- Cigar box (juggling)
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Cigar boxes are popular juggling props. Their rectangular shape resembles that of its namesake; they are sometimes padded on the ends and/or the sides with a felt-like material.
Routines performed with cigar boxes include quick midair box-exchanging tricks, balancing tricks, and more. Most tricks are done with three boxes; few jugglers perform tricks with more than three boxes in their routines. Cigar boxes are a standard element of a gentleman juggler-style routine.[clarification needed]
Rather than the "flowing" style of ball juggling, cigar boxes have what is often referred to as a "stop-and-start" style. In effect, this means that after the majority of tricks the boxes return to the home position (three or more boxes in a line, smallest ends together) and stop before the juggler starts the next trick.
Most cigar box tricks are achieved by bouncing up and down (normally from the knees, keeping one's arms in the same place relative to one's body). The trick is started at the apex of the 'bounce' and the boxes are pinned in the home position on the downstroke, preferably at the same altitude at which they started. This leads to the visual effect of the boxes being connected by an invisible wire (in tricks where the boxes not involved in the trick are separate; see take out) or it can appear as if the boxes are magnetic in some way (where two boxes remain 'stuck' together in the air; see end round below). This is just an illusion; the boxes are not in any way connected.
Contents
Records
In 1977 Kris Kremo set a Guinness World Record of releasing one box and catching it after a quadruple pirouette. In 1994, Kristian Kristof broke the record by releasing all three boxes and catching them after a quadruple pirouette.
The world record for the most cigar boxes balanced is 211 boxes for 9 seconds.
Cigar Box Props
Most props made for cigar box juggling are wooden plywood boxes, which make a satisfying noise when banged together. They tend to be heavy, however, and with repeated drops on hard surfaces they will break apart. Yoga blocks ( the 3" foam kind ) are the right size and shape, practically indestructible for this use, and very quiet.
Some basic tricks
Quarter turn
Turn one of the end boxes 90°, then pin.
Half turn
Turn one of the end boxes 180°, then pin.
Middle spin
Use the outside boxes to spin the middle box 180° before catching it again. Possible in 3 different planes of rotation, the trick is generally called a helicopter when done in the horizontal plane.
Grip change
Refers to a number of tricks where the performer changes the position/orientation of his/her hands (such as changing from holding a box on top to holding it on the bottom) and can be done either gripping or releasing boxes.
Take out
This trick involves taking the middle box (either of the middle boxes if there are an even number) down out of the home position and bringing it round to become an outside box. The hand used should move in a complete circle. From the left hand, for example, you start at 9 o'clock, release the outside box, grab the middle box at 3 o'clock and bring it back round to 9 o'clock.
Lift out
Like a takeout, except that the middle box is lifted upward around the (former) end box.
Hand across
Hand an end box to the other hand, then use it to pin.
End round
Similar in style to the take-out. From home position, 'bounce up' and bring the left hand across to grab the far right box and bring it round to be pinned as the new left box in the home position. This can also be done as an 'end over', in an equivalent manner to the 'take over'.
See also
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