But Kennison began coaching Casey, and began booking the family act, which grew to encompass everyone. Juggling has become the focus of family life, with a 10-foot-ceilinged dining room converted to a juggling room. The family also has keys to two gyms with the higher ceilings Casey needs for his numbers tricks. With Kennison's direction and their own determination, the family plans to present 200 of their 55-minute shows this year. Casey is involved in a five-person club passing routine, and has a seven-minute solo toward the end of the act.

 

"Richard has new tricks for me to try every time I go to his house," said Casey, who practices daily and often spends the entire weekend with his coach.

 

Kennison helped Boehmer put together a routine for the IJA Burlington festival. He performed it almost flawlessly in preliminaries, then suffered the dropsies when nerves caught up with him in the for-real performance. But the crowd had never seen one-armed technical work and cheered him heartily throughout the routine. It was good enough for third place, and whetted his appetite for more pressure-packed experiences.

 

Though Boehmer doesn't follow Jones's style, he has picked up some of his multiplex moves. After Boehmer learned the three-in­one-hand multiplex, Jones showed him how to do four using a knee bounce. It's a difficult move, but Boehmer learned it well enough to add it to his routine at the Groundhog Day Festival this spring.

 

Jones also shared his "Flower Pots of Doom" routine with Boehmer, enticing the youngster to buy some shaker cups and practice with that prop.

 

In the mid- to late-1970s Jones invented some bounce-multiplex patterns, because it allowed him to add more variety to his one­handed act. "Juggling with just one hand and more than two objects is very fast-paced, so I began looking for a way to make it slower and easier," he explained.

 

His three ball bounce multiplex begins with three balls in one hand, and a toss of one ball to the "bounce point." (It can be a knee, other body part, or tennis racket or drum in the other hand.) Bounce the tossed ball back toward the throwing hand. When the bounced ball reaches the top of its arc, throw the remaining two under the first toward the bounce point. However, on this throw only the highest of the two multiplexed balls will be bounced back off the bounce point toward your hand. To complete the pattern and keep it going, catch the first ball as it comes down, then catch the bottom ball of the multiplex throw. You're back where you began when the other multiplexed ball hits the bounce point and heads back toward your hand, which contains two again.

 

Boehmer had figured this pattern out for himself, but Jones took him a step further by teaching him a four ball in one hand "diamond" multiplex pattern.

 

It begins with one ball sitting atop three others in the palm. You should be able to hold onto the stacked ball with the tips of the thumb and ring finger. Turn the hand sideways so the thumb nail faces you. Throw the single stacked ball toward the bounce point and bounce it back toward your hand. As it reaches its peak, toss all three remaining balls to­gether beneath it so that they form the corners of an upside down trian­gle in the air.

 

Catch the bounced ball as it falls toward your hand, and catch the lower of the two balls coming down to your hand from the multiplexed throw.

At the same time the final ball comes down to your hand from the multiplex throw, the third multiplexed ball hits the bounce point and rebounds back up in the air toward the hand. Continue the pattern as before.

 

Jones has also invented a one handed five ball multiplex pattern by increasing the bounces involved. Holding five in one hand, toss one to a bounce point and bounce it back toward the hand. As it peaks, throw all four of the others into the air. Two will again come back down to the same hand that threw them. But the other two must be thrown to two bounce points, the upper leg and the knee. One lands on the upper leg slightly before the other. hits the knee, and the upper leg ball is bounced directly back to the hand. As the knee bounce hits, however, bounce it out and down to give yourself more time, then hit it a second time with the foot back toward the hand for the final catch. The ball you kick begins the second revolution. Jones named this pattern, 'Jones's Jewel."

 

He said of it, "This is the most difficult one handed pattern I have ever developed, but I consider it both easier and more practical than a regular five in one hand cascade juggle."

 

He continued, "You'll have to practice aiming the two balls that are bounced one after the other so that they come down correctly over your upper leg and knee. Honestly, the whole pattern takes work. But your efforts will be worth it. It will blow your audience away, its a real wow!"

 

"Learning to bounce two balls off my leg instead of one has allowed me to not only juggle more numbers, but also complete more difficult tricks. For instance, I can now throw four balls simultaneously behind my back and come out juggling. Two years ago I would have thought something like that to be impossible."

 

But wait, there's more! By tossing two balls straight up at first instead of one, and then re­peating the four ball diamond bounce mul­tiplex as above, Jones has been able to do six in one hand.

 

But he has not worked only on one-handed patterns. Jones has worked over the past decade with his atrophied right hand, and can now catch and slightly throw balls with it. He has developed a six ball two handed bounce multiplex that he has named 'Jones's Gem."

 

He sees almost limitless possibilities for these bounce multiplex patterns. "What excites me about the six in one hand pattern is that a two­handed juggler could flash 12 this way!"