How to hold a juggling hamster:
Good:
Bad:
This concludes today's lesson.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Hamster Juggling Lesson #1: Hold Your Hamsters
You will not be able to juggle your hamsters properly until you have a "feel" for their weight, activity level, biting tendency, etc.
How to hold a juggling hamster:
Good:
Bad:
This concludes today's lesson.
How to hold a juggling hamster:
Good:
Bad:
This concludes today's lesson.
Monday, March 1, 2010
What Is Hamster Juggling? (pt. 2)
My editor seems to have rather butchered my previous entry with unnecessary annotations. She has been fired.
Now, to continue.
While various rodents, insectivores and even small marsupials went in and out of fashion among jugglers over the years, for most of the latter half of the 20th century, hamsters were easily the most popular juggling animal in most countries.
Animal juggling itself, however, was still relatively rare. The U.S. and U.K. in particular, with their increasingly strict animal-welfare laws, were slow to accept that juggling hamsters and other mammals was a respectable business and pastime when performed correctly. It ranged from occupying a legal "gray area" to being banned outright, and regular raids were being made on American juggling tents up until the mid-80's, when the Hamster Juggler's League of America (HJLA) was formed and animal juggling was officially legalized.
Unfortunately, unscrupulous jugglers took advantage of the more lenient attitudes towards hamster juggling in other countries, practicing highly hazardous juggling routines and keeping their stock in substandard living conditions. These "rogue" jugglers were the minority, but naturally received the most publicity, further driving down the reputation of animal jugglers everywhere even as laws were being revised to accommodate them across the globe.
Despite the best efforts, hamster juggling slowly declined in popularity from the mid-'80s onward, and jugglers began selling their stock into the pet trade and packing up their tents for more profitable ventures. This may explain the explosion in the popularity of hamsters as pets for children, despite their general lack of knowledge about the ideal care and housing of the animals.
The end of public hamster juggling seemed near.
Near the close of the '90s, however, a slow shift became apparent. Consumers were again seeking out novelty and adventure; they craved a return to more organic, nature-based forms of entertainment. Hamster juggling, which had an unmistakable element of the exotic and at its most basic required only three live hamsters and a little juggling experience, would soon prove to hit the spot perfectly. By 2006, there were even a few brands of hamster-juggling "kits" for home use, aimed at teaching owners of multiple hamsters the basics of amateur hamster juggling.
I began my own juggling adventure in earnest in the early 2000's, when the hamster juggler revolution was just starting to pick up steam. At the time I, like most of the newer hamster jugglers, was largely ignorant of its troubled past, and unaware of its present complexity. I had been juggling my own pet hamsters for some time as a means of entertainment for friends and family, but none of that had prepared me for the legal and technical challenges I would face when I took my act public.
Juggling hamsters, as I would soon learn, is only a fraction of what's involved in becoming a full-time, professional Hamster Juggler.
Now, to continue.
While various rodents, insectivores and even small marsupials went in and out of fashion among jugglers over the years, for most of the latter half of the 20th century, hamsters were easily the most popular juggling animal in most countries.
Animal juggling itself, however, was still relatively rare. The U.S. and U.K. in particular, with their increasingly strict animal-welfare laws, were slow to accept that juggling hamsters and other mammals was a respectable business and pastime when performed correctly. It ranged from occupying a legal "gray area" to being banned outright, and regular raids were being made on American juggling tents up until the mid-80's, when the Hamster Juggler's League of America (HJLA) was formed and animal juggling was officially legalized.
Unfortunately, unscrupulous jugglers took advantage of the more lenient attitudes towards hamster juggling in other countries, practicing highly hazardous juggling routines and keeping their stock in substandard living conditions. These "rogue" jugglers were the minority, but naturally received the most publicity, further driving down the reputation of animal jugglers everywhere even as laws were being revised to accommodate them across the globe.
Despite the best efforts, hamster juggling slowly declined in popularity from the mid-'80s onward, and jugglers began selling their stock into the pet trade and packing up their tents for more profitable ventures. This may explain the explosion in the popularity of hamsters as pets for children, despite their general lack of knowledge about the ideal care and housing of the animals.
The end of public hamster juggling seemed near.
Near the close of the '90s, however, a slow shift became apparent. Consumers were again seeking out novelty and adventure; they craved a return to more organic, nature-based forms of entertainment. Hamster juggling, which had an unmistakable element of the exotic and at its most basic required only three live hamsters and a little juggling experience, would soon prove to hit the spot perfectly. By 2006, there were even a few brands of hamster-juggling "kits" for home use, aimed at teaching owners of multiple hamsters the basics of amateur hamster juggling.
I began my own juggling adventure in earnest in the early 2000's, when the hamster juggler revolution was just starting to pick up steam. At the time I, like most of the newer hamster jugglers, was largely ignorant of its troubled past, and unaware of its present complexity. I had been juggling my own pet hamsters for some time as a means of entertainment for friends and family, but none of that had prepared me for the legal and technical challenges I would face when I took my act public.
Juggling hamsters, as I would soon learn, is only a fraction of what's involved in becoming a full-time, professional Hamster Juggler.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Come one, come all ....
To the greatest juggling show on Earth!*
I'm Hammie the Hamster juggler, and I'm going to take a little time from my busy show schedule to teach you a little about the fine art - and science! - of hamster juggling. **
Today's lesson is a simple one: What IS hamster juggling, and how did it begin? (pt. 1)
Hamster juggling is an ancient art, recorded as early as 300 B.C.† It is thought to have originated as a means of carrying multiple small pets or farm animals when a basket or other suitable container was not available. As portable cages were developed, and free-ranging pet rodents became less common, juggling slowly evolved into a form of entertainment.
Local jugglers would use their own pet rodents or other small, herbivorous animals that were native to the area and readily available. As the concept of the traveling juggler became more popular (and profitable), rodent jugglers began searching out rarer, larger, and more colorful species to better entertain their audiences. Eventually, this led them to the deserts of Syria and Mongolia, where tricolored, tailless rodents roamed underground. As an animal's tail is its most unwieldy appendage when juggling (rats in particular are notorious for wrapping their tails around a juggler's wrist and ruining the entire formation), hamsters were readily embraced as juggling animals. The more boldly-patterned individuals soon outranked chipmunks as the most popular rodent for juggling at fairs and children's parties. Every year, more benefits were found for using these roly-poly rodents in place of old-fashioned choices like mice and voles. By the 1960's, around 85% of all juggling animals were from the genera Mesocricetus or Phodopus.††
The Age of the Hamster Juggler had begun.
*this statement not verified by the IJA
**hamster juggling is not recognized as a science by any official organization
† this is an arbitrarily-selected date used solely for emphasis
†† based on anecdotal evidence from my aunt Edwina
I'm Hammie the Hamster juggler, and I'm going to take a little time from my busy show schedule to teach you a little about the fine art - and science! - of hamster juggling. **
Today's lesson is a simple one: What IS hamster juggling, and how did it begin? (pt. 1)
Hamster juggling is an ancient art, recorded as early as 300 B.C.† It is thought to have originated as a means of carrying multiple small pets or farm animals when a basket or other suitable container was not available. As portable cages were developed, and free-ranging pet rodents became less common, juggling slowly evolved into a form of entertainment.
Local jugglers would use their own pet rodents or other small, herbivorous animals that were native to the area and readily available. As the concept of the traveling juggler became more popular (and profitable), rodent jugglers began searching out rarer, larger, and more colorful species to better entertain their audiences. Eventually, this led them to the deserts of Syria and Mongolia, where tricolored, tailless rodents roamed underground. As an animal's tail is its most unwieldy appendage when juggling (rats in particular are notorious for wrapping their tails around a juggler's wrist and ruining the entire formation), hamsters were readily embraced as juggling animals. The more boldly-patterned individuals soon outranked chipmunks as the most popular rodent for juggling at fairs and children's parties. Every year, more benefits were found for using these roly-poly rodents in place of old-fashioned choices like mice and voles. By the 1960's, around 85% of all juggling animals were from the genera Mesocricetus or Phodopus.††
The Age of the Hamster Juggler had begun.
*this statement not verified by the IJA
**hamster juggling is not recognized as a science by any official organization
† this is an arbitrarily-selected date used solely for emphasis
†† based on anecdotal evidence from my aunt Edwina
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