From cnslt038@phibro.com Sat Apr  1 04:20:29 GMT 1995
Article: 18665 of rec.juggling
Newsgroups: rec.juggling
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From: cnslt038@phibro.com (Doug Harris)
Subject: Re: Magnus Nicholls centennial
Message-ID: <9503311932.AA03526@mail0181.Phibro.COM>
Sender: juggling@pnfi.forestry.ca
Reply-To: cnslt038@phibro.com
Organization: Petawawa National Forestry Institute, Canadian Forestry Service
Date: Fri, 31 Mar 1995 19:34:34 GMT
Lines: 40

During Nicholls' tour of China in 1911 (1913?) he passed through Hangzhou  
and gave a special performance for the Westerners living there who were sick  
of seeing nothing but diabolo.

My grandmother (who grew up in Hangzhou as a missionary brat) was among  
those in attendance.  Because she had moved to China when she was very  
young, she had never seen toss juggling before.  Like other grandparents  
mentioned in recent postings, I'm sure she wasn't quite clear about just how  
many numbers were being juggled.

Her recollections about his diabolo tricks were a little better though,  
since she had seen enough diabolo to know the standard tricks when she saw  
them.  Like the rest of his act, Nicholls' diabolo work was not standard.

Like some recent diabolists, Nicholls liked doing stickless diabolo.   
Nicholls took this one step further -- he got rid of the string as well.  He  
generated speed by spinning the diabolo on his finger (the same idea as  
ball spinning).  After generating sufficient speed, he let the diabolo loose  
on his body.  He rolled from arm to arm, behind the neck, and most other  
places where one could imagine a diabolo rolling (and though he didn't do it  
in the show my grandmother saw, I'd guess that for extra special occasions  
he rolled it to the one place you're all imagining).  It all led up to the  
finale.

The finale trick started with a high toss and a single pirouette.  He  
caught the diabolo on his right middle finger and let it roll down his arm,  
down his back, down his outstretched right leg to the foot.  At this point,  
the right leg was now circling its way around the rest of the body in  
cartwheel.  The diabolo went up over the toe and back up the front of the  
body as the cartwheel continued.  It reached his chest about the same time  
as the cartwheel finished.  A swift move of the neck rolled the diabolo  
behind his neck.  One last neck flip and the diabolo is in the air again.   
Another pirouette, a flashy catch, and a bow.

Let's see Martin Mall do that.

doug

.sig trying diabololess diabolo