I tried expanding a Fyreball to about 5" diameter to use for contact juggling. The equatorial section expands easily, allowing the coil to-tie expanded to fit. This made the gaps in the surface much too large, so I used fine steel wire to weave a tighter mesh surface. At this point I discovered that the ball gets just as hot as it did before, maybe even hotter. And the wire mesh I so carefully wove left a semi-permanent waffle pattern on my arms and chest. This was an interesting experiment, but it makes a better initiation rite than a juggling toy. 

 

Flaming diabolos are available from several manufacturers, all at about the same price, and unless you run across a cache of old stock, all of about the same quality. But as a spectator, they've never really impressed me: the flame is just too small, and the faster the spin the smaller the flame. Here is one area where electronics beats fire, and the Renegades made the breakthrough. The hollow-body Renegade diabolo is designed to accept a rechargeable LEA (light-emitting array) package which turns the diabolo into something out of a Warner Brothers cartoon. We are talking street-lamp brjght here. The only thing it lacks is a pair of lighted hand- sticks. (This can be remedied by using clear plastic tubes, large enough to accept thin Cyalume sticks.) Diabolo, rechargeable LEA inserts, and charger go for about $115, the set. I don't know a juggler both rich and talented enough to use three of these Diabolos at once, but then I don't get out much. 

 

There have been a few tries at glow-club making, and the most successful have been based on Cyalume. I know of no club manufacturer who offers such clubs, but I've seen a few one-offs at fairs and concerts. The basic idea is to drill small holes in the club base, and slide in a few thin Cyalume sticks. Leave an inch of each stick outside the club, and tie the sticks together so they neither slide in or out of the club. This only works with translucent clubs, but it really does work. Try it on your spare set of one-piece clubs. Then convince a friend to do the same and you can pass clubs at night. This will cost about $6 per set of clubs every time you light up, but you won't have to worry about burning the house down. 

 

Continuing in the do-it-yourself spirit, here's a way to make a flaming stage ball that really works, though only for contact juggling. Repeatedly puncture a stage ball with an unfolded and heated paper-clip wire held with a pair of pliers. An even pattern with 40 to 60 holes works best for me. Make one hole that is large enough to accommodate the point of a kitchen baster. Then slide the stage ball into the toe of a pure cotton sock. Twist the sock and wrap the ball again until you run out of sock. Fill the ball with a few ounces of isopropyl alcohol (IPA) of the highest concentration you can find. (The drugstore variety is 70%; printer's IPA runs about 90% and comes in gallon cans.) Slosh the ball about so that some of the IPA soaks out of the ball and into the sock, getting it almost to the dripping point. Light the sucker and contact-Juggle away. Smother it before the IPA burns out so the sock doesn't char. The sock acts as a wick, drawing more IPA as needed, and not getting burned itself (but only if it is 100% cotton). It is not very bright, but it is fire and it leaves neat little tracers of flame on the skin. I call it "Mills Mess." 

 

Don't use kerosene (paraffin) or lamp oil in this gizmo - it will get much too hot and use not only the sock as a wick, but you and the stage ball as well. Anything more volatile, like Coleman fuel or gasoline, will simply blow up in your face. You won't get into too much trouble with IPA, but follow the same rules you would with any flammable toys: use a metal fuel container, keep it sealed, tie your hair back, don't use hair spray or cologne, keep a large towel handy, and wear 100% cotton or take off your shirt. A small fire extinguisher is a good investment, too. Of course neither this magazine nor the IJA would ever suggest that you set fire to any thing, let alone that you then juggle it. But I think you should. 

 

Let me know what kind of juggling props you've invented. Write: Eric Bagai, Portland OR

 

Resources: 

*Aero Tech Products (Globall, Laserball, & other LEA products) U.K.

 

* Beard Juggling Equipment (Astro Balls & Fyreballs) U.K.

 

* Infinite Illusions (Globalls & Laserballs) U.S.

 

* Oriental Trading Co. (Cyalume sticks) U.S.

 

* Renegade Juggling Equipment (Astro Balls, Diabolos, Globalls)

 

* Serious Juggling (Astro Balls, Fyreballs, Juggling Night Hacks)