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.
