The evolution of juggling | Jay Gilligan | TEDxHelsinki 

"it wasn't until 19 years that I asked myself...why?" (laughter) "why is it this shape? this material?" (oh...)

I think a lot of people are missing the general point of this talk, which is that juggling is more than '3 balls and some cool tricks' and goes through the same development and evolution cycle as any other activity. The point was not to showcase incredible skill (honestly, if you're familiar with this guy there's no need to explain that part in the first place) but rather to display amazing creativity and an attempt to think outside the box; to apply the skills you've learned to the activity that you love, even though tools and materials might change.

This dude is a legend. While he seems to mess up a few times in his final act, you can see his brilliance in improv with the items he is using. He follows a loose form in his act, yet throws in little extra pizzaz points whenever he feels possible. I thoroughly enjoyed watching his act.

Camera guy: Oh, uh, he's juggling, and the rings are going off screen... maybe I should move the camera? *Jay Finishes* *Camera zooms out* Camera guy: Aw, dammit, I was too late again!

I love how hes taken this out of the novelty entertainment realm and into the visual and performance art realm. He is exploring and experimenting with these objects like an abstract artist does with shapes and color.

What Jay shows us here is his journey into letting go. He was limited in ways to juggle because he didn't think out of the box. When he went to Europe he noticed the only boundry you're limited by is you. Maybe what he'se doing right now is not that impressive to the masses, but that's no longer his goal. He is experimenting and thats the only way to discover new possibilities.

When dude starts splashin' water around, grabbin' dudes shoes, and balancing pieces of the stage I thought someone was gonna tell him to chill xD

I know what he does is kind of dorky. But he seems to absolutely love what he does and that is pretty bad ass.

I see a bunch of comments saying this skill is useless. It's interesting how spending hours playing games and watching TV is considered normal but exercising yourself, your mind and being creative is seen as being useless by some people.

It's amazing for me to see that someone can be so passionate about something. He kept on practicing, researching, and tried to understand about juggling. He developed his original tricks and expanded the genre of juggling. I wish I can be that passionate about anything. I don't care whether it's good, bad, mediocre or meaning less. I will be a happy man if I can find something that I can pour that much effort into.

What a finish!🤙🤙 can't say I've seen someone destroy a Ted stage before😂😂🤣Amazing!

The song Mercy at the end came on..... he was about to go ham but said nah they aint ready.

The worst camera work of any Ted talk

Juggling seems fun, but I just don't have the balls to do it.

is watching this helping me in any way? no am i still going to watch this? you bet your sorry ass i will update: it was great 10/10

I think he went full juggler in the end

This is perhaps one of the most fascinating youtube videos I've encountered. In the video we see someone breaking the boundaries of the narrow minded form of juggling we've become familiar with. We see someone who is unapologetic in his efforts to showcase truly what he has learned from the art of juggling. He learned all the tricks and even began getting paid for his greatest hobby, and then a profound realization 19 years in. When you're so far into your craft/profession and have aquired all "knowledge" there is of it (quotations bc we know nothing) you are bound to become a creator. And in creating you continue learning, the greatest endeavor of life. What fascinates me is not the newfound understanding I have of juggling, no. What fascinates me is that in his attempt to create/do something thats never been done before, the majority of people are appalled. They dont get it. They are stuck in their habitual, close-minded way of thinking and anything that is different scares them. Just take a look at all the comments on the video! The audience's reactions! ... it makes sense as our brains are our survival mechanism, they want to keep us safe from that which is not familiar (hence fear when we try something new). We might praise Galileo now for having said that the sun is the center and the earth in fact is the one which rotates about that sun, but in his time people thought he was crazy. So many other examples of this, where those who dared think different were rejected from society and the majorital views. Its fascinating to see these historical parallels. Fascinating to be a part of what may be a revolutionary time. Wow.

This talk opens a whole new view about juggling and a lot more.

As far as the technical aspect of this goes, I wouldn't say it's top notch. But goddamn this is pure art.

There were 3 things I always wanted to learn as a kid that I seemed to have no ability to do naturally. 1. Juggling. I literally said, "I can't juggle" out loud in public once. Someone overheard me and responded with "yes, you can" and taught me in about 10 minutes and told me the rest is practice. He was completely correct. 2. Bridge shuffling cards. My mom does this and I always wanted to do it to, but I didn't know how. Finally I told her to do it slowly as I watched over and over again. That's all it took for me to figure it out. 3. Whistling. I couldn't whistle for most of my life. But never underestimate the power of boredom. I got a horribly boring job where I could practice whistling as much as I wanted.... ta-da now I can whistle songs. TLDR: if you think you can't do something, just find a tutorial and become bored enough to practice and you will learn to do it. It just takes trying.

Based on his last act, my guess is this dude has basically become like Neo from the Matrix, except instead of seeing everything as numbers he sees everything as juggling props 😂

Lol @ Mercy at the end, he rushed to turn that off

10:55 finishes juggling, 10:57 camera zooms out to an angle that you could have seen the trick

Camera really didn't show properly what's happening most of the time.

It is cool how he combines traditional juggling with contact juggling.

I loved this video. I honestly can't understand why some people are bashing on it

Next Ted topic: the evolution of camera work...

I just love how passionate this guy is, yes it's about juggling and to most (including myself) it's an amusing to see him get so excited about seemingly silly things. But you gotta give him credit, where it's due. It's weird people like him that make the world a better place :)

anybody hating on this doesn't understand how hard it is to perform balance/juggling/hand-eye-coordination tricks under pressure. I dont give a fuck about juggling but this video was fun to watch and i respect the hell out of this guy. great ending too!

So we're all just gonna ignore the fact that he had his phone on shuffle and Mercy came on after he finished LOL

ROFL the finale was worth waiting for.

At a couple of points while watching this I was like, "Dude, that can't be that hard to do!", but then I thought about it and realized there's no way on earth I could do that without juggling for 2 years straight with just the rings. This dude is pretty cool and another thing is how much nuts does it take to be like, "F doing a normal day job. I'm going to make my money on my skill level of throwing stuff up in the air and catching it in interesting ways."

Why the fuck am i watching this

the comments on this video are possibly more entertaining than the video itself. seems that a large portion of the population has some sort of a problem with the idea that some people actually get enjoyment out of pursuits that dont require hyper stimulation via technology or competition.

That madness in the end :DDD ...Amazing guy and talk :D

The rhythmical movement of the objects was fascinating enough, but it was just a tip of iceberg. At the last performance I felt the.giant iceberg itself rising up and flew out into the outer space. Thanks for sharing the joy of your life!

I can't believe I actually watched this entire video...

what was that song he used so i can avoid it for the rest of my life

Something dawned on me just now I would've never considered otherwise: The United States Marine Corps Silent Drill Platoon are a bunch of jugglers.

that was amazing. i had only inteneded to watch the beginninh because i have things to do, but i ended up watching the whole thing.

This was BY FAR one of the most interesting TED talks I've ever seen!

Come on people with all the negative comments. First of all: how many of you can juggle at this level? I don't care about your "If I would practice 28 years I would be so much better" comments if you don't have anything to show for it. Internet is full of people saying something isn't amazing when 99 % of those commenters could never do it themselves. I've practiced juggling before and I just didn't have the patience for it, but through that I know that what he does is not easy just because some jugglers make it look really easy. I respect all those people who have the patience and the perseverance to dedicate themselves for this art - I sure didn't have. Second: "balancing isn't juggling" "nothing compared to the chainsaw juggling". Bullshit. Google the definition of juggling, it's manipulating objects and that doesn't mean you have to throw shit around all the time. Juggling has many different forms and balancing is one of them. And what comes to chainsaws - that's pretty standard. Once you learn to juggle 3 items you can basically do it with anything. People think that just because it's more dangerous it would need more skill. Well it doesn't. Usually I don't care about idiots online but for some reason this shit pisses me off. I think he is a skilled juggler and even if he weren't - so what? This presentation was about the evolution of juggling. It was NOT about being the most amazing juggler there is. Besides I feel that it is pretty hard to come up with innovative, new ideas in juggling. I rarely see something new, but he surprised me when he juggled those balls of yarn for example. I think all in all he did a great job! So please people, show some respect!

This is exactly what I needed. Juggling has always fascinated me and I have always wondered, "how did someone think to throw items between their two hands in a circular manner." Now I know and can finally find peace in my life. Thanks again TED!

Cameraman. You had only one job. One job.

I wonder if that guy ever got his shoe back..

The ending was like he just got a phone call at the end of the show and his boss told him he was fired lol. He was like, YOU THINK I CANT JUGGLE?!?!? SHIIIIT WATCH THIS SHIIIIIT!!! and he just loses his mind... lol. Intriguing video and performance, though a little bizarre. That one dude was like fuck man I'm all for art but gimme back my shoe lol.

at 4:02 when he said, "it wasn't until 19 years when I asked myself why".... I was like I know right, then he says, why is the circle shaped like this. I'm done!

He is from close to where I live. I don’t think some people realize how difficult some of his tricks were.

i've never juggled before. but i'm pretty fucking sure a chainsaw is one of the essential juggling props

these camera men are awful

I think the end performance was the metaphorical translation of his life after spending 28 years juggling, it started out normal then he probably went on a massacre or offed himself after he was escorted out of the building for vandalism and shoe thievery

At the end "mercy" comes on lol

I found interesting what he said but a lot of things he does can be performed by a newbie. He doesn't seem to differenciate what it impressive/difficult from what is easy and unimpressive. That's fascinating. He's completely crazy.

A fine example of a true innovator: strange and sometimes laughable ideas, lots of energy and passion and charisma, and a performance that's less refined, a little sloppier around the edges. He's going to inspire some kid who is going to take his ideas to the next level, and create something that will BLOW PEOPLES MINDS. Think of Jake Burton and Tom Sims with the snowboard. It's now an olympic sport. Thanks Jay for your inspiration!

He mentions he spent 20,000 hours on rings, assume he did the same for balls, clubs and other stuff. So 80,000 hours total. This video of him telling us about it lasts 30 minutes and has 2.7 million views. If everyone that viewed this watched the whole thing that's 1.35 million hours. If they only watched half of it it's still 675 thousand hours... What I am getting at is that what this guy has spent his life learning has amused people for longer than its taken him to learn it. Which to me is a good sign of time well spent. That's purely on this one video as well, not taking into account how he normally uses it to put food on the table.

I want to watch a person juggling rubik cubes and solving them at the same time.

Dude is punk rock.

The essence of thinking out of the box, could be applied to anything. that is what I took from this. Good Job

20:00 I love how he casually walks up to the audience and gives the ropes without saying anything 😂

I think no one realizes how amazing he is, including me, including himself

I love how he just runs up and steals the guys shoe and hes like WTF MY SHOE!

this comment section is filled with people who have never juggled a day in their life, and don't realize how awesome this guy is.

This was not a juggling show, this was a talk on Design in juggling, at a TEDx talk. It was Awesome, question everything, sometimes to reason something is some way is chance, but how did that make a difference in what can be done? etc. and yes a some of the tricks with the new materials may not be has "hypnotic" "impressive" etc as the old tricks but again not a juggling show but a talk on design, and new materials are coming, and that trick might lead to new tricks. And it also helps us appreciate the awesomeness of the old tricks.

24:36 when you're drunk and start trying to balance the pool stick but end up breaking stuff

The people who are saying it was boring don't get the difference between European versus American styled juggling. Hell, in some juggling circles and schools, they ONLY allow using the balls and pins. They don't consider the rings any good. And if you even try to juggle something else (for example, his triangles, or the showy sort of thing, like chainsaws), you're not considered a 'pure' juggler. It's an art form. A lot of the more 'boring' tricks he did are not only hard technically, but they're prototypes. Still in development. Imagine a hammer without a claw end. The tools aren't fully understood, and they're still being improved on, and the techniques are still being modified. I was highly entertained, but then again, I've known jugglers. I pass by street jugglers every day to my work, having them pay their rent from tips off of tourists. Each one says the same thing: It's extremely hard to juggle the technical side of the craft with the art side of the craft. If its too artsy, you lose the audience. If its too 'technical' or 'basic, then you lose yourself. It has to be kept in balance if you want to make your living.

19 minutes blah and then BEASTMODE. We are lucky no baby in the audience was balanced on a chin...

I have never juggled in my life, but as a former academia employee I was really inspired by this story of going outside the box and using the experience to come back to old methods with a different perspective.

I will show your video to my children. And just hope they will see on you another role model. So many manifestations of physics, discipline and motivation were to me, simply, admirable. Highly informative. You are the best juggler I've seen, all around. Thank you very much, Ted.

wouldnt it be cool if he just started beating people with his props

This is an example of what happens when you don't have a timer to play a clown off stage and he just keeps on vamping his performance. Great show, but I imagine the organizers started to get a little on edge when the glasses and water got involved. Then the sign and oh dear...

That ending is so exuberantly chaotic and random, I was in stitches. What a clusterf*** of a talk!

That music was like someone just rang you, you answer,and they are walking about with the phone in their pocket.

Quite a few said they felt sad for him or cringed while watching. I just saw a guy who has a strong passion for what he does and obviously enjoys the fuck out of it. Have fun commuting to your 9 to 5.

If I could only apply this kind of passion somewhere in my life

This guy is just PURE FUN!!! He;s skilled, he knows his stuff inside and out, and he shares everything with the audience in an entertaining way. What more could you ask for??? 11 thumbs up.

This guy is the craziest which I ever watched on tedx.

i appreciate the intricacy of these tricks and the mastery with which they're exhibited , yet i can understand why some might find them a bit senseless . they do seem to lack something , as if we're being told how a musical instrument works without hearing it in concert ; its difficulty is obvious , but for some reason we don't care as much , because we don't feel as engaged with it as we feel we ought to be ... perhaps these are things that the averse commentators should consider, instead of just releasing blind internet hatred as is so ugly commonplace

there is a world of juggling to discover, just like in my world of speedcubing. there is people who are born to do certian things. there is a ton of things right under your nose that you dont see like the world of speedcubing, which is like the world of juggling but different.

This was awesome. How can there be so many downclicks.

When he started juggling with the wool, people started to laugh. But in fact the record, tracing of the juggling object was THE most fascinating part of the story, there was nothing to laugh about for me, just pure amazement for the idea and realization of mathematics in the art. fantastic, breathtaking when you realize the real idea behind.

17:30 is the moment you were waiting for

i love it. grand finale: destroys the place! hahahaa awesome.

wow what a beautiful video this guy is pushing the skill of juggling into an art.

"juggling is such a young art form" - Jay Gilligan "Juggling has been recorded in many early cultures including Egyptian, Nabataean, Chinese, Indian, Greek, Roman, Norse, Aztec and Polynesian civilizations." - Wikipedia

Look at that Man, with a Great Passion for His Career !! Great Man.

Chaos there has some place in the last 3 minutes of this video.

This is art! To keep your audience focused on one hobby that are booring for human eye after 2-3 min

As an avid juggler, I am impressed with his improv and choreography. It's all in the name of expression and entertainment right..

I just spent 26 minutes watching a guy talk about the history of juggling. I should get outside more

the epitome of elegance~5 stars human perfection

Me - "I can do that" *grabs somehting to juggle, drops on feet*

I liked his "drop the mic" moment at the end XD. Holy god what a trip.

Well...That escalated quickly lol

23:35 me when everything falls out of the fridge

I know Dave Finnigan, yes he used to live in Seattle and the company he was making the rings for was Juggle Bug

I remember the first time i saw Michael Moschen juggling balls in hand, in air, against the ground, and then in a trianglular structure .. then later a special showing juggling of planes, waves

for a split second i thought he was gonna go into a kanye themed juggling routine

At 20:04 I was hoping he was doing some amazing knitting so he would end up with a coaster or cup warmer. :) Maybe that's a new trick for next time?

why did i think that he was gonna run away after stealing a shoe

I loved his take on string theory 20 minutes in! :)