What is Cigar Box Juggling?

Series Summary

Oh, the art of juggling has mystified and amazed audiences for centuries. Early records of juggling date back to Ancient Egyptian times. Since then, juggling has evolved itself into many different forms. Where once only balls were thrown, the modern juggler may use rings, clubs, or beanbags. For those jugglers that are even more daring, dangerous items like chainsaws, knives, and fire torches are used. The modern word juggling is derived from the Middle English jogelen. While we may think of the colorful performers forced to entertain a temperamental king's court, there were many jugglers that were denounced by the overly strict religious views of the Church. Accusing jugglers of base morals, some clerical men even went so far to accuse these tricksters of witchcraft. These humble fools were only able to perform in the marketplaces, streets, fairs, and pubs of Medieval Europe. Fast forward many centuries to present time. Today, juggling has become a hobby of international attention. Now, there is a World Juggling Day and many juggling conventions. While the performing art may have transformed into a hobby, there is no denying that juggling has and always will appeal to the trickster in all of us.

In this free video series, learn how to juggle cigar boxes. Cigar box juggling has grown in popularity, and it takes a great deal of time and skill to get the hang of it. Learn how to begin juggling cigar boxes, and learn easy tricks for the first time juggler. Our expert, Emil Lamprecht, gives you tips for a variety of juggling tricks. So, what are you waiting for? Learn how to juggle cigar boxes today!

Video Transcript

"EMIL LAMPRECHT: Alright, in this series we're going to talk about cigar boxes. Now, this is a prop that's fairly new to me and I will admit, I'm not particularly great at them but I have a pretty good understanding of how to get started and I'm going to try to share that with you. Now, cigar boxes started with exactly how they sound. People started playing with cigar boxes which were wooden, light, thin, hallow boxes that you could stack in various interesting ways, you could balance once they were stacked. And people started playing with manipulation kind of exchanging three boxes back and forth just with two hands. So, it can get pretty interesting in dynamics. Today, you'll find that most performances are done with only three boxes though there are some amazingly talented professionals who do things with four or five, even more. And then they almost always finish with a nine or eleven box stacked in balance which is a very impressive trick. In this series, we're going to go over kind of the basic body movement that's involved in juggling cigar boxes and then some of the tricks to get you started and hopefully, on your way to becoming better than I am."