no Beard at Serious

[oldfool]

For my 61st birthday, I was going to finally get clubs after two years
of using 1.25" fiberglass tubes with end caps and a whiffle ball for a
bulb-end to see. However, I failed to get back tosses worked out, and
was getting hit a lot especially with 2-in-1's and overs (almost lost
a tooth too, glasses scratched, etc.), was tired of spending so much
time with no future at all, and instead quit juggling completely.
Dismantled the dangerous club-thingies so I couldn't use them, tossed
out pounds of home-made balls, never read this webgroup, and got a
piano keyboard as compensation.

About the time I was starting to work on Scott Joplin, I happened to
find the old tossing tubes in the shed, and, well, wondered if after a
year, it was all gone, or maybe.... Would you believe, that it was
not all gone. And without the big bouncy balls on the ends, they were
a lot easier to do badly. So, for my 62nd birthday, I was going to
finally get real clubs, hoping that they would somehow make learning
back tosses and overs easier. I dug up old posts at this webgroup
about buying clubs, and partly on MF's assurance (a.k.a. Fergie is old
too, and a great--well, good, juggler), called Serious Juggling to
order three of the Beard Circus Specials (BCS) still at $15 which
helped make the decision again.

I was told they were back-ordered, it would be some wait and they
would email. But, their price was a major part of deciding to finally
buy real clubs. So, for a month (a month), I was back to practicing
every day and looking for an email from Serious. And I was finally
getting some back tosses, and doing Tennis no prob with even
occasional bits of Rev. Casc. No triples, because with no bright
bulb-end to see, duhh, I couldn't see it coming. So I called Serious
Juggling again, and was told they were still waiting on their big
shipment from Beard, it may be another four weeks.

Another month!? Having already missed my b.day, I emailed Beard,
asking about their costs and possibility of getting a small order. A
nice lady emailed me right back and said they never were out of BCS,
it was Serious that had been badly out of money and so sent no orders
at all. She included a link to MagicGeek.com and their price for BCS
was $20 with same day delivery, and the BCS set was available at
JugglingStore.com for the same $60 and instant delivery (these two
seem to be connected somehow).

I called Serious Juggling, and the nice man was full of persistently
pleasant courteous "explanations" and the small statement that they
have 500 items in their catalogue that they cannot deliver. There was
some mention of fraud, bait and switch, just plain lies, but not by
the very nice man who was still saying "You don't understand..." when
I hung up. SO: did I then immediately order my very long awaited
gorgeous colored proper clubs from Magic Geek or Juggling Store?
Well...almost, real close, just a click away.

I'm figuring, it's now going to cost like $70 with shipping for just
three; and after all, I /was/ already doing more back tosses etc. So,
what I did, was try wrapping the bulb ends of my old tubes with a 4"
strip of some small-cell bubble wrap that was lying around. It
becomes quite white in layers, even sparkly in the sun and shows axial
spin like laser deco, is a tad heavier (still ~7 oz. like BCS) with
clear tape to secure it so "balanced" more like real clubs, does not
bounce at all and rather nice to miscatch, and not fat enough to
prevent my still clumsy overs. Tadahh: I stepped to triples again!

Lord, how did I miss this for a whole year! Found my good balls, MM
and 4fount right away, working towards five again. Buy real clubs,
finally? Nahh. But for anyone hoping for Beard Circus Specials for
the $15 come-on at seriousjuggling.com -- be advised that SERIOUS
JUGGLING CAN DELIVER NO BEARD PRODUCTS. There is a patient
explanation, ad infinitum, but no Beard products at Serious Juggling.


p.s.: I recommend to all club beginners: thin bulb is better. My
bubble wrap is less than 70 mm, big enough to see but not in the way.
Heavy is bad; and un-tapered comfortable handles are superb.

p.p.s.: the webpage for clubs at both Magic Geek and Juggling Store do
list all three measurements necessary for a sensible decision: length,
weight, and diameter. Finally! Thank you!

[Michael Ferguson]

In article <***@posting.google.com>
***@wmconnect.com (oldfool) wrote:
[...]

Post by oldfool
So, for my 62nd birthday, I was going to
finally get real clubs, hoping that they would somehow make learning
back tosses and overs easier. I dug up old posts at this webgroup
about buying clubs, and partly on MF's assurance (a.k.a. Fergie is old
too, and a great--well, good, juggler), called Serious Juggling to
order three of the Beard Circus Specials (BCS) still at $15 which
helped make the decision again.

[... rant, etc. snipped ...]

Yes, I am old. Not as old as you, you old fool, but old none-the-less.
Being old I sometimes have trouble recalling the past. I mean, the
past, geez, there's SO much of it. (Sorry, I was starting to go off on
a tangent there. That's another sign of old age, you know.) Anyway,
I've spent the better part of the past 20 seconds sitting here trying to
remember if I had ever assured readers of rec.juggling that it would be
a good idea to buy Beard Circus Specials from Serious Juggling, as your
somewhat ambiguous writings (above) seem to imply. I'll be damned if I
could recall anything like that.

Then my old brain awakened (maybe it was that story in today's Trib
about the Google IPO) and I remembered that you can actually use your
computer to find stuff that was posted in newsgroups in ancient times.
So off I went to http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search?hl=en
and typed in "fergie beard circus" and "rec.juggling" and up popped some
links to old rec.juggling posts that I'd made about Beard Circus
Specials. Of course, none of those old posts implied what you seem to
have implied (above), but gosh, it sure was fun reliving the past.
Those were the days, huh?! Boy, these kid jugglers today just don't
know what they're missing.

Anyway, where was I? (Sorry, I lost my train of thought there because I
had to go pee. When you're old you have to do that a lot. But, you old
fool, you probably already know about that, don't you?) So, uh, let's
see... oh, yes, this thing about Serious Juggling ... not my fault! I
didn't tell you to go there and buy them.

However, for the record (again!, and, btw, records are what it's all
about these days, ain't it?) I do like my Beard Circus Special clubs
that I bought from Butterfingers in 1996 at the BJC in Edinburgh,
Scotland. I'd probably go off and juggle them right now if I could
remember where I put them. I always liked those old coots at
Butterfingers too, for that matter. Of course, the tendonitis that I
got from juggling those clubs at that convention was pretty muchly all
Butterfinger's fault, but I don't hold that against them. Not anymore
anyway. I mean, I'd even forgot about all that until just now.


Respectfully submitted,

[Huoziwang]

This is just the kind of thing that is not consturcitve. I've used serious
juggling many times with not half a problem, I would highly recommend them.

----== posted via www.jugglingdb.com ==----

[Little Paul]

Post by oldfool
For my 61st birthday, I was going to finally get clubs after two years
of using 1.25" fiberglass tubes with end caps and a whiffle ball for a
bulb-end to see.

Welcome back Mr Lloyd Ramsey! I, for one, have missed your deluded
paranoid rantings, wild accusations and misunderstood notions of
"science"

I'll look forward to more of your posts in the comming months!

*hugs and kisses*

-Paul
PS - I've not dealt with seriousjuggling much, but when I have they've
always been very helpful and have accomodated some very unusual requests.
If they've had a problem supplying beard equipment recently, I'm sure
they have very good reasons.

[nice lady]

Post by oldfool
For my 61st birthday, I was going to finally get clubs after two years
of using 1.25" fiberglass tubes with end caps and a whiffle ball for a
bulb-end to see. However, I failed to get back tosses worked out, and
was getting hit a lot especially with 2-in-1's and overs (almost lost
a tooth too, glasses scratched, etc.), was tired of spending so much
time with no future at all, and instead quit juggling completely.
Dismantled the dangerous club-thingies so I couldn't use them, tossed
out pounds of home-made balls, never read this webgroup, and got a
piano keyboard as compensation.
About the time I was starting to work on Scott Joplin, I happened to
find the old tossing tubes in the shed, and, well, wondered if after a
year, it was all gone, or maybe.... Would you believe, that it was
not all gone. And without the big bouncy balls on the ends, they were
a lot easier to do badly. So, for my 62nd birthday, I was going to
finally get real clubs, hoping that they would somehow make learning
back tosses and overs easier. I dug up old posts at this webgroup
about buying clubs, and partly on MF's assurance (a.k.a. Fergie is old
too, and a great--well, good, juggler), called Serious Juggling to
order three of the Beard Circus Specials (BCS) still at $15 which
helped make the decision again.
I was told they were back-ordered, it would be some wait and they
would email. But, their price was a major part of deciding to finally
buy real clubs. So, for a month (a month), I was back to practicing
every day and looking for an email from Serious. And I was finally
getting some back tosses, and doing Tennis no prob with even
occasional bits of Rev. Casc. No triples, because with no bright
bulb-end to see, duhh, I couldn't see it coming. So I called Serious
Juggling again, and was told they were still waiting on their big
shipment from Beard, it may be another four weeks.
Another month!? Having already missed my b.day, I emailed Beard,
asking about their costs and possibility of getting a small order. A
nice lady emailed me right back and said they never were out of BCS,
it was Serious that had been badly out of money and so sent no orders
at all. She included a link to MagicGeek.com and their price for BCS
was $20 with same day delivery, and the BCS set was available at
JugglingStore.com for the same $60 and instant delivery (these two
seem to be connected somehow).
I called Serious Juggling, and the nice man was full of persistently
pleasant courteous "explanations" and the small statement that they
have 500 items in their catalogue that they cannot deliver. There was
some mention of fraud, bait and switch, just plain lies, but not by
the very nice man who was still saying "You don't understand..." when
I hung up. SO: did I then immediately order my very long awaited
gorgeous colored proper clubs from Magic Geek or Juggling Store?
Well...almost, real close, just a click away.
I'm figuring, it's now going to cost like $70 with shipping for just
three; and after all, I /was/ already doing more back tosses etc. So,
what I did, was try wrapping the bulb ends of my old tubes with a 4"
strip of some small-cell bubble wrap that was lying around. It
becomes quite white in layers, even sparkly in the sun and shows axial
spin like laser deco, is a tad heavier (still ~7 oz. like BCS) with
clear tape to secure it so "balanced" more like real clubs, does not
bounce at all and rather nice to miscatch, and not fat enough to
prevent my still clumsy overs. Tadahh: I stepped to triples again!
Lord, how did I miss this for a whole year! Found my good balls, MM
and 4fount right away, working towards five again. Buy real clubs,
finally? Nahh. But for anyone hoping for Beard Circus Specials for
the $15 come-on at seriousjuggling.com -- be advised that SERIOUS
JUGGLING CAN DELIVER NO BEARD PRODUCTS. There is a patient
explanation, ad infinitum, but no Beard products at Serious Juggling.
p.s.: I recommend to all club beginners: thin bulb is better. My
bubble wrap is less than 70 mm, big enough to see but not in the way.
Heavy is bad; and un-tapered comfortable handles are superb.
p.p.s.: the webpage for clubs at both Magic Geek and Juggling Store do
list all three measurements necessary for a sensible decision: length,
weight, and diameter. Finally! Thank you!

The 'nice lady' at Beard would like to put the record straight in
answer to the posting by 'Old Fool' entitled 'no Beard at Serious'.
'Old Fool' stated that the, 'nice lady', at Beard told him that
'Serious had been badly out of money'.
This is not correct.
Beard UK have been supplying Serious Juggling for years. Recently
Beard UK and Serious Juggling had a small problem over payment for
goods. This was due to a technical problem that Serious Juggling had
and not due to Serious Juggling being, 'badly out of money'. I did
explain to 'Old Fool' before he posted his chat, that the matter had
been resolved.
For the record:
Beard Enterprises Ltd. UK are quite able to supply anyone at any time.
This includes Ben and Yvette at Serious Juggling, who we consider to
be one of our most valued customers.
I apologize to both of them for any upset that my communication with
'Old Fool' has caused them,

[oldfool]

Ohhh Nice Lady: engage me in a dispute, will you? Question my
veracity, in public--nay, in print, rattling swords in MY territory!
Ohhh, "nice", "lady": how dare you.

Following, for anyone following this so-called thread (cord, perhaps,
as it is thickened, twisted, wrapped, into a...noose!) is that
correspondence, with nothing omitted (my apologies, but duty, you
know) and so left to mere interpretation:

"
Subj: RE: getting Circus Spec. clubs in US
Date: 8/18/04 8:05:23 AM Eastern Daylight Time
From: ***@btinternet.com (Vicky Barber)
To: ***@wmconnect.com

Hi Lloyd. sorry to take so long to get back to you. my system has
been down for a couple of days.
Serious Juggling have no orders awaiting delivery from Beard UK.
Seroius Juggling owed Beard UK a great deal of money for a long time.
This has now been settled.
I suggest you try another good customer of ours in the States namely
Brian Sutherland
Magic Geek
***@magicgeek.com
They also have their own website but i am not sure of the address.
They stock most of the Beard products.
You can order directly from Beard and the products you asked for are
always in stock.
carriage would be 30% of your order total with a minimum of £6.40.
You can order and pay by card by phoning Beard on 0044 1422 843672.
if you have any further questions please do not hesitate to get in
touch and please let all your fellow jugglers know that Beard have
plenty of stock.
I do not know what Serious Juggling are up to giving you this
misleading information but i will be making enquiries.
regards

Vicky
Beard Enterprises Ltd
"

As for Fergie, a.k.a. the sweetest MF this side of Hell (I do wish him
well there), responding 2001-06-23 12:31:51 PST to article
<9h1tae$6jt$***@coset.qualcomm.com> he wrote, and I had read in the
archives as noted:
"
I don't know anything about the Henrys Delphins, but at the British
Juggling Convention in Edinburgh in 1996 I bought six of the Beard
Circus Specials for some ridiculously low sale price (3 for £20 was
it?) and have been using them ever since. I like 'em. Not sure what
the regular price is Beard Circus Specials, but they are certainly
worth checking out. BTW, I don't consider them to be merely "starter
clubs" either, they should serve you well for many years to come.
[typical rant snipped]
"
but that was two years ago, and, well, the old dear is getting on, heh
heh. Missing juggling for a year was one thing, that missing you all
was more of.

As for Mr. Schoenberg (I surmised he was jewish, audibly a born
salesman, but wouldn't think of saying so), explanations ad infinitum,
as stated.

As for finally buying real clubs, why bother? I got 2-up-1-up started
just yesterday--and the ends don't fall off my thingies (check the
archives). Hmmm, though, if little Benny, or that nice Vicky (or,
you) would send me some (any, except for those commonly damned
Airflights) just to shut me up....Benjamin, add a red to that, would
you? I may try for fours after all.

[Michael Ferguson]

In article <***@posting.google.com>
***@wmconnect.com (oldfool) wrote:
[...]

Post by oldfool
As for Fergie, a.k.a. the sweetest MF this side of Hell (I do wish him
well there),

<G>

Post by oldfool
responding 2001-06-23 12:31:51 PST to article
"
I don't know anything about the Henrys Delphins, but at the British
Juggling Convention in Edinburgh in 1996 I bought six of the Beard
Circus Specials for some ridiculously low sale price (3 for £20 was
it?) and have been using them ever since. I like 'em. Not sure what
the regular price is Beard Circus Specials, but they are certainly
worth checking out. BTW, I don't consider them to be merely "starter
clubs" either, they should serve you well for many years to come.
[typical rant snipped]
"

Yep, sure thing. I think I just said something similar in my other post
in this thread. But, Lloyd, where's anything about me assuring you or
anyone else that Serious Juggling is the place to buy them?

Get it? [But he never gets it, does he? I think that's why we always
have so much fun with Lloyd.]

Echoing Little Paul: welcome back. Lloyd. Have fun at the WalMart.


Respectfully submitted,

[nice lady]

Post by oldfool
Ohhh Nice Lady: engage me in a dispute, will you? Question my
veracity, in public--nay, in print, rattling swords in MY territory!
Ohhh, "nice", "lady": how dare you.
Following, for anyone following this so-called thread (cord, perhaps,
as it is thickened, twisted, wrapped, into a...noose!) is that
correspondence, with nothing omitted (my apologies, but duty, you
"
Subj: RE: getting Circus Spec. clubs in US
Date: 8/18/04 8:05:23 AM Eastern Daylight Time
Hi Lloyd. sorry to take so long to get back to you. my system has
been down for a couple of days.
Serious Juggling have no orders awaiting delivery from Beard UK.
Seroius Juggling owed Beard UK a great deal of money for a long time.
This has now been settled.
I suggest you try another good customer of ours in the States namely
Brian Sutherland
Magic Geek
They also have their own website but i am not sure of the address.
They stock most of the Beard products.
You can order directly from Beard and the products you asked for are
always in stock.
carriage would be 30% of your order total with a minimum of £6.40.
You can order and pay by card by phoning Beard on 0044 1422 843672.
if you have any further questions please do not hesitate to get in
touch and please let all your fellow jugglers know that Beard have
plenty of stock.
I do not know what Serious Juggling are up to giving you this
misleading information but i will be making enquiries.
regards
Vicky
Beard Enterprises Ltd
"

Serious Juggling had been waiting for a big order from Beard for a
long time and that Beard were unable to supply.
This was not the case, Beard had no order from Serious and Beard are
able to supply as i previously stated.
So Old Fool, by saying what he did, made me angry with Ben at Serious
Juggling and I made the mistake of saying what I did in the email
above. However, as i said in my previous posting - I never stated
that Serious were out of money.
Also, of course, Ben has now told me that he never said to Old Fool
that he was waiting on an order from Beard which Beard could not
supply.
So realy, what all of this boils down to is the certain fact that Old
Fool needs to Get a Life. What he seems to get his rocks off doing is
trying to make people who were once friends into enemies.
I'm out of this chat room now and I will not post again, quite frankly
there are more positive things to be doing.
I have apologised publicly and privately to Ben and Yvette for acting
hastily. I should have checked with them first to find out who the
hell this Old Fool was, before I ever believed what he said.
So, juggling world, Serious and Beard had a hiccup, caused by an Old
Fool.
I suggest to Ben and Yvette that we all stop giving this guy the
satisfaction and ignore any further postings.

[Ben Schoenberg]

I am forced to set the record straight in case there are people reading
this who are new to rec.juggling or easily swayed. Apologies to anyone
stuck reading this who shouldn’t have to.

[...] called Serious Juggling to order three of the Beard Circus
Specials (BCS) still at $15 which helped make the decision again.

Our employee let you know that we were currently sold out, and it was
agreed that we would email you when they were back in stock. You gave
color preferences, but never actually gave a credit card number or placed
an order.

I was told they were back-ordered, it would be some wait and they
would email. But, their price was a major part of deciding to
finally buy real clubs. So, for a month (a month), I was back to
practicing every day and looking for an email from Serious.

Well, three weeks and five days, but it probably felt longer.

[...] So I called Serious Juggling again, and was told they were
still waiting on their big shipment from Beard, it may be another
four weeks.

No, you were told that we didn’t have any Circus Specials yet, and you
assumed that we instantly have items on order from the manufacturer. In
fact, I have not been able to complete the data entry for our inventory
system that will allow us to use the system to properly place the Beard
order. It is taking longer than I expected, but I never implied that it
was Beard’s fault that we haven’t ordered. We have been close to finishing
for a long time, yet perhaps contrary to your beliefs, the store is very
busy.

Another month!? Having already missed my b.day, I emailed Beard,
asking about their costs and possibility of getting a small order. A
nice lady emailed me right back and said they never were out of BCS,
it was Serious that had been badly out of money and so sent no orders
at all.

Not true, and not what she said. The nice lady has kindly posted to
correct you, and I would appreciate it if you would retract your damaging
and libelous inventions.

She included a link to MagicGeek.com and their price for BCS
was $20 with same day delivery,

No, they can *ship* the same day just like us, if it’s in stock and you
call early enough. Same day *delivery* is not offered there or here, and
shipping is not included in the price there or here.

and the BCS set was available at JugglingStore.com for the same $60
and instant delivery (these two seem to be connected somehow).

Yes, they are the same company, as implied on their front page. (Fun
exercise: read their Circus Special description at
http://www.jugglingstore.com/store/detail.aspx?ID=231 and compare to our
[older] text at
http://www.seriousjuggling.com/Clubs_MultiPieceUndecorated.htm ) Note that
the jugglingstore.com web site warns that items may occasionally be out of
stock, like any business, but you seem to have a lot of faith in them for
someone who apparently has never contacted them. Are you saying “instant
delivery” in an attempt to paint them in a better light, or because you
believe in teleportation?

I called Serious Juggling, and the nice man was full of persistently
pleasant courteous "explanations" and the small statement that they
have 500 items in their catalogue that they cannot deliver.

I am glad that you found me courteous, and I am not surprised that you got
things so wrong, considering the number of times you interrupted me before
you hung up on me. I said nothing about items we cannot deliver. I was
describing the number of items whose details still needed to be entered
into the new computer system before we can order them. Each item has a
dozen fields for data entry, and there are hundreds of items. I hope to
get back to it again once this message is posted.

There was some mention of fraud, bait and switch, just plain lies,
but not by the very nice man who was still saying "You don't
understand..." when I hung up.

Those are serious charges (no pun intended) to bandy about, considering
that you hung up on me without checking your assumptions. Again, I would
appreciate a retraction. You were kind enough to list us on your
learn2juggle web site in April ’03, so you know we aren’t some
fly-by-night. But regarding our inventory, you have put two and two
together and arrived at 22. Please try to test your suspicions before
galloping off in the wrong direction.

SO: did I then immediately order my very long awaited
gorgeous colored proper clubs from Magic Geek or Juggling Store?
Well...almost, real close, just a click away.
I'm figuring, it's now going to cost like $70 with shipping for just
three; and after all, I /was/ already doing more back tosses etc.

That $70 would certainly be cheaper than having Beard ship them from
England. Does that mean that you had no intention of ordering from Beard
when you emailed them to ask about shipping costs?

[...] be advised that SERIOUS JUGGLING CAN DELIVER NO BEARD PRODUCTS.
There is a patient explanation, ad infinitum, but no Beard products
at Serious Juggling.

That will be disappointing news to the customers who have been in the
store today buying Beard products, and all of the people who bought Beard
products at the juggling festival we went to last week.

I know this will come as a shock, but most juggling suppliers do not have
real time satellite-interfaced reordering systems like Wal*Mart. I think
you will like the system we are implementing when it is done. It tells me
that of the Beard products whose data entry is done so far, there are 1151
items in stock, with more to be typed in. It will be done soon, and Circus
Specials will be plentiful again. If you stick with juggling, and haven’t
tried commercially produced clubs yet, I think you will find them worth
the investment.

-Ben Schoenberg
www.SeriousJuggling.com
Since 1994, web site since 1996, on the juggling listserv before it was
rec.juggling


----== posted via www.jugglingdb.com ==----

[oldfool]

Somewhere out there, somebody else might have tried to order Beard
from Serious Juggling in this same time period and had to wait too.
Somewhere out there, somebody else might have been saved the continued
wait by reading my post. But no one out there has ever given me any
reason to care.

Somewhere out there, somebody might have read my post as a story--as
appropriately announced in the first line and comprising most of
it--and found it interesting and in some small way amusing, with no
interest in buying anything from any company. But not even Paul can
say so without making an opportunity to slash and burn me personally.
Fergie jumps in and jumps on--I was thanking him for advice about
which clubs. Ben does his jewish lawyer number on me with how many
lines, Vicky sucks up to him similarly at my expense so they both can
continue making profit at everyone's expense.

Somewhere out there, somebody poor or aging or otherwise not
encouraged might have read my post and determined to keep on with
juggling somehow. That might give me some satisfaction, but only by
ignoring the possibility that they would then be "jugglers" as they
show themselves at rec.juggling too often for me to want to be one of.
I quit all of it, for a year, and lived to tell about it.

[Charlie]

<snip>
I quit all of it, for a year, and lived to tell about it.

Now there's an idea.....can you break your record?

C

[Andew Sutton]

I'm sorry you've had a bad experience trying to get clubs, but I would wager
this is the exception, and not the rule. I hope it won't discourage you
from juggling.

I've dealt with Ben on a couple of occasions, and he'll be the only person I
buy props from any more. I've found his products to be reasonably priced,
the highest of quality, and I've found his customer service to be second to
none. I'm sure if there were something legitimately wrong, Ben would bend
over backwards to make it right.

JugglingStore.com has also been good to me, and I wouldn't knock them. Dube
and Renegade have also been pleasurable buying experiences, but when I was
ready to buy my first "real" clubs, and called on all four of these vendors,
Ben took probably half an hour or 45 minutes out of his day to talk to me
about the clubs I wanted to buy and make sure I knew what I was getting
into, before he asked for my credit card number. I didn't find that in any
of the others, they simply wanted to know what I wanted to order and how I
was going to pay for it.

I think Ben is a really stand up guy, and you shouldn't be so down on him.

Grace and peace.

Andrew

Post by oldfool
For my 61st birthday, I was going to finally get clubs after two years
of using 1.25" fiberglass tubes with end caps and a whiffle ball for a
bulb-end to see. However, I failed to get back tosses worked out, and
was getting hit a lot especially with 2-in-1's and overs (almost lost
a tooth too, glasses scratched, etc.), was tired of spending so much
time with no future at all, and instead quit juggling completely.
Dismantled the dangerous club-thingies so I couldn't use them, tossed
out pounds of home-made balls, never read this webgroup, and got a
piano keyboard as compensation.
About the time I was starting to work on Scott Joplin, I happened to
find the old tossing tubes in the shed, and, well, wondered if after a
year, it was all gone, or maybe.... Would you believe, that it was
not all gone. And without the big bouncy balls on the ends, they were
a lot easier to do badly. So, for my 62nd birthday, I was going to
finally get real clubs, hoping that they would somehow make learning
back tosses and overs easier. I dug up old posts at this webgroup
about buying clubs, and partly on MF's assurance (a.k.a. Fergie is old
too, and a great--well, good, juggler), called Serious Juggling to
order three of the Beard Circus Specials (BCS) still at $15 which
helped make the decision again.
I was told they were back-ordered, it would be some wait and they
would email. But, their price was a major part of deciding to finally
buy real clubs. So, for a month (a month), I was back to practicing
every day and looking for an email from Serious. And I was finally
getting some back tosses, and doing Tennis no prob with even
occasional bits of Rev. Casc. No triples, because with no bright
bulb-end to see, duhh, I couldn't see it coming. So I called Serious
Juggling again, and was told they were still waiting on their big
shipment from Beard, it may be another four weeks.
Another month!? Having already missed my b.day, I emailed Beard,
asking about their costs and possibility of getting a small order. A
nice lady emailed me right back and said they never were out of BCS,
it was Serious that had been badly out of money and so sent no orders
at all. She included a link to MagicGeek.com and their price for BCS
was $20 with same day delivery, and the BCS set was available at
JugglingStore.com for the same $60 and instant delivery (these two
seem to be connected somehow).
I called Serious Juggling, and the nice man was full of persistently
pleasant courteous "explanations" and the small statement that they
have 500 items in their catalogue that they cannot deliver. There was
some mention of fraud, bait and switch, just plain lies, but not by
the very nice man who was still saying "You don't understand..." when
I hung up. SO: did I then immediately order my very long awaited
gorgeous colored proper clubs from Magic Geek or Juggling Store?
Well...almost, real close, just a click away.
I'm figuring, it's now going to cost like $70 with shipping for just
three; and after all, I /was/ already doing more back tosses etc. So,
what I did, was try wrapping the bulb ends of my old tubes with a 4"
strip of some small-cell bubble wrap that was lying around. It
becomes quite white in layers, even sparkly in the sun and shows axial
spin like laser deco, is a tad heavier (still ~7 oz. like BCS) with
clear tape to secure it so "balanced" more like real clubs, does not
bounce at all and rather nice to miscatch, and not fat enough to
prevent my still clumsy overs. Tadahh: I stepped to triples again!
Lord, how did I miss this for a whole year! Found my good balls, MM
and 4fount right away, working towards five again. Buy real clubs,
finally? Nahh. But for anyone hoping for Beard Circus Specials for
the $15 come-on at seriousjuggling.com -- be advised that SERIOUS
JUGGLING CAN DELIVER NO BEARD PRODUCTS. There is a patient
explanation, ad infinitum, but no Beard products at Serious Juggling.
p.s.: I recommend to all club beginners: thin bulb is better. My
bubble wrap is less than 70 mm, big enough to see but not in the way.
Heavy is bad; and un-tapered comfortable handles are superb.
p.p.s.: the webpage for clubs at both Magic Geek and Juggling Store do
list all three measurements necessary for a sensible decision: length,
weight, and diameter. Finally! Thank you!