Charles is an actual person I used to unicycle with. Amazing guy. Blacksmith, Unicycle Rider (Giraffe, 36″ super wheel, Mountain unicycle, you name it) and Juggler. His specialty was juggling things that were designed to be juggled while on fire. The torches you can picture- there was a handle and everything. But the burning “balls” were pretty cool. Ironic pun intended. They had a spot on either side of the “ball” that was cool enough to touch. The spots were about the size of a nickel, and there were steel springs connecting the two touchable spots that made up the open framework that was the “ball”. Inside those springs was a kind of wick that you’d soak and set on fire. These things looked amazing around dusk. Seriously amazing.
What was wild was watching this person juggle things that were clearly on fire and shouldn’t be handled because, y’know, fire is hot. So your brain sort of got mixed up.
So, one time that I was watching, Charles bobbled a catch. The flaming ball hit the ground and rolled away. One of the unicycling kids that had been watching, fascinated, tried to be helpful. He ran over to retrieve that ball, and didn’t hear anything anyone was saying to him because he was enthusiastically saying, “I got it! I got it! Is it hot?!”
That’s when he burned himself. Because of course, he reached for it like it was a baseball- overhand. And flames rise.
What Charles was telling him that he didn’t hear was- “Only touch the spots! Pick it up underneath!”
Good kid. Marquis. Did a lot of community work and earned himself a unicycle. Probably doesn’t juggle.
I can get three airborne for a back and forth for awhile, but it has to be something I can definitely grab onto. I have a small collection of these objects, and once in awhile I find something out in the world I can do that with. (I paid a lady at a quilt shop $35 for her three pattern weights that were PERFECT and I got them going… that’s the only reason she sold them) I can NOT think of messing with hot. I can deal with hot things but flipping them around, YIPE. I wonder if there are ANY repeat competitors on that event from last year????? Greg?????
As the Flying Karamasov Brothers used to put it, “‘There’s only one end of a sickle one can catch – more than once.” A statement made after one of the Brothers partially severed a finger while juggling sickles.
makes me think of my parents…not listening to shit.
“Oh god, it’s Burning Man all over again!”
I refused to do the fire sports.
*Glares at team US and points at Karmakat* you do it!
okay.
throws the fire hackey sack at you
oh…it’s not how you get points?
chuckles.
Schadenfreude fest!!
See, the trick with juggling torches is that, in addition to the handle, the wicks aren’t that conductive. It’s the metal between the two that you need to worry about accidentally grabbing. That said, if I grab a wick I drop it. The idea of intentionally having the fire part in my hand boggles my mind. (I suck at fire juggling anyhow. The flames add too much drag.)
My wife won’t let me get torches so I’m stuck with the clubs. Probably for the best as I don’t do it enough to stay good at it.