Daniel Simu - #
Plate spinning poles
Hey guys,
I got asked to do a plate spinning act this summer. I have never done any plate spinning in my life, but it sounds like a fun challenge.
Now I wonder, does anyone here have any experience with building plate spinning poles? I need to find out how to connect those poles properly to a table so that it can wobble just enough, if you have tips or ideas they would be very welcome.
And since you've all shown such cool handstand videos: What is the best plate spinning act you can think of?
I'll start with one I like, though there isn't much spinning in it ;)
https://youtu.be/FK4nh5I0jpE
Last time I went to the Nederlands JongleerFestival I went to a workshop with Amazing Marcel who was showing how to spin china plates on fixed poles. I don't know if he was the best plate spinner in the Netherlands, but he definitely told everyone he was amazing.
Daniel Simu - - Parent #
No doubt about his amazingness. I'll be talking with him coming NJF
Little Paul - - Parent #
I like David Burlet
https://youtu.be/BmPgs2XQfJ4
This Jon Anton video was posted the other day
http://juggling.tv/14632
For me it seems the thing about plate spinning acts is that they're as much about what you do in between spinning the plates. The tray/glass/spoon thing seems popular, but there's a lot else you can put in there.
Plate waltzing is a good one too, though I've never made any progress with it
Little Paul - - Parent #
And of course our very own Ian Marchant
https://youtu.be/O6X2SlOa2_0
Cedric Lackpot - - Parent #
No idea what his name was, but there was the chap on Record Breakers/Blue Peter/both when I were nobbut a lad who held/broke the world record for simultaneous spinning plates, with around 40. I'm fairly sure he used to be listed in the GBR back in the day but I doubt records like that have a very long shelf life so you might need to find an elderly copy to find out.
Little Paul - - Parent #
I remember watching that too, I've been trying to find him on YouTube - but I'm not having much luck
I remember it being very exciting watching him run all over the place correcting plates
Little Paul - - Parent #
https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/29625b1d26eb44b7bad8969a987cf04d Says "Egea Junior" in 1989 - not found any video or photos yet :(
Didn't Winston Eyebrow break this record at some point? Or am I remembering that wrongly?
Little Paul - - Parent #
https://youtu.be/pWmnc_4T0ms
Has an interesting technique (although is a little pantomime heavy on the clowning for my liking)
Daniel Simu - - Parent #
Haha, what a strange style of clowning indeed
The throwing is cool, it reminds me of these 2 guys
https://youtu.be/O4b-6TE_Qe0
Also, in the vid you posted you can see clearly they have some special tips on their poles... I suppose that wood just wears out too quickly because of the friction, but I wonder what to use instead..
About three years ago I did a gig in a black unitard with white balls stuck all over it. It was doing motion capture for a circus themed video game designed to help stroke victims regain arm movement. Basically the idea was to incorporate exercises that help to train motor skills into the required actions for a simple video game character, using nintento wii style controllers.
Anyway I digress from the point..
One of the things I did capture for was a plate spinning act. They had requested plate spinning, but had not described it in detail. So I borrowed a plastic plate and stick on the day of the gig and stuck it in my prop bag. When they asked about doing plate spinning they were expecting a full plate spinning act with a rig like the ones in this thread - which I obviously couldn't provide there and then with just a plate and a stick...
Or could I..
It was motion capture, so I suggested breaking it down into sections and letting the animators reassemble them later. We captured the motion of a plate on a stick a number of times to get a varied section of plate spin movement (which was not so easy once the plate and stick had little reflective balls stock all over them). Then did a section of effectively miming what a plate spinning act would be doing - with imaginary poles and plates. I think I might have even done capture for the drops with appropriate hamming up of the drops.
I was reminded about it reading this and went looking for the game to see if there was any video of it - and there is!
Video about the project itself:
https://youtu.be/9HhzYZWbzp8
Video of in game footage:
https://youtu.be/0vT5Xc3rW2U
Plate spinning is at about 27 seconds in.
Now bearing in mind that I've never done plate spinning on stationary poles, and we didn't have a rig - it didn't end up coming out too badly.
Oh and If you are wondering I was also the juggler, the lion tamer - and I seem to remember walking on an imaginary tight rope..
Little Paul - - Parent #
Hahahaha! Awesome!
How *do* you land these gigs?
What kind of plates are usually used? I only know of the plastic ones and metallic ones, but it sounds like porcelain.
Daniel Simu - - Parent #
I still need to experiment with this, but as far as I can tell:
Real ceramic plates. That is for sure. A lot of what you can buy in stores has a rim that is more than enough to keep your stick in the middle. I think that slightly deep plates are better, as they have more of their weight on the outside they might spin longer. That would explain why you see so many people spinning bowls also. I don't know ideal diameters for this bottom ring, but if this is a bit bigger you get a nice wobbly effect a few seconds before they drop...
In the first video I posted they use another spinning technique, which I found more videos of. I don't know if they use special plates for this, it seems weird that the plates are just able to balance on their center if there wouldn't be a bit of a hole in the center.
Little Paul - - Parent #
https://www.juggling.org/papers/stanyon/new-juggling-tricks.html has some ancient wisdom on this. Specifically in the "Ball or Plate on Stick" and "Plate and Basin Spinning" sections.
I did have a little play with this stuff ages ago (with a bit of bamboo cane clamped to the bench in my workshop, with a sawn off nail stuck in the top of it) - with a flexible stick and a small square of tape in the centre of the plate a standard ceramic plate will stay centred. However, because it stays centred, when it slows down it will fall off long before it goes "wobbly"
For that to happen, ditch the tape and use a heavy ceramic plate with a "foot" under it. You'll get a reasonably fast stable spin with the plate approximately centred, and then as it slows down it'll precess the stick out to the edge of the plate, where it'll hit the foot and you'll get a nice visual wobbly spin with the stick whipping round in a circle.
I never did anything more than an afternoon playing with it (which is why I've kept my mouth shut about that side of the question in the hope that someone knowledgable will chime in before me!)
Getting a spin started seemed easy, restoring spin to a plate which had slowed down seemed more tricky, but not something you couldn't get the knack of fairly easily.
I don't think it's "special" plates as much as it is cheap plates. Lots and lots of cheap plates. If you're performing, probably from a restaurant supply wholesaler, if you're not performing - charity shops and car boot sales!
I'm fairly sure I've seen acts use large round plastic bowls (like washing up bowls, but bigger) but I can't coax google into giving me some useful looking pictures, let alone videos.
Thanks for the long and in detail description! I will look through the paper and hopefully I'll figure it out. :)
Daniel Simu - - Parent #
What do you mean with plate waltzing? Spinning it on a table, or spinning it between your hands like Burlet does?
As for tricks in between spinning: Yes, I have been thinking of this too.
I hope to find tricks that take a lot of time to set up, but very little time to do. The spoon trick is a good example. The trick itself takes a split second so can be done at the very end, but you can keep yourself busy for ages lining all the spoons and glasses up perfectly.
Any other suggestions? All my ring spinning tricks take long to do...
Little Paul - - Parent #
Plate waltzing is the tabletop spinning, enrich brenn includes it (and 3 other classic tricks) here
https://youtu.be/Zhoos1oY404
IM trying to remember the name of the magician from the turn of the century who included plate waltzing in his act, there are photos of him waltzing bowls up a spiral ramp - which is not something I've ever seen performed!
Little Paul - - Parent #
I'm such a dullard.
John Nevil Maskelyne, his plates and ramp can be seen on this poster https://www.bl.uk/catalogues/evanion/Record.aspx?EvanID=024-000000341&ImageIndex=0 (click the image for bigger)
There's a brief video of his plate waltzing here https://youtu.be/-dZGPvBJleE - I recognise the footage, it's reconstructed from a scan of a book which includes a photographic plate that has 2 strips of film down the sides.
Interesting chap Maskelyne. He was one of the first magicians to debunk psychic phenomena - and he invented the door lock for London toilets which required the insertion of a penny coin to open the door.
Which is the origin of the euphemism to "spend a penny"
mike.armstrong - - Parent #
I thought you were going to mention Signor Blitz who was a magician and juggler in the 19th century (and was possibly the first ventriloquist to use a dummy) - he was so well known that it was worth writing a waltz, slapping his name on it and selling sheet music - https://www.crownantiques.com/item.cgi?item_id=15710 - with a picture of the plate waltzing at the top.
Little Paul - - Parent #
Coo! I recognise the name in conjunction with ventriloquism, but was unaware of his plate waltzing :)
mike.armstrong - - Parent #
It's good to know that you read and absorbed the plate section that i wrote on trickswithhats.org ;-)
I once read on the internet somewhere (so it must be true) that there were half a dozen people (mis)using the Blitz name, while he was still working, to cash in on his success! I think one of the fakes even got a New York Times obituary, despite the real guy dying several years before...
Cheers
-Mike
Little Paul - - Parent #
I can't be expected to remember everything I hosted on the Internet a thousand years ago :P
Little Paul - - Parent #
A couple of months back, a series of events (which I'm deeply annoyed about) led to me losing control of the domain name, it's currently being squatted by a rather dubious looking firm who seem to want an astonishing amount of cash to get it back.
An amount of cash Mike and I are not willing to stump up to re-gain control of a site that hadn't had any meaningful updates in almost a decade :/
The content is available on archive.org, and I've got a vague plan to spin up a youtube channel to re-host all the videos in one place in an attempt to make some of it available again - although I've not quite got around to sorting that out yet.
Oh, that sounds like a real PITA. :-(
Well, we'd be happy to see a new JTV user appear, should you get around to rehosting.
Hmmm. I might email you about that....
I really enjoyed this lovely ball spinning act found in the related videos o one of these:
https://youtu.be/Y7pUlJc5Kpw
He makes it look very easy!
Also whenever I see a rack of plate spinning poles I wonder whether I'm about to see a plate spinning act or a dog agility demonstration. Has anyone ever combined the two?
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