In the dimly lit basement of State Gym, clubs fly past one other, passed from hand to hand in a whirl of motion.

The effect is a new trick in progress — a three-person passing tactic appropriately titled “The Cyclone.” It may not seem like much of a meeting, but the small practice session is quite common for the ISU Juggling Club.

Joe Kohlhaas, graduate student in education, said the numbers this fall have dwindled to a few serious jugglers and a few recreational jugglers.

With enrollment “at a low” due to graduating members, it becomes difficult to find new recruits and funding by the Government of the Student Body, said Paul Scott, associate professor of agronomy.

Known in years past as the Unicycling and Juggling Club, the club’s membership usually comes and goes in cycles.

“The juggling club was significantly larger a few years ago,” Kohlhaas said. “Nowadays, it’s getting hard for us to do two shows at the same time — we used to be able to do that.”

Besides State Gym, the club tries to practice in front of the library and perform for local autumn events, such as the Octagon Arts Festival, the Edward School Carnival and the Alzheimer’s Memory Walk to raise awareness about juggling.

While Theodore Murdock, club president and senior in software engineering, agreed the club has been getting “a little smaller” and expressed his desire to get the word out. “We have a lot of great juggling skills to teach and it would be great to have more people come by,” Murdock said.

Contrary to popular belief, it’s not hard to learn how to juggle three balls. Though it took Kohlhaas three months to learn to juggle on his own from reading a book, the club offers to teach new members basic tricks to get them started.

“If you have someone there to teach you and to show you common mistakes that everybody makes, it doesn’t take too long,” Kohlhaas said.

Paul Jennings, graduate student, touted the club’s signature claim: “A big part of learning how to juggle is figuring out where to look. [After that], we teach anyone to juggle in a half hour or less.”

Whether it be 15-pound rubber band balls, cantaloupes, rubber chickens, devil sticks, swiveling diablos or even flaming torches, the club tries to vary performances, even going off campus to perform fire tricks that are not allowed due to safety precautions.

“It’s very scary [to juggle fire]. There’s a noise that sounds like ‘whoosh’ … and you do it at night, so the only part of the club that you can see is the part that you can’t catch,” Scott said.

Juggling with fire proved to be one of the most popular performances for events such as Veishea and philanthropy exhibitions. Though the group doesn’t compete, the possibility could arise with more members.

ISU Juggling Club meetings

When: 8 to 10 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays

Where: State Gym basement

Contact: [email protected]