Machetes, balls, torches, clubs, diabolos, devil sticks, rings and scarves – there’s only one club on campus that can manhandle these tools: the ISU Juggling Club.

ISU Juggling Club president Chris Kohlhaas says people have been getting together long before he was at Iowa State to perfect the group’s art form.

“Sometimes I run into people that say they were in the club 15 years ago,” says Kohlhaas, junior in LAS-open option.

Although the juggling club is different from a lot of clubs, Kohlhaas says it shares a lot of similar aspects.

“It’s a lot like other clubs. You don’t just join a club to learn a skill. Most of it is a social aspect that we like to do together,” he says.

Sometimes he attends the weekly meetings without even wanting to juggle, but to be around to help others and socialize, he says.

“We kind of have two aims,” he says. “The first is new membership and showing that anyone can do it. The second is when they get good enough, then it’s to perform in groups.”

Juggling with others and learning patterns is only the beginning of the complicated activities being taught at the club.

“When you come to the club, there’s all these new tools and when you get bored you can try a new thing and before you know it, you’re pretty good,” Kohlhaas says.

Along with unicycles, there are also combinations of skills to master while juggling. Kohlhaas says the juggling club recently acquired a pair of stilts to add to the tools people can practice with.

Another aspect of juggling is adding an extra layer of difficulty, like fire, Kohlhaas says.

“The first time I ever juggled fire was on stage,” he says. “We’re sort of a crazy bunch, so that’s the sort of thing we’d do.”

Theodore Murdock, ISU alumnus, says some people have natural coordination, but with practice anyone can do it.

“As long as you can move your arms, you can learn to juggle,” Murdock says. “Anyone can learn to juggle with people to help teach you.”

He said he agrees you never grow out of juggling.

The hardest trick Murdock says he can do is a pattern called Burke’s Barrage. He described it as a complicated trick where he continuously juggles three balls while maintaining the circulation of the other three balls, then imitating it with the other hand.

Andrew Severin, graduate student in biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology, says the fun in juggling is that there’s always something new to try.

“Knives, torches, flaming devil sticks – after a while it’s not hard to juggle anything,” Severin says.

He has even taken his juggling a step further to include items that weren’t meant to be juggled.

“I juggled eggs once,” Severin says. “It turned out pretty messy.”

Although the club attracts people from a wide range of majors, the people drawn to juggling seem to share a few characteristics.

“Jugglers are really friendly people,” Murdock says. “They’re like cats. They’re the people that like to watch things flying around their faces.”

The club is hosting JuggleFest this weekend, highlighting some top performance skills, including flaming torches.

Severin says performing for others is one of the main reasons he continues juggling after 14 years.

“I like how you can bring smiles to people’s faces,” Severin says. “The awe in a child’s face when they see you juggle for the first time.”