Roy Pomerantz

Roy Pomerantz - Near-Impossible Decision

Roy Pomerantz started juggling at a young age. As a college student, he was faced with a difficult decision to choose between two very different and prestigious learning institutions: Columbia University in New York City or The Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Clown College. Pomerantz decided to stay at Columbia, but he still worked as a professional juggler post-graduation. He’s performed across the world and appeared on Good Morning America and CBS Nightly News, showing off his unique cigar box and ball routine to GMA’s audience of millions. This was a breakthrough moment in his juggling career.

Through the years, Pomerantz has entertained tens of thousands of people at his live shows. He’s a seasoned performer who knows what it takes to prepare prior to his act, ensuring success by covering all his tracks. It’s essential to stretch before doing any physical activity, especially juggling because your limbs can’t be stiff and you don’t want to experience any muscle cramps mid-way through. Also, verify your outfit is in tip-top shape days before a performance, just in case you need to see a tailor. There should be no rips or tattered threads. Your wardrobe choices should match your on-stage persona, heightening the performance by drawing audience members to your entertainment value and mystique. Practice, too. You should warm up before taking the stage. Just juggling on stage for the first time without practicing before is risky business that Pomerantz does not recommend.

Roy Pomerantz has experienced many trials in his life, and he’s faced many tough decisions. He’s happy to report everything worked out fine. He encourages others to follow their artistic dreams and to make choices based on what lies within, never thinking twice.

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ROY POMERANTZ - EXTENSIVE AND RIGOROUS TRAINING

Roy Pomerantz is a professional juggler. Over his four decades juggling, he’s entertained tens of thousands of people across the world in cities like Los Angeles, Hong Kong, New Delhi, Sao Paulo, Cairo and NYC. Pomerantz has underwent extensive and rigorous training. Like most professional jugglers, he’s mainly self-taught, because resources are limited for kids who want to take up juggling, especially if they don’t live near a cosmopolitan city. Pomerantz has trained with friends and coaches as well. At one point, he studied with the MacArthur “Genius” Fellow Michael Moschen at the New York School for Circus Arts, which greatly sharpened his skills and improved his act.

Even after performing for many years, Pomerantz acknowledges how difficult it is to win over a crowd. For live performers, there is no exact science for success every time, and you must understand that each crowd will be different and react differently to your schtick. Street artists try to capture pedestrians’ attention as they proceed with the their daily lives. They try to inject some brevity and smiles into the hearts of passerbys. The ability to stop people in their tracks and set the stage to make them laugh, cry, cheer or just enjoy your routine is a great skill the vast majority do not possess.

Whatever act you are presenting to the audience, whether musical, theatrical, or even a display of your athleticism and flexibility, the goal is to elicit some kind of emotional response from spectators. Once you have a hold of their attention, take them for a cerebral and emotional journey. This is only achieved through careful planning and preparation as well as “trial and error.” Jugglers – artists, in general – should exemplify a conductor at the helm of his or her symphony. Pluck audience members’ heartstrings, control their intakes of breath, expertly guide them through the performance so when the climax inevitably comes along, you are the center of their absolute focus. Over the years, Pomerantz has become very adept at captivating his audiences.

No matter what category of artist you fall into, it’s important to brainstorm how to be different, too. People passing by will not pause to witness something they’ve seen a hundred times before. Tailor the presentation so you're schtick is memorable and special. For jugglers, vary your footwork. Incorporate a dance routine or ride on a unicycle. Juggle on a bed of nails. Use all your space without impunity when rehearsing your act. Also, an innovative costume or makeup always enhances a routine. Male performers shouldn’t feel limited to a suit or mask. The best advice is to consider a theme you want to portray to viewers and build your on-stage persona around that theme.

For many years, Roy Pomerantz has dedicated his time to extensive and rigorous training sessions. Juggling is one of the greatest pleasures of his life. He’s thankful he picked up Carlo’s The Juggling Book all those years ago.

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Roy Pomerantz - An Introduction to the History of Juggling

Juggling has a long and vast history that spans over thousands of years, though there are missing pieces and chunks that historians are still wondering about today. Roy Pomerantz knows that an appreciation of this history makes his success even more meaningful. What we do know is that even though juggling has been celebrated and admired for such a great deal of time, the role of the juggler was generally considered to be outside of mainstream society, and for that reason not many records have been discovered.

The first instance that we see juggling depicted was uncovered in an ancient Egyptian tomb, a painting of female jugglers, dancers, and acrobats that has been dated back to 2000 B.C. 1500 years later we see evidence sprout up in ancient Greece. Beginning in the 4th century A.D. up until now, a more linear historical record is available, where we can find ancient Roman art, poems, figurines, and more with depictions of juggling. However, the fall of the Roman Empire damaged the discipline and social standing of these performers.

Near the end of the Middle Ages, the practice began regaining popularity and respectability. By the 19th century, we begin to see what we understand today as the art form, where it branched into circus acts and variety shows. Now we tend to see more one-man shows, as popularized in the 1950s in the United States, as a form of recreation and entertainment.

Roy Pomerantz is thrilled to continue living his dream as a professional juggler.

Sources:

​http://www.juggling.org/books/artists/history.html

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Roy Pomerantz - The Mental Benefits of Juggling

Juggling has been celebrated for thousands of years, and Roy Pomerantz knows that this form of entertainment has continued to inspire audiences across the world because it speaks to a deeper magic of what the human body is capable of achieving. As it turns out, this skill goes much deeper than simple recreation. The abilities one develops as a result of juggling have been proven to strengthen the mind in regard to spatial reasoning and problem solving in a number of studies.

The complicated dance of juggling can actually be useful for our brains. By understanding the relationships between the objects you are using, the brain learns to adapt in innovative ways, as dictated by a six-week study in which twelve people juggled for thirty minutes each day with brain scans taken before and after. The scans that were taken afterward clearly displayed that changes took place in the participants’ white matter, connecting different parts of the brain. For the participants of the study who did not juggle, no changes occurred.

It has also been suggested that juggling helps strengthen mental rotation, highly connected with mathematical skills and spatial reasoning. Picking up the skill demonstrated in a 2009 study over a three-month period, participants had improved their spatial reasoning in test form when asked to imagine taking the same shape and rotating it in space to show different perspectives.

Roy Pomerantz is a professional juggler and a graduate of Harvard Law School and Columbia College. There is nothing he enjoys more than sharing the benefits of his passion.

Sources: ​http://www.spring.org.uk/2013/07/the-mental-benefits-of-useless-skills-like-juggling.php

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Roy Pomerantz - Juggling for Beginners

Roy Pomerantz, a professional juggler who has appeared on CBS Nightly News and on Good Morning America, is dedicated to helping young learners become confident in their skills. He says that with some practice, anyone can become a juggler by taking the following steps:

1. Begin by getting the feel of the ball’s path through the air, known as the arc. Throw a ball back and forth from one hand to the other, looking to reach eye-height at its peak. If balls or beanbags feel a little too heavy at first, try with tennis balls.

2. Focus on using a scooping motion with your hands to move fluidly between throws. Maintaining a scooping position with your hands will keep the balls moving smoothly.

3. To fully understand the anatomy of the motions and movements, take a ball in each hand and throw the first toward the other hand in an arc and lower your other arm to send the other ball towards your empty hand when the first ball reaches the top of its arc, at eye-height.

4. Once you’ve mastered the previous motion, work toward the three ball cascade in which you hold two balls in the right hand and the other in your left hand. Launch one ball from your right hand to the left and when the ball reaches the peak of the arc, reverse and throw the ball in the left hand to the right in the same manner.

Roy Pomerantz is devoted to educating enthusiasts to become skilled and passionate jugglers.

Sources:

​http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/learn-how-to-juggle-and-improve-your-brains-power.html

Roy Pomerantz - A Whimsical Story

Roy Pomerantz, a graduate of Harvard Law School and Columbia College, is the perfect example of a professional juggler with a magical beginning. As a child, his introduction to juggling took place in a small local magic shop where he discovered Carlo’s The Juggling Book. Flipping through its pages, he became completely hooked and mastered each and every trick he read about.

Over time, his passion for juggling grew deeper and deeper. It became a way of life rather than a simple hobby, and he improved at a rapid speed to begin manipulating items such as devil sticks, hatchets, fire, and much more. He particularly enjoys the human element of it, the energy that he obtains from performing for a rapt audience. His acts are, of course, designed to entertain and inspire, but he is always seeking to connect on a deeper level with those who come to watch his feats.

Roy Pomerantz has had a great deal of success in a specialty that is extremely difficult to break into professionally. He has performed on Good Morning America, CBS Nightly News and he has even been featured in “The New York Times.” Pomerantz is also interested in developing deeper connections with his community. He has participated at a number of fundraising ventures, and he has also performed at the Children’s Museum in Manhattan and the children’s ward of the Sloan-Kettering Hospital. He is dedicated to giving back to these organizations because he knows that sharing his talent is just one more way to spread joy in the world.

Roy Pomerantz - Things That Shouldn’t be Juggled

In all of his juggling experience, Roy Pomerantz has experimented with numerous different objects to find what suits him best and pleases his audiences the most. Throughout all of this trial and error, he had encountered numerous categories of items that are probably best not juggled. Below are some of the props that may not be best for a juggling act, and why.

Heavy Objects

The heavier the object is, the tougher it will be to juggle. Juggling heavy objects can be dangerous to you and your audience if dropped.

Large Objects

Large objects are also not ideal for juggling for many reasons. It is hard to grip a single large item, let alone multiple oversized props. Also, the items might hit each other mid-air due to the space they take up.

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Roy Pomerantz - Pros and Cons of Practicing With A Friend

Professional juggler Roy Pomerantz knows that a true friend wants you to succeed. Of the thousands of hours he has spent juggling, Roy has done hundreds of them with close friends. Below are some of the pros and cons associated with practicing with a friend.

Pros

There are many benefits to practicing with a friend, including getting honest feedback on your act. A friend will often provide feedback in a less authoritative way than a coach. A friend can also help in an emergency.

Cons

A friend can distract you when conversation about unrelated topics pops up. Also, a friend may have the best intentions, but can give you bad or misleading advice. New moves should be critiqued by multiple observers so you do not rely too heavily on the advice of a single friend.

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Roy Pomerantz - Proper Juggling Footwork

As a professional juggler, Roy Pomerantz knows all of the essential elements to putting on a juggling act that will draw in your audiences and keep them entertained. Among those elements is having the proper footwork to maintain your balance and grace as you toss and catch object after object while focusing your senses mostly on what your hands are doing. Below are some steps to take in order to improve your footwork while juggling.

Practice Walking While Juggling

One of the most basic ways to practice proper footwork is to walk around as you juggle. Try to draw a circle or other shape with your feet, and then repeat that shape as you make laps juggling. Getting the muscle memory in your feet to walk these shapes without tripping over yourself will help you greatly with your stride.

Have a Partner Create Obstacles

Once you have the regular walking while juggling routine down, the next best thing to do is have a partner create obstacles for you that simulate real-life scenarios, where the unpredictable can happen at any moment. Have your friend kick some soccer balls in your direction or cause similar obstructions so that you can get used to working around them.

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Roy Pomerant - Progressive Juggling Training

Roy Pomerantz has appeared on Good Morning America, & CBS Nightly News and was featured in the New York Times. Through training hard and in a manner that pushes your limits and potential, you too can become a pro like Pomerantz. Below are a few basic building blocks towards a progressive training schedule that will help you pave your path towards getting better at the act.

Start Small

Juggling is a talent that takes hundreds of hours of practice just to get a beginner pace going. So don’t start busting out the knives quite yet; instead start small with two small objects that are congruent in shape. They don’t necessarily need to be juggling balls; however three balls of the same dimension are a great way to start. Once you have a graceful rotation of those two objects, add in a third congruent object to the pattern. Juggling three objects in a fluid fashion is not easy, so stay there for a while and see how long you can do it cleanly before considering adding other objects.

Add In More Objects

Once you have gained the skill to juggle three items in a fluid motion, it is time to start expanding your juggling skills by trying new shapes and objects. Start working with a variety of sizes and weights so that you can be versatile. And once you get comfortable, then start adding more objects, like four or five of the same objects. Once you have mastered that skill, add the variety in there as well, and start juggling four or five different objects. By the time you are able to do that, you are already becoming a pro.

Add In Other Variables

Once you can juggle a variety of objects, it is time to start adding in other variables that go beyond simply what you can juggle and how many objects are in the air.  Start changing the stage around you. Start juggling while doing a walk or dance routine, or even add in other obstacles such as juggling while riding a unicycle. This is the part where you can get really imaginative and start pushing your limits in a way that will make your act especially unique. Roy Pomerantz became a renowned professional for doing exactly that, pushing his limits.

Just One Prop

Juggling teachers like to encourage their students by pointing out that the student was juggling, even when he or she didn't realize it.

They advise their students to begin with just one prop, which is what they call the objects that they juggle. They usually say it's best to start with bean bags, because you're bound to drop them while you're first getting the hang of juggling, and if you're using balls then they're going to bounce away from you; you'll just have to chase them down.

So start with just one prop, like a bean bag. Throw the bean bag from your dominant hand to your less dominant hand, and work on throwing it at about the height of your eyes, or maybe just above your head. Sounds simple enough. But practice it anyway, over and over, until it becomes second nature. The dominant hand for most people is the one that they throw with, although that isn't always the case.

Practice so that you can throw it in a consistent, evenly shaped arc. When you've mastered it, then switch hands, so that you are throwing from your less-dominant hand to the more dominant hand. Work to get it so that you have the same eye-level arc you were practicing before. It's okay to take a break for a few minutes, and it may even work to your advantage. When you stop for a few minutes after a small success, then it all seems to sink in, like your brain is processing the new information and storing it away.

It's at this point that some of those teachers will say yes, you were juggling, even if you didn't know you were. One handed juggling is still juggling.

Roy Pomerantz began juggling as a young teenager and has since devoted thousands of hours to perfecting his art.

Two Steps Forward

It takes a lot of practice to master the art of juggling, and even master jugglers say that perfection is an ideal they will never realize.

Amateur enthusiasts have been known to put in hundreds of hours every year tossing various props in the air. Surprisingly, there has been a lot of research done into the question of making juggling practice more efficient and effective.

As with many other physical endeavors, jugglers have been known to notice that after a lot of practice and improvement they seem to reach a plateau where they aren't getting any better, and maybe are losing their edge just a bit. Research seems to bear out that in any physical endeavor, including juggling, this is a common phenomenon. The good news is that this is typically just for the short term; in the long-term, the improvement rate is not affected by this. In other words, even though it may appear that progress has stalled, learning is still going on. So even when you're having an off day, it's still worth it to practice. Many like to note that two steps forward and one step backward still add up to progress.

Many jugglers also find the idea of Transfer of Learning to be encouraging. As it relates to juggling it means that the left hand will still improve, even if you're just practicing with one hand. Experiments bear out that a skill is transferred from one side to the other by getting a fair amount of expertise with one hand first.

Roy Pomerantz began juggling as a young teenager and has since devoted thousands of hours to practicing and performance.

Throw and Catch

The most basic pattern in juggling is known as the three ball cascade. It's the trick that just about all jugglers learn first. It's considered to be one of the easiest patterns in juggling – although like everything else with that skill, it's not as easy as it looks, although practice helps to make perfect.

For beginning jugglers to learn the pattern they have to be comfortable in how they throw and catch a ball. That may sound very basic, but most people have a dominant and non-dominant hand – that is, they are naturally a lefty or a righty. It may take some getting used to before you can easily and comfortably catch with your non-dominant hand. The key is to get to a point where your hands are about equal; after some practice, advancing jugglers often reach a point where they don't even think about their hands all that much. You need to get comfortable throwing the ball from your dominant hand to your non-dominant hand, tossing the ball so it arcs just above your head level.

Once that is mastered then beginners move on to a second object. The trick is to throw the second object with a similar trajectory as the first, but to underneath the first object in a different direction. Once you can do this without too much trouble, it's time to add a third ball. This pattern is similar to tossing two balls, except you get a third toss in during the pause when you throw the first two balls.

Roy Pomerantz learned how to juggle from a book called Carlo's Book of Juggling. He also recommends Ken Benge’s The Art of Juggling.

Roy Pomerantz-Learning to Juggle

There are many different reasons why people learn how to juggle, but for a lot of people it comes down to the fun they get out of it, with the added benefit of impressing their friends.

Believe it or not, though, juggling can help make you smarter. Its been shown to boost your concentration levels, relieve stress, give you a physical workout, and provide a sense of accomplishment too. Juggling takes practice to get really good, but people are sometimes surprised at how easy it is to learn the basics. It doesn't take much in the way of equipment: all you need are a few objects that you can usually find lying around the house.

The best way to start is with a few things that are of the same size and weight, like tennis balls or bean bags. Even some rolled up socks will do. Start out in an area where you can spread out, because chances are you'll be dropping things at first.

One of the main tricks in juggling is learning what is called the swap. This involves practicing with two balls, and learning to toss one in the air at head height with one hand, and before it reaches the other, throwing a second ball into the air from the other hand.

When a lot of people think of juggling they think of clowns, and the circus. But juggling is much more than that. Not every juggler is a clown, and not every clown is a juggler. Roy Pomerantz is a highly skilled juggler who has been at it since he was a child. He graduated from Columbia College and Harvard University and was accepted into the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Clown College.