inventions

alright, facebook triggered me again, the topic this time trick invention and inventing tricks that already exist

INVENTIONS

So lets start some 14 years ago when i started devilsticking, i was 10 years old and after a few weeks of devilsticking i joined this youth juggling club with a trainer and 3 gorgeous girls who where significantly older than me who all have been really good at devilsticking for that time (double propeller in progress, partner devilstick tricks i´ve never seen before etc). i spend all my time on Devilsticks (took me 3 years to learn the 3ball basic cascade) and it was totally normal that i would come to my trainer severall times a training to show him the new trick i invented... which he always knew and could do. clearly that pissed me of so i would go and invent more to prove i´m awesome but what i didn´t understand back then was the following... it´s not important if someone found a trick before you, all that counts is that you found it on your own/in your own brain and therefore this trick is now yours... sure u might have to share it but i guess we can deal with that.

well things changed.. there was youtube and juggling conventions (thx markus for crushing my believes of what would be possible) and i spend some years to just find every trick out there and learn it. this have been good time but i guess around 16 or 17 years old it slowed down until i had the feeling i had learned basicly every trick out there with the exeption of some super hard 2D tricks and a few jigsaw and helicopter variants i still not like and therefore can´t do today.

while it might have been wise to just become a club juggler like everybody else at the time i started inventing again. wrist rolling and toss juggling elements have been the first thing i researched and i found lots of stuff. well there wasa one moment i still remember when i was watching florent lestages - bonobo video (if you don´t know it google it know!!!!!!!!!!) which i had seen at least 20 times before and i realised he was doing a trick i invented 2 month before. this means for 2 month i was completly convinced to be the inventor of this trick but actually the trick has been done before and i watched it in video 20 times before inventing it... i guess this was the moment (even if i didn´t realised it back then) when i stopped believing in inventing tricks but build the theory that all tricks are out there and you just have to find them. they are there already so you can´t invent them just pic them up like a beautiful flower or a strange thing that lies on the floor but you cant figure out what it is so you take a closer look.

a year or two later i finished school and went to my second ejc ever. i meet eljoh (nikkis husband awesome guy) on the first day and while we had this chat he showed me this new technique he invented but couldn´t do. "anti tic tac" i was thrilled... i practised and explored it... a lot and today ? well i havent invented it and actually i´m pretty sure some japenese stickers worked out the same technique themself at the same time but i explored it, i shared it, i uploaded videos i explored more shared more and now a few years later where at a point where i these tricks get common goods... which is awesome

fast forward to ejc toulouse i think. it was before the battlestick tournament so a group of like 30 stickers was chilling, showing of, talking, sharing when we figured out that both me and ali basicly invented the same trick in the same year without talking or sharing it in any way. none of us knew when he actually found the trick or when we were able to do it but actually i believe we found it on the same day and qualified it on the same day too... thats just how it is

i guess the same happend when me and casper both found out that 3handsticks rule and actually i´m convinced that tony pezzo had the idea around the same time

anyway so far this have been rather a collection of storys from my stick life but what do i want to tell by this ?

i´m not sure but propably the following

- you can´t invent a trick, all the tricks are out there and just have to be found
- you cat own a trick, you might be the first on to have done it verified but if somebody finds it without the knowledge of it beeing there allready he has the same right as you to call it his trick
- tricks will spread. if someones doing it, few people will do it 2 years later, some more 10 years and after 20 it will be lost or common good
 - if you believe you found a new trick, share it for gods sake most people wont know it and grumpy guys like me might tell you we already did it years ago  but were still kinda proud of you

guess that´s it (skipped out the stuff i wanted to tell about naming tricks because i have complicated feelings toward trick names) i´m not quite happy with the text, feels like i´m missing the point i wanted to tell but i can´t grap it for now so this has to do for now

old chinese picture (1888)

david cain send me this pic from 1888 yesterday... it´s beautiful, thx david

Origins of Devilstick

The origins of Devilsticks

Hey everyone, so the discussion about the origins of our beloved prop pooped up once again on facebook which motivated me to write down my thoughts on this topic

As far as i know this is the first bulletproof proof for the existence of Devilstick and it´s from 1820.

The Samme Brothers claimed to be Indians but at that time performers usually claimed to be from some exotic countrys and learned their skills from there because exotic acts could be sold very well

It´s safe to assume that devilsticks has been around for a long time before. If it has been invented and cultivated in Asia we can assume that it travelled from there to europe around 1700 when travel and trading between Europe and Asia became more common.

Two other options are that they´ve been invented by the Maya or in ancient Greek.

The Greek theorie would fit with the rumours about the name coming from greek Dia-bolos, and Mayas been pretty bad ass  so why not.

While we can´t track down the origins i believe that there are questions people forget to ask.

How and in which context could Devilstick have been invented ?

If we look at early humans history i´d say the first two tools we found were stones and sticks.

Well basicly thats all they got in the stone age, and what better way to research and learn to manipulate tools then playing with them. Even if we look at modern kids with access to television and all, i bet it´s pretty save to say that every child has at one point in his life played with a stick.

And damn… there are many ways to play with a stick… fighting (hitting two sticks together), balancing, hitting a ball with a stick (baseball, tennis, snooker), passing a stick between one and another with hands and feet (or two small other sticks held in the hands), twirling motions, juggling 3 sticks clubstyle…

i believe all of this techniques are pretty instinctiv and if we combine them with the pendulum motion that can be observed a lot in our nature… we get the basic tictoc/idle

Another things that makes me believe in early flowersticks is that a flowerstick could be build pretty easy and there could been a strong motivation to do it.

1. sticks hurt, a stick wrapped in leather or fur doesnt
2. sticks are hard to manipulate, flowersticks arent
3. sticks look lame, a decorated stick doesnt

If we look at the origins in this way i believe that people just had to find the prop and techniques to play with it and the same way two jugglers can invented the same trick without knowing each other; it´s possible that ancient stick play has more than one origin (has been invented at several places and several times) or that the combination of different styles of stick play led to this toy.

The next question i rarely heard asked is… why china ?

because it´s said everywhere but so far i have found zero proof

here are some reasons why i believe it was not invented in china

• The first juggling pics were found in Egypt.
• There´s not even a proof i am aware of that the Diabolo was invented there, only the oldest proof is from China which doesnt mean it could´ve been invented somewhere else and then was cultivated there
• Im not aware of Devilsticks as part of traditional chinese circus (which is super traditional with acts being past over and over for centuries.
• There are very few DS Players in China.
• I was there for an two week exchange as a teenager… nobody i meet had seen DS  before.

so my last question for now.

if it was invented so early, why is there this huge gap where we know nothing about ? why is it so hard to find evidence.

My theory is that it has been a “childrens game” most of the time and well, there´s no need to write a book about some kids playing with sticks in the dirt and it´s not the nicest thing to paint either. Also i believe there was a time when other tois  (better produced, easyer to play, more fun, better to play in large groups etc) just displaced flowerstick until it was found by performers/circus people and was reinvented with large knowledge about object manipulation and a motivation to do crazy stick tricks that was not only playing games but amazing people and making money out of it

i guess that was about most of my thinking on this...

feel free to discuss, comment, come up with even crazyer ideas...

One Playlist to rule them all...

Well it´s quite obvious that despite my will to write awesome articles i mainly use my blog to post any Devilstick Video that i consider to be awesome in one or the other way.

I decided to put all of them in one playlist (and i added some more that i had in an older playlist or liked over the years.

so here it is 71 videos (at the moment) and over 4 hours playtime...

have fun and a happy new year

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHmPixc2mNAtwbCahr2l8QQ1fDrc-jREC

Lukas Reichenbach - Devilstick Act

 decided to upload some old stuff... so have fun with my newest old act