From cdw10@cix.compulink.co.uk Tue Mar 28 04:20:31 GMT 1995 Article: 18541 of rec.juggling Newsgroups: rec.juggling Path: hal.COM!nntp-sc.barrnet.net!netsys.com!nntp-ucb.barrnet.net!agate!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!pipex!uknet!cix.compulink.co.uk!usenet From: cdw10@cix.compulink.co.uk ("C Wright") Subject: Magnus Nicholls Message-ID: Organization: Datawave Technology Ltd. Date: Mon, 27 Mar 1995 18:48:49 GMT X-News-Software: Ameol Lines: 60 The following quotations are from several sources. I'm still playing catchup and haven't got all the references. Sorry. > It is likely that Nicholls was the first to juggle 5 clubs, made > of thin but solid white pine, though his work with plates, cups, > and candelabras led to his most spectacular tricks. I found it intriguing that I never found any reports of Nicholls juggling significant numbers of balls. It seems likely that he could do spectacular things with almost any number of balls up to seven, but reports are vague. Perhaps he concentrated on the other objects because he knew they would be of better value in performance. > He reported that time and time again the great man would run > through every move in his routine, but without using any props - > moving his hands and body as if the balls and knives were there, > but concentrating on form and style. It was after reading this many years ago that I wondered about the value of miming routines. After all, if the truly great do it then surely there *must* be something in it. As a result I tried learning Mills Mess by miming it constantly first. Fast and slow, with and without balls in my hands, I mimed until my muscles would do the movements of their own accord. And it worked. When I started trying MM proper it came very quickly. I owe this to Nicholls, and still use the technique. > It's sad that with his life long desire for publicity that Magnus > should be so little known today. A major reason for this dates > back to the time that Magnus's son Pierre met one of the most > widely known authorities on the history of juggling. They went > out to dinner together, and when Pierre offered to split the bill > rather than paying it all, the historian became so annoyed that > he removed all references to Magnus from his work. It never ceases to amaze me what pettiness and greed can lead to. > I wish I knew what his routine consisted of. None of the things I > read about him said anything specific, just debated its heretical > nature. Apparently, noone could bring themselves to discuss it in > print. If anybody knows anything more about it, please let me > know. It would be a shame if one of the few great thematic > juggling routines were lost in history. I did hear that some of his ball routines incorporated some magic principles and involved the apparent vanishing and production of balls in the middle of routines. This will certainly have helped him to maintain the "Satanic" theme. With so few good jugglers to watch him perform it is unclear how many balls he did juggle. Reports do seem to say that he did six or seven, but that at times there seemed only to be five, four or even just three, with no clue as to where the others went. Mind you, as we all know, non-jugglers are notoriously unreliable as to counting balls in the air, though, so we'll never know. Dr C.D. Wright, speaking for himself and no-one else. Ask me about JuggleKrazy