Jason Garfield

Stolen Material & Hack Alert

Recently it has come to the attention of the juggling community that many well respected performers are having their material stolen and performed without their permission. The following is a list of routines and the names of their creators. If you see anyone other than the people listed below performing their corresponding routines, contact the Bogus Ethics of Nefarious Jugglers Incorporated (B.E.N.J.I.)

Stolen Acts :: Routine Copyrights :: Lies/Deceit/Deceptions

UPDATE:
Extreme Juggling Knock Off Competition

Unfortunately Ben Tolpin and Jack Kalvan have taken the WJF Freestyle Competition concept and are presenting it as their own competition at IJA festivals. I feel this is not only intellectual property theft, but also extremely insulting as they refuse to acknowledge it is an original WJF concept and they are competing with the WJF to get their version of our event televised. We cannot stop anyone from participating in their event, however we will no longer allow anyone to compete in WJF competitions who competes in Ben Tolpin and Jack Kalvan's Extreme Juggling Competition. I hope you can understand the reason for this decision on our part and feel good about participating in the WJF competitions without the need to support those who have stolen our intellectual property for their own agenda. Thank you for taking the time to read this and for your understanding. For the full story, please listen to episode three of the Jason Garfield Show podcast.

Bounce Piano Theft, Triangle Juggling Theft, and a Hack/Thief Wanna Be

New thieves brought to our attention:

David Cruz, Rejean St. Jules, and Wally Eastwood

David Cruz
http://jugglingbydavid.com
David Cruz started off working on a cruise ship and saw all these hack jugglers coming on the ship and doing the same routines and making more money than he was. Unethical as all the cruise ship jugglers were, David assumed that all their material was fair game and didn't see why he couldn't do the same. He proceeded to videotape all the juggling acts and learn their best lines and routines, learned the easy 3 ball tricks that went along with them, and continues to go to as many juggling performances as possible to search for more material that he can steal. This is a new breed of hack and thief. Not one that learned how to juggle and then was tempted to steal material to make money, but rather one who learned how to juggle with the intention of becoming a hack/thief juggler for the sole purpose of making money. We strongly recommend nobody ever let him in to a juggling show or event.

Rejean St. Jules
Rejean St. Jules has stolen Michael Moschen's "Triangle Juggling" in which he stands inside a triangle and bounces balls against the inner walls. The same unethical practice is in effect here as in the bounce piano theft. More over, he's introduced as the world's most innovative juggler. Unless innovation is synonymous with theft, he's not only being unethical for stealing the triangle juggling routine, but he's also taking credit for the invention of it. A show review had this to say about the thief, "One of the highlights of the evening was master juggler, Rejean St. Jules. His unique take on juggling, brightened the evening considerably. He kept the audience intrigued and engaged. He was a joy to watch." Don't be tempted by the dark side. It's very easy to steal others ideas and get credit for them as if they're your own. We consider this unethical. Do the work, be creative so that you can be pissed at others who steal your material.

Wally Eastwood
Wally Eastwood has gained internet fame with a show clip in which he has stolen Dan Menendez's bounce piano creation. Why is that stealing? Because the bounce piano was an idea that Dan created and had built FIRST. The hard part was coming up with the idea. Now Wally is using Dan's original invention to make money for himself, rather than creating his own original routine. And for those of you who think he had to learn the skill of being able to hit the right notes, I'm sorry to have to inform you that it's sequenced and he's only playing the tempo, which just happens to work well with a 5 ball basic bounce pattern tempo. It doesn't matter where the balls bounce as long as it's somewhere on the keyboard. It's the equivalent to a baby banging their hands on a piano, if they happened to bang at the right speed. We at B.E.N.J.I. consider this theft very unethical.
Again, we all encourage you to create your own original routines and not steal from others who do put in the time to be creative and original. One of the reasons why our audiences think all jugglers are the same is because of all the hacks and thieves stealing routines and performing them as if that's the only thing we do.

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Routine Copyrights

Routine 1: Reading a letter from lefty followed by the juggling of Bowling Balls

Creator:   Michael Davis ©1981 Performed on Saturday Night Live

Routine 2: Passing 6 clubs, saying,"...a flawless display of 6 club passing"
drop a club. "Using 5 clubs." Following that, most often is the use of the
phrases,"Panther like reflexes" and "grip of steel"
Bonus thief points if the performers changes his voice to try to
sound like Dan Holzman after the club is dropped.

Creators:  The Raspyni Brothers ©1980
Performed on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in 1984

Routine 3: Having a volunteer put a ball or beanbag or anything on
the performers foot, the performer then kicking up the ball to add
to their juggling pattern, and then throwing one or more balls to
the volunteer who is waiting to catch the ball in a net. Also included
is the throwing of the objects over the volunteer's heads while they
bend over to put an additional object on the performers foot.

Creator:   Jason Garfield ©1997

Routine 4: Juggling ping pong balls with the mouth and then
saying anything similar or identical to the phrase,
"If I swallow these it will hurt, twice."

Creator:   Michael Davis ©1978
First performed on television in 1979 on HBO's Young Comedians

Routine 5: Referring to the number of juggled objects as more objects in Canadian.

Creator:   Mark Nizer ©1986 Cafe Conc, Montreal

WHO'S A HACK?

The following are routines that are too old to pinpoint who originally
created them. However, in the juggling community, if you are performing
these routines you are considered to be at least partly a hack.
The percentage of your entire act that is made up of hack material
determines the percentage of how much of a hack you are.


1. Juggling while eating an apple.
2. Passing around a volunteer and knocking something out of their mouth.
3. Juggling Chainsaws
4. Juggling Knives
5. Juggling fire (Torches)


Whereas these bits may be hack, some performers have created their own
lines to accompany the hack bits. In this case, some credit is given,
depending on how creative they have been with the old premise. However,
most jugglers have stolen the premise and the stock lines that go with
them or have stolen someone else's creative new lines to accompany the
old routine. It has become as easy as learning how to juggle 3 objects,
a beginners level, and then memorizing someone else's lines and you
too can be a hack juggler and work on cruise ships.
This is unacceptable.

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LIES/DECEIT/DECEPTION

Some performers lie about their accomplishments. Some will say that the world record for the most amount of balls juggled is 7 or even 5, so that they can give you the illusion that they can juggle the most objects and are important. Below are the current juggling records you should memorize:

Balls/ beanbags: 10 juggled, 12 flashed
Rings: 11 juggled 13 flashed (with gloves on)
Clubs (The things you think are bowling pins) 8 juggled
This website does not recognize the juggling or flashing of sticks.
Why not straws or slivers of hay? Let's draw the line somewhere.

Most hack jugglers juggle no more than 5 balls and 4 clubs. Most good jugglers perform the juggling of 7 balls, 7 rings and 5 clubs. An exceptional few perform 9-10 rings and 7 clubs. Nobody can juggle 30 balls. And tell your stupid kid that a million isn't possible either.

Myths that performers will try to get you to believe:

Juggling Fire is dangerous.

No, juggling while you are on fire is dangerous. Unless you douse yourself in gas before juggling, there is no risk of danger while juggling torches, even if you catch the torch on the wrong end. If you continue to hold it after you've caught it on the wrong end, that could hurt. So don't do that.

Juggling Knives is dangerous

Well, if you actually juggle sharp knifes or machettes, there is more of a danger factor than juggling torches. However, 99% of jugglers juggle dull knives which are almost safer to catch on the blade. If you are juggling sharp knives, unless you're a crappy juggler, juggling 3 or 4 knives is not any harder than juggling 3 or 4 clubs, hence is not dangerous. If someone were to juggle 5 sharp knives, depending on their skill level I may say, "That's kind of dangerous." But no less than 5.

Juggling chainsaws is dangerous.

If you go through the trouble to rig the trigger so that the chain is actually running while you juggle them, yeah, juggling chainsaws is dangerous, especially if you do 5. However, much like knives, jugglers who juggle chainsaws juggle them while the motor is running, but not the blade. Regardless, jugglers who juggle chainsaws are only doing so to compensate for their lack of technical ability and / or to lengthen their show with a standard crowd pleaser. It is more difficult to juggle three chainsaws than it is to juggle three clubs because they are usually heavier, but not harder than juggling 5 balls.

Juggling Bowling Balls is Hard and/or Dangerous

Only if you don't know how to juggle. Most jugglers juggle the lightest bowling balls on the planet, some have them custom made to be light. If benji holds more than 1.5 pounds at a time per hand his wrists snap like the wrist of a 5 year old boy with her hand stuck in the spokes of a Harly Davidson as it tests its 0-60. So juggling bowling balls is performed as if it is difficult, but it is not. Sorry.

To summarize, when you see a person juggling torches, knives, chainsaws, bowling balls or fruit, it is not dangerous, it is not difficult. They tell you so, and you believe it because I am not there to tell you otherwise. Ask them if juggling 7 balls or 5 clubs behind the back is more difficult than their stunts and tell me what they say. If they say no, they're lying. Also let me just add that a juggler who juggles dangerous props does not make a more skilled juggler, just one who doesn't want to practice anymore and would rather fool the audience into thinking that he is better than he is with the same skill level. I.E. A juggler juggles 3 clubs. Another juggler juggles 3 clubs with 8 ounce nuclear bombs attached to them. Same skill level.

One is more nervous than the other,

and so is his audience.

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