iTopSpin
Current Posts => Latest Spin => Topic started by: Spinningray on September 19, 2010, 08:45:10 AM
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(http://www.jochenschell.de/media/lightbox2/Jochen-Schell-2,-Photo-W.-Reinhardt.jpg)(http://www.jochenschell.de/media/lightbox2/Jochen-Schell-3,-Photo-W.-Reinhardt.jpg)
(http://www.jochenschell.de/media/lightbox2/Schwert.jpg)(http://www.jochenschell.de/media/lightbox2/Jochen-Schell,-Photo-K.-Loch.jpg)
(http://www.jochenschell.de/media/lightbox2/Jochen-Schell,-Photo-W.-Reinhardt.jpg)
(http://www.jochenschell.de/media/lightbox2/Jochen-Schell,-Photo-M.-Spillner.jpg)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBpdqzL4j7A (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBpdqzL4j7A)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AawlLQf-xRU (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AawlLQf-xRU)
http://www.jochenschell.de/pages/english/welcome.php (http://www.jochenschell.de/pages/english/welcome.php)
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Jochen is so good in providing drama and a great spectacle. Obviously the main inspiration is the Japanese spinning top art (e.g. the sword and the fan balance) but he has included modern top stuff: I have seen him do a corkscrew (with a topdog).
I hadn't seen the second video. It is interesting that he spins the topdog counterclockwise but the larger tops clockwise. I have a video of him doing monobolo with a very flat one that almost looks like the second top: I need to check in which direction it spins.
If I recall correctly, he is German but lives in England. So there IS some top spinning in that country.
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I enjoyed both videos thanks Spinningray for finding these. I found it odd that the second video was titled "Plate spinning on a sword" ??? I also noticed he switched rope/string with his koma, big to start, smaller for tricks. Really well done with the live band.
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I just checked his site and it seems he is back living in Berlin, Germany.
I think this is the first topdog I see custom dyed/painted:
(http://www.jochenschell.de/media/bilder-left/4.jpg)
From his site:
"When Jochen Schell saw the Japanese artist Koma Zuru in a French Circus in 1988 he was impressed and wanted to know more about the subject. Mr Schell met Mr Zuru but he had to find his own way with the tops. Over the next couple of years Schell used his lathe to build and experiment with many different shaped spinning tops. While practicing his skill with the tops themselves Jochen gave careful thought to the character and presentation that he would adopt for this new act. As he had when he built up his Diabolo act and his Ring act, his focus was on the creation of uncommon stage pictures. The importance of the "single sequences" (as opposed to the more mobile transitions) brought him around to the more traditional "gentleman juggler" character. But from there he couldn't help but add the darker twist that is his own personal touch."
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Cool stuff, thanks Alan!
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Lots of drama. Wow!
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Excellent videos.
Jochen sure knows how to capture an audience and maintain a high level of drama with visual appeal.
Thanks for posting it Alan!
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Awesome videos, thanks for posting
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bunch of awesome. so... y'all think the top on the sword was magnetized?
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Nope. I say there is a groove in the sword. I'm guessing, but A) how else could it be done so easily? and B) when you see the end of the blade it looks really wide to me. Has to be a groove.
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I always wonder why in the heck Jochen Shell even throws tops. He looks so unhappy when he does it. Not me. I'm smiling my tail off when I throw!
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My guess is a step change in diameter at the very tip of the top. The edge of the sword is riding on a tiny shoulder of the step change in the tip. The sword has a small straight section right near the tip. When the top slides down to the tip, he just balances so that it stays within that small straight section of the sword tip.
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well, i think it's grooved, magnetized, and has a step change in diameter.
if the question had been "how would you do it?" first i'd say "very carefully" and then i'd use a step change in diameter on the tip of the top.
in about the 4:50s on the video you can see the tip of the sword and it does look really wide and flat... at the end of the run when he hops the top off the end, the motions are really smooth, so if it is magnetized it's really slightly magnetized...
i dunno, magic saliva?
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I always thought there was a groove in the tip, maybe in a small ball bearing captured at the tip. I've seen one koma performance and it was really neat but didn't get to see the koma up close.
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Those videos were awesome, but I couldn't help but visualize what it must be like trying to explain to security at the airport why he's got a samurai sword, lol.
"Why don't you understand, it's simple, I walk a spintop down the blade of the sword and then balance it on the tip, THAT'S why I carry the samurai sword, geez!"
lol, o.k. probably not like that, but I just like the thought.
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hi all
i met jochen at a euro juggling convention 6 years ago
at that time he was performing a "rings" number in the "gala" show whereas yo-chi and I were doing yoyo/spintops in the amateur section
but all the same he took time talking to us , showed and played his homemade bearing spintop (the look of a frisbee , photo 4 in alan's post)
he also had a top dog , did corkscrew, and also a boomerang with a twist :
he would "catch and pass" in one move , the top landing on the edge of his hat
we were really impressed , and he is quite an "icy" cat but we finally found a way to "kill" him : yochi did his 2A punching bags to vertical loops and i landed (modestly) a boomerang in a beer cap
as for his looks , i remember a casual type, quite different from what he IS on stage (shaven , with devilish glance)
the sword and top trick is not phony at all :
no magnetism , no glue,no groove in the blade,
just a custom tip and a lot of work
anyway : jochen is in another dimension : did vegas , cirque du soleil , Bejin ,and other major dates
jim
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Very informative Jim, thank you.
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I remember that one time, he wrote a commentary in the second video "trompo_cuerdas" questioning me about the music.
Like one year after that, I answered him.... :-[
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Thanks for the info Jim, now that we know is a custom tip and alot of skills, the video is even more impressive
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ARACNOCTAMBULO......are you saying that Jochen Shell has posted on this site? If he has, I didn't realize it. Actually, I am sure he has been here and looked at some of our pictures and posts. I guess I never thought about him posting a message here. He has really developed a fascinating style.
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ARACNOCTAMBULO......are you saying that Jochen Shell has posted on this site?
I think he meant on youtube.
But I wouldn't be surprised if Jochen checks us out from time to time.
Hallo Jochen! :D
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ARACNOCTAMBULO......are you saying that Jochen Shell has posted on this site? If he has, I didn't realize it. Actually, I am sure he has been here and looked at some of our pictures and posts. I guess I never thought about him posting a message here. He has really developed a fascinating style.
I think he meant on youtube.
But I wouldn't be surprised if Jochen checks us out from time to time.
Hallo Jochen!
Yes, that was in the youtube´s channel.
That was in the second video "trompo_cuerdas" I posted. The first one was very bad definition, was not very clear. I deleted it.
The second one I posted I did it with high definition, and was in this second video I posted, when he wrote this..."Incredible...but the music?". The user´s name was "Schellatti" or "Schelatti" , or sth like that.
I clicked in his user´s name and I saw the videos where He puts the top on the edge of a sword or sth like that, the same vidoes that appear here, in the topic of this forum.
His question was strange to me, I didn´t get what he meant, because the song is very well known.
I didn´t give it importance, and I put a message in his youtube channel, long, long time after he questioned me.
That was five months ago, I know that ´cos I just have rewiewed his channel before to write this, and my comment still is there.
He has not answered me, I suppouse he will do it in the same period of time I answered him.... :P
You can check this by seeing his channel and watching my comment:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Schellatti (http://www.youtube.com/user/Schellatti)
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a more extensive version of his act
Jochen Schell, Master of the Tops (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2VJFEAYE9Y#ws)
and a bit from a Russian? talent show
Supertalent Minuta Slavy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyfPdpLcqIs#)
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I wonder if those are made out of delrin?
His acrobatic play is better than I remembered, I like the hybrid koma style.
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The koma tops with the western tips work very well for him. I did notice he used two ropes, one for launching and a shorter one for the tricks. I also thought his six top body balance was excellent especially with the quarter turn he made with all the tops balanced.
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Jochen is excellent!
On a diabolo dvd I have he is in the bonus section doing a difficult and dynamic routine with flat monobolos/tops, so I bet he is also good at acrobatic top play.
He is also a member of this forum! ;D (but I don't know how often he checks it).
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Im a huge huge fan of Jochen!
I met him once at an European Juggling Convention and he didnt do much with a fixed tips (I dont know how much to belive... he is a true master).
I really love the spintop staking trick he performs, is one of my dreams:
(https://i.ibb.co/R2VdysN/Spintop-Piramid.png) (https://ibb.co/R2VdysN)
I have a friend with a lathe (turning machine tool) who could help me in the building process. Both of us with Zero experience but willing to learn!!
Next to my place there is a bearing shop (10000000000 bearing models!)
Would you help me in this quest?
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Very impressive! Especially like the frisbee-style starts with the frisbee-like chonkakegoma.
Looks like at least some of the tops have bearing stems that he can hold/manipulate at speed. Lately, I've been experimenting with the same idea in finger tops. Lots of fun!