Sharpe Brothers and their Diabolos
You may remember a couple of weeks ago I posted a video of the amazing Chris Bliss juggling. I mentioned in that post that I had taught myself to juggle a little. The first thing I ever learned in the juggling field was the Diabolo. Liz bought me one for Christmas one year. It took a while to even manage to keep it spinning, but with perseverance I was able to. Then we bought a much better quality Diabolo, and my skills improved immensely. Or, at least, that’s what I thought until I saw a video of the Sharpe brothers doing their act. The skill levels involved in this are just incredible. Enjoy!
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Georgiana on 
Oh. My. God.
You can do that?!?
Wow.
I can do some of that, and a very small “some” at that. I’ve never managed to get a second diabolo going, let alone a third.
Interestingly, one of the most spectacular tricks that, most people want to see, is also one of the easiest and the first you learn. You very quickly learn to throw the diabolo into the air, and hopefully catch it too. And as long as you have it spinning at a reasonable speed, it remains quite stable even at huge heights.
The hard things are the intricate weaving patterns they do, and especially the suicides (letting go of one or both sticks), at which they are incredibly skilful. I’ve been able to do some basic weaving, and occasional suicide; but trying either usually ends up with me chasing the diabolo across the floor.
The trick they do that impresses me the most is where they get the diabolo going horizontally, and pass it around their bodies. Most of what they do I can work out how they do it; just haven’t got the skill to do it myself. But a horizontally spinning diabolo — no idea how they even get it started.
One thing you do get from learning to spin a diabolo, is a tremendous sense of achievement. It isn’t easy to get started, but with perseverance it will spin on the string. The first time you throw and catch is a real “wow” moment. But some of the other, more difficult, tricks make you ask yourself if you really did it.
I’d recommend it to anyone!