Boxed Deck Submission: Ori Roth (Winner #2)

This submission was actually first submitted to me about TEN DAYS ago, so my apologies to Ori Roth for not having recognized it sooner.

He’s also the second and last winner of the Boxed Deck Challenge. Congratulations, Ori!

This video is very different from all the others because, as you see, Ori Roth is in fact a juggler! So there is no emphasis on twirls or close range movements, but they are all very large, though smooth and easy to tell what’s happening to the deck. There’s something to be said for looking at other arts to inspire you in your own!

WHAT I LIKED:

Some of those catches seemed near impossible to me, and unexpected… like the toss from his foot to catching it behind him with his arm wrapped around his head.

What really gets it is that at some points I would’ve sworn he had that thing on a sort of invisible thread (like the first toss & catch behind his back with the same hand and when he knocks it off his head), though I can see how they could have been physically. I hope he’s not yanking our chains, but I don’t think he is. It’s just sort of supernatural at points.

He showed what he was manipulating at the beginning.

The movements were all very fluid, with no “safety hand” (I guess thanks to being a juggler).

These were things you wouldn’t do with the cards outside of the box. So he was taking advantage of the circumstances.

He smiled. 

Notice he knows where his head is looking. Like he’ll catch it behind his head without even looking at it. It makes a good difference.

TO BE IMPROVED:

I think somebody was heckling him at the end, because he looked off to the side and smiled at the end. It seemed out of place in the video but at least it looked like there were good times being had over there. I want to know what was being said at that point :)

I wasn’t to fond of the ending move… In this case it works a bit because there was nothing else afterwards, but otherwise it doesn’t seem very practical at all, especially since this routine is probably only going to be the beginning of a larger performance. It seems that there’s not a high-success factor in the move since he waited a second before clapping his hands to show he was done.

While the throws and grabs were amazing, I think it’d be worth exploring some more variation in the types of moves… like some in-hands deck manipulation… or contact juggling? This would probably also help to segue into further cardistry routines since there’ll be an obvious relationship. Unless you want to juggle cards the entire time :)

SO:

Congratulations, Ori! I’m heading out to send the decks over right now.

For everybody who participated, thanks so much for sending your videos in! It’s great to see that you are eager to step up to the challenge, face my nit-picking wrath, and seek to improve yourselves. I really liked all of the videos but in the end I have to be a hard-ass instead of “you rock!” because we ALL have areas we need to improve on.

This probably won’t be the last challenge either, so stay tuned.

Thanks again, everybody!

Again, you can see Ori Roth’s submission at http://www.juggleroth.com/boxdeck.wmv