Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

  • Boundegar

    Amazing!  I wonder how he played those bass notes when the balls were only hitting the treble end?

  • Rob Gehrke

    Don’t mean to be a spoil sport, and not saying his routine is fake, but the notes we’re hearing don’t always correspond to what we’re seeing regarding the balls hitting the keyboard, so there’s something else going on here in this video.

    • carlogesualdodivenosa

      the notes we’re hearing don’t always correspond to what we’re seeing regarding the balls hitting the keyboard

      Give him a break, he doesn’t look at the keyboard once.

      • http://web.ncf.ca/shawnhcorey/ Shawn H Corey

         He’s looking at the keyboard all the time. The mask in on top of his head; he’s bending over for the whole performance.

        • imag

          Whoosh.

        • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=847810626 Jesse Nikolic
        • Snig

          That’s to keep tigers from eating him. They only attack the piano jugglers who don’t think they’re watching them.  This is why you never see piano jugglers without masks on their heads, as tigers have et all the unmasked ones. 

        • Kenmrph

          Shawn perhaps you have a nice Perl script that can help you parse the above joke.

  • snagglepuss

    The Juggalo Classical Music Minute, brought to you by Fanta and Meth.

  • http://www.facebook.com/dmaclennan2 Darren MacLennan

    I like how the eyes of the mask are pitiless orbs of pure alien perception, staring into your soul and making you realize that it knows about the time that you hit that hitchhiker with your car and drove away before the cops came UNICORN CHASER PLEASE

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mark-Davis/1523730120 Mark Davis

    The only talent here is timing (which nonetheless appears to be very good).  The notes he’s playing do not come from the balls hitting the “keys” – it looks like the keys don’t even depress.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mark-Davis/1523730120 Mark Davis

      Actually it looks like maybe the “keyboard” just generates the timing information, each ball strike moving forward an existing sequence on some other device.  So the timing is more or less irrelevant also.

      • ObeyMyBrain

         Here’s a blog post on NYT discussing the guy. Basically each ball strike triggers the next note in the sequence. It doesn’t matter where he hits but it does matter when he hits otherwise you would notice the tune being off especially in the fast bits. As they say, timing is everything.

        http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/01/02/too-good-to-be-real/

        • http://cobramcgiantballs.tumblr.com/ Xploder

          Yeah, they’re just midi triggers – every time a ball hits, it signals a note to be played so while he has excellent rhythm, he isn’t actually playing anything like you would on say, a piano. Also, if you watch closely, you’ll see one ball sometimes triggering a chord rather than a single note. Had a friend who used to program midi triggers for a band.

      • Rob Gehrke

        Yeah, that looks like what it is. But the timing of the juggling is relevant. So, at least it’s a sort of rhythmic exercise, which is in itself not bad.

        • Baldhead

           timing is always relevant in juggling.

        • LinkMan

          He’s also pretty good at faking it well enough that you have to look REALLY closely to realize that he’s not actually playing the notes. 

  • David Carroll

    I’m sad he didn’t introduce us to his little friend. Perhaps he actually juggles pianos like I was hoping for!

    • http://www.jjsaul.com Jim Saul

      Perhaps that’s the legendary 12 inch pianist. As an aspiring vaudvillian, I bet he named the dummy “Milton Berle.”

  • voiceinthedistance

    Keep your eye on the little guy. He’s clearly in on it.

  • jaytkay

     Ha! I loved that. It’s like a scene from a 1930s cartoon. He could do that with a Betty Boop costume.

  • http://www.facebook.com/arnaud.clermonte Arnaud Clermonte

    People are usually so good at crying “shopped”, even when something is not shopped, and now they call “amazing” this clearly fake performance?

    Listen to it: sometimes 1 ball plays a chord!

    • mccrum

      You also have a lot of notes holding, which requires either the use of the pedal or holding the key down…

    • http://www.ikaink.net Itsumishi

      Who is they? Virtually every comment before yours points out that its set up or faked. 

    • timquinn

      only thing missing is people saying “amazing.”

  • https://plus.google.com/104067355242126774300/posts?hl=en Dennis Smith

    If bill Bailey can do it…

  • Ethan Taliesin Houser

     I think that ventriloquist dummy in the chair is helping him out somehow.

  • Warren_Terra

    Where to draw the line between an outraged cry of “faked!” and an appreciation of a clever illusion?

  • capnmarrrrk

    I came here wondering exactly how the piano juggler was going to get a piano off the ground, let alone 3. This was not what I was expecting. Seriously…I just sadtromboned myself.

  • http://thelizardman.com The Lizardman

    I have worked with Dan & I’ve watched him setup, troubleshoot, & rehearse – yes it isn’t a true keyboard rather a painted surface but there are multiple trigger zones. Timing, location, & number of balls striking (within a somewhat forgiving window) are all important. If you want to know more pay him for schematics, he has built an incredible device & created an amazing act around it and his juggling skills. There is good reason why he has ruled this act for decades and those who have tried to imitate him fail

  • hinges

    Sadly, this is not only a trick, but actually a clone of someone else’s trick – Wally Eastwood (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDB5o9kBPJw ).

    For a more satisfying “juggling to music” experience, try Chris Bliss’ Abbey Road routine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8f8drk5Urw

    • Snig

      Citation?  Quick google suggested the guy featured, Dan Menendez, did it first.

      Also, Chris Bliss doesn’t do it for me. I kind of agree with Jason Garfield http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYUXaYCkv-A

      • http://mightybob.com thatbob

        Seriously?  You’re roping us into a jugglers’ pissing match?

        • Snig

          I thought this site was all about copyright.

    • http://www.facebook.com/phillip.ginder Phillip Ginder

       Definitely the same trick as Eastwood, but I think the mask guy had better timing.

  • http://www.xradiograph.com/ OtherMichael

    Amazing!

    At least, I enjoyed it. Mask, Mini-mask, and all.

    this was a wonderful thing, no matter if it was done in aftereffects or by forcing everyone who watches it to imbibe absinthe an hour ahead of time.

  • Gavin Smith

    What is wrong with all of you nit pickers. You took the time to imagine that you were counting notes, but you didn’t go to pianojuggler.com. This guy is amazing!

  • etim

    So what’s with the dummy?
    “He’s not a dummy, he’s a mannequin!”
    I was talking to the mannequin.
    (insert uproarious laughter here)

  • http://twitter.com/writebastard Ian Wood

    My master has the Slayer’s sister hostage at the Bronze because she summoned him and at midnight he’s going to take her to the underworld to be his queen.

  • kallikanzaros

    Definitely this would benefit from some cowbell

  • donovan acree

    Anyone screaming fake can go out and just do it themselves. It’s easy right?

    Seriously, Dan is an entertainer. Where you not entertained? Since the first time I saw him on Carson back in the late 80′s, I’ve been entertained by his show. It’s a good solid act. Don’t worry about the how of a live act. That’s the least important part.

  • David G

    Hey, it’s fun.  Isn’t that enough?