Sport: Equipment
Dry-Ice Cudgels   (+2, -1)  [vote for, against]
make dry ice cudgels, then use them for juggling

The idea is simple: use an existing cudgel to create a two part mold; use the mold to form a set of dry ice juggling cudgels; then juggle with them in a warm room until they totally evaporate away. (wearing gloves would probably be advisable)
-- xenzag, Mar 16 2013

Juggling dry ice https://www.youtube...watch?v=o35iyyToQvc
[DrCurry, Mar 17 2013]

...and the sequel https://www.youtube...watch?v=xKodSBDqJWw
[DrCurry, Mar 17 2013]

Or use flaming bowling pins!
-- bungston, Mar 16 2013


This is sublime.

sorry... I'm trying to cut down, really I am
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Mar 16 2013


I'm a big fan of dry ice, and a pretty versatile juggler, and my interest in this idea is tepid, at best. I'll give it a sort-of try, next time I buy dry ice, by juggling three chunks, wearing gloves, but I wouldn't expect to keep it up until the chunks sublime away.

By the way, American jugglers, at least, refer to their juggling "cudgels" as "clubs". (They are descended from the "Indian clubs" used for exercise back around 1900.)

Dry-ice clubs, or cudgels, will live up to their name when the handle gives out first and the body of the club clonks you on the head, I think. If the jagged edge slices your face, it might freeze the wound shut, or at least leave a one-of-a-kind scar.

I might be able to make a club that contained dry ice, and include some water to give off a noticeable amount of fog, and use that instead of torches for indoor juggling.
-- baconbrain, Mar 17 2013


Let me know how it goes.... I had thought of cudgels that contained dry ice, but preferred the idea of juggling with something that gradually disappeared until only thin air full of swirling mist remained being stirred by the action of the juggler's arms and hands.
-- xenzag, Mar 17 2013


The swirling mist and pope news of late made me think of juggling incense censers. But juggling a weight on a rope would be tricky, even if it did not have spikes. The release would be different.

Bacon: your job, should you choose to accept it: juggle weights on leashes. In the manner of Gozer the Gozerian, you get to choose the nature of the weight and the length of the leash.
-- bungston, Mar 17 2013


[bungston], I already "juggle" with weights on leashes. Well, only two at a time, and I don't turn loose of the handles. Much like what the performers call "poi", but I got there a different way. Mine are bigger and heavier, and I use a stronger handle, and I have no artistic style at all.

The poi performers got started in New Zealand, I think, and have some amazing talent. There are even "fire poi".

It is my experience that dry ice by itself doesn't generate much fog, "smoke", or mist. You need to chuck it into a bucket of warm water to get the effect most folks imagine. If you wave a chunk of dry ice around in the air, juggling or otherwise, not much is going to happen.
-- baconbrain, Mar 17 2013


Contrary to your expectations, no gloves required (see links).

Contrary to my (and baconbrain's) expectations, it does give off swirling mist.
-- DrCurry, Mar 17 2013


P.S. Has *everyone* forgotten how to Google?! Those videos were not the least bit difficult to find.
-- DrCurry, Mar 17 2013


Clowning around with little bits of dry ice is hardly the same as making proper juggling cudgels, and using them as part of a professional performance..... and yes I did search, and view both those clips (and more) before posting the idea.
-- xenzag, Mar 17 2013


So why did you think you'd need gloves?

Did you research the difficulty of casting dry ice? Easier to carve it, methinks.
-- DrCurry, Mar 17 2013


Erm, at the :37 second mark of the first linked vid, you can hear someone saying that it's dry ice at the core, with wet ice over it. I'd say someone dropped chunks of dry ice into water, and let it sit a while---the water freezes around the dry ice, and makes a nice coating, which always has a hole in it.

They aren't juggling plain dry ice. They've got some water ice around it to give some hand protection and some water vapor.

As for casting dry ice, you could shoot compressed CO2 gas into a mold, and probably fill it up with solid ice, provided enough gas can get out and expand to keep it cooling. That way you could carry a tank of gas and a mold, and be ready to make clubs at any time. Maybe.
-- baconbrain, Mar 18 2013


Spray a CO2 extinguisher into a nylon stocking and it should form a cudgel shape without all that forming/carving rigamarole.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Mar 18 2013


What I love about the HB is the number of people able and willing to try out many ideas. Here's to you and your ilk [baconbrain]
-- Voice, Mar 18 2013



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