Chris Bliss, juggler supreme

My husband can juggle, which is just one of the many reasons I married him. Every once in a while, when he's bored, he'll look for juggling videos on YouTube. A while back, he found this video of juggler Chris Bliss, doing a choreographed juggling routine:



Every time we watch the routine, we're impressed by the way the juggling fits to the music, and even more importantly, how Bliss draws in the audience to make a simple 3-ball juggling act extremely engaging. Bliss used the 3-ball juggling routine when he opened for Michael Jackson's 1984 Victory tour, and more recently in 2006, the above video became an Internet sensation with 20 million viewings in 40 days.

Now, some jugglers were astonished that Bliss got so much publicity, since his routine was so simple.

One of these jugglers is Jason Garfield, who uses the same music as Bliss in the video below, but while juggling five balls, to show that what Bliss is doing is no big deal:



The thing is, I've never watched this video all the way through. I get bored halfway through it and shut it off. Sure, Garfield can juggle 5 balls--good for him. But he doesn't do it musically. The interesting thing in Bliss's routine is the way that his whole body actively engages the music. Garfield looks like he's concentrating too hard on not dropping a ball to even pay attention to the music.

Chris Bliss is an entertainer, while Garfield is just a juggler.