This week, MoM, has launched its multi-squadrillion pound, international advertising campaign to promote the high fibre goodness of our book Multiball Contact.

By Playpoi Nick, with assistance from Ronan and G. Thanks guys. Laughs.

Multiball Contact can help slimming only as part of a calorie controlled diet, may contain traces of nuts.

News Flash:
Play Juggling just phoned us to announce that the new Sil-X 100mm is now in production.

The Ministry are super excited about these as we were involved in their development, and had the first 2 pre-production prototypes in November.
Drew developed his dream ball, then handed it over to J9 and Ed for testing and refinement.*

Review coming soon, but the pre-review says: Buy one. If you are into 1 ball contact juggling especially body rolling, this thing can double your consistency!

*Nope, we don’t get any money for it, but, like you we do get to play contact with a lovely ball.

JTV link

Here it is, Folks!! The video we’ve all been waiting for! Proof that it happened!

MEGA thanks to Moon for putting this together, and MEGA thanks to all who star innit… Moon says, sorry about the wait, hope you like it!! I’d say definitely worth the relatively short wait. I can’t imagine it was easy to decide what footage to cut and what to keep…

As for the content… Do I really need to go into details?

It’s been a few days now, Anyone got any info?
Got withdraw symptoms? Shaking hands/cold sweat/Cold turkey.
Post comment below to join the Contact jugglers Anonymous support group meeting. but don’t mention Vi*gra or the spam filter will eat you.

I guess a lot of people are wanting to know what happened, huh?

Well, My head is still reeling. The workshops were IMMENSE. Hmmm… Those capital letters aren’t big enough for that word…

Once again, the bar has been raised for Contact Juggling, Only this time, the ground is nowhere in sight. According to feedback given, the workshops were highly valuable and informative, with ALL skill levels involved, and everybody able to take away valuable knowledge and inspiration in order to keep busy for years to come. I have seen the future (of Contact Juggling) and it is good. I’m going to be keeping a close eye on several people… Close friendships were formed, and re-formed, with everybody leaving at the end of the 5days a little tired, loaded with information, and sore facial muscles from all the smiling.

Moon’s Multiball Teachings… well, he blew MY mind. And I thought I’d seen it all. Kelvin’s vast knowledge, experience, and amazing personality made his workshops extremely fun and valuable. Jeanine’s approach to bodyrolling, creating routines, and learning in general was greatly sought after and helped so many people get to grips with so much information. Colin’s dancing classes really helped students to think more about their body, and my isolation classes and small numbers multiball workshops helped students understand many fundamental ideas behind what we do, and then to take those ideas, and take them further, in any direction they chose. The only problem, was that there were too many activities to choose from each day!

As well as structured classes, there were more open, exploratory sessions for routine building, The use of the Katakomben for the duration, and far too much skill sharing and inspiring to shake several sticks, poi, balls, arms and indeed anything else we could get our hands on, at. ‘Extra Curricular Activities’ included trips to Berlin city centre, the Jewish Memorial, and various vietnamese and falafel restuarants, where civilians had no idea what to make of over 15 people walking along the streets, and travelling the trains with a ball sat on their heads… Some lovely filming was done by many people, with Moon making the official Ministry Berlin Video.

The katakomben were extremely pleased with how well their Largest and most popular workshop ever (!!!) panned out, that the management have already asked if we want to do another one…

In summary, We did good. Real good. Really, so much happened, that one post is not enough to do it justice. You’re gonna have to wait for the video. Meanwhile, I need more sleep in order for my blown mind to heal…

Innit.

Ok, people, it’s that time you’ve all been waiting for. The following information is getting me all excited, and I’m gonna be teaching some of the workshops. As many of you are aware, Drew and Ryan are unable to make it to Berlin. But all is not lost. far from it….

I’d like to welcome Kelvin Kalvus, and Emanuele ‘Moon’ Marchione to our line up of expert teachers.

Moon will be conducting larger numbers multiball lessons, in Drew’s place. Moon comes very highly recommended from Drew, and I for one am really looking forward to working with him. Smaller numbers (3/4/5 ball) will be conducted by me (Ed). Between us, we will be sending away students at the end of the workshop with enough knowledge and inspiration to keep any multiball manipulator busy for years.

Kelvin will be teaching two ball bodyrolling, along with many other techniques that make Kelvin the Contact Juggling Legend that he is today. Really, honestly, “The Kelvin-ator” - I don’t need to say more.

As well as these two new teachers, we have the bodyrolling expertise of Jeanine Ebnother, who will show you that your only limit is your imagination, and get you rolling balls in places and ways that you never dreamed you’d actually be doing..

The 3rd area of the workshop, I intend to blow your minds with illusion goodness, based on extensive research into ball and body isolations assisted by special guest and good friend of the Ministry; Colin Daniel.

So, who’s excited now? I know I am.

Sat 19th Jan it’s Bristols Other Bristol Juggling convention.
I’m planning to drag myself away from my desk for long enough to teach a 1 ball contact/bodyrolling for beginners workshop in the afternoon.
Convention is cheap entry and workshops are free.
Wanna come?

Oh my goodness this had me laughing so hard yesterday.
Here is the original thread on contactjuggling.org where Radiologic discovered the mistake (likely a web designer working too fast.. the image has been corrected now). Thanks to Carver for capturing the image before they changed it.

Starring: Maksim Komaro, Ville Walo and special guest appearance by Jay Gilligan. (OMG, Legends!)

Ok, let’s have a look at the box. Hmmm… recorded in 2000… my mind immediately thinks Old School. maybe this won’t be so interesting…

Now that I finally worked out how to use that ancient piece of machinery, the “VCR” I can sit and watch this. (To be fair, it is an OLD copy that i borrowed from Drew)

ok, Let’s go.

This video is Brilliant, with a capital ‘B’. I’d probably use smily faces to dot the ‘I’s as well.

very much a toss juggling video. with a few contact tricks thrown in for good measure, but thrown in CLEVERLY. not just filling space, but they fit in there, you know? The video is made up of lots of sketches. this works. I don’t get bored watching the same background again and again, the same situation, there’s variation in more than just the way the balls are moving or being thrown. IT STILL HAS MY ATTENTION AFTER TEN MINUTES!! which I must say, every other DVD I have watched has failed to keep my full, constant attention.

the backgrounds are fun and vibrant, with a very cartoony feel to them. There’s a nice mixture of outside filming, home video and studio shots, but, get this, a studio with a decent set! the Sketches give us the feeling we’re following Maksim and Ville during a normal day. Hurrah. a story, and it’s educational! Win! the sketches change between tutorial format, and busting out some crazy sh*t in a web video style, to more lighthearted juggling comedy sketch: Things like bounce juggling in a toilet cubicle, and accidentally dropping one down the pan…

the teaching style… Most of the teaching is in an ‘inspiration’ format. there is a lot of Maksim and Ville hanging out in various places and showing off some amazing stuff. during the tutorial structured sections, we first see the trick with one ball for a little while, then the second ball added in… then the third. uses different coloured balls so you can see what each ball is doing easily. complete with slow-mo shots, very useful. feels crammed into a small place, but useful. I guess this is gonna stop us from trying to copy exactly the examples given, instead of playing around and discovering for ourselves. either that, or they plan to wear out the forward and backward mechanism on my already frail VCR. Titles are always popping up, ready to tell us the name of a move.

one thing that does distract from the tutorial, is whenever Maksim is teaching something, Ville is always somewhere, doing some crazy or silly stuff that grabs you by the eyes and won’t let go. There is a lot of stuff in this video that is a case of watch again and again and try to copy, without any explanations or details being given. examples here are things like head rolls, rolling around the floor with headrolls (Ville, Insane!!) some complicated body throws. But hey, this video is gonna last, and be watched again and again. The short routines done by the artists gradually progress in difficulty, climaxing with some really tight and mind blowing juggling from these members of the juggling hall of fame. Maksim’s last routine is exceptionally good.

The Material. Oh. My. God. this will keep any juggler busy for YEARS. And I really do mean YEARS. from the basic three ball cascade all the way up to insane stuff i can’t even begin to comprehend. we have toss tricks, siteswaps, headrolls, bounce juggling, body throws, arm rolls, catches, starts… All it’s missing are things like body and footcatches. The section of combining 3ball toss and arm rolling is particularly interesting for contact jugglers. The appearances of Jay Gilligan are done very well and fit the style beautifully, and add an extra bit of fun to the video. the high level of skill from these jugglers means that the tricks are done in a style that shows control, and comfort doing these difficult manipulations. No fumbled tricks here!

It’s easy to see some thought and care went into the production of this video. Well made, well put together, well presented. There’s a written breakdown (a contents list) of the tricks available from HERE to make life just that little bit easier. yay!

video gets a 8.5/10 from me. Would be a ten out of ten, but I feel it could give a few more handy hints along the way. Way higher rating than I thought it would get, when I first looked at the box. An oldy, but a goody too. Goes to show, don’t judge a juggling video by it’s cover!

This is now available in DVD format, from www.peapot.net and all good juggling stores. I say, a good investment.

The Ministry of Manipulation are collaborating with Jonglier Katakomben in Berlin to bring you a five day Ball Contact and Manipulation workshop.

Dates: 7-8-9-10-11th February 2008
Location: Jonglier Katakomben, Berlin.

Teachers:
Ryan Mellors (Canada) [TBC]
Jeanine Ebnother (Switzerland)
Ed Adams (UK)

* Special guests: Moon, Colin (TBC)

Cost 180 euro.
Places be limited.
Accommodation: [TBC]

Edit:(27/01/08) Drew Batchelor (UK) Regrets to announce that he cannot make it.

All aspects of contact juggling covered, from bodyrolling, isolationism, and multiball contact to presentation techniques, fitting moves together, as well as exploration sessions and much, much more…

We aim to teach good manipulation technique in a fashion that becomes fun and easy to digest for all levels of skill. Expect a lot of people to get rather good, rather quickly.

More information will be available soon.

EDIT: More info available now.

To book a space on this workshop, please email info at jonglierkatakomben dot de
Whilst their workshops page hasn’t been updated, they are taking bookings
Hope to see you there!

The Ministry is pleased to announce a new member to our crew. Moon will be writing for us this winter!

As many of you know, the Ministry of Manipulation was born in a London circus studio called the Hangar, and the Hangar came to an end because the site was needed for development for the London 2012 Olympic Games. In June 2007 the Hangar closed its doors and is currently scheduled for demolition.

Previous Links:
The End of the Hangar
Welcome to the Hangar

I’m happy to announce the first stage of Hangar 2; a new warehouse space has been aquired and it looks like it is going to be an AMAZING studio!