Jay Green (born Gerald Greenberg) is an American juggler best known for the innovative props he has created, including the first modern, multi-piece club with a cushioned handle and foam knob and end cap. In Part 1, we examined Jay’s historic clubs. Now let’s take a look at his other innovative props, almost all of which include Jay’s iconic prismatic decorations.
Jay Green with his history-making clubs
The Break Apart Devil Stick
Jay Green was the first person to create a plastic, break apart devil stick. You can see two examples of these devil sticks from the Museum of Juggling History below.
Jumbo Diabolo
One of Jay Green’s most recognizable creations are his large diabolos. If anyone has one of these they’d be willing to part with, the Museum of Juggling History would love to have one.
Jay Green Diabolo
Color Change Rings
One of the most sought-after of Jay Green’s creations are his color change rings. They are prismatic silver on one side and are multi-color on the other side, with bumpers on both the inside and outside edges.
Silver side
Multi-color side
Jay Green juggling his Supersonic rings, with one showing the multi-color side
Beanballs
Jay created and sold soft-sided bean balls, like the one below.
Jay Green Bean Ball
Spinning Basins
Another one of Jay Green’s most recognizable creations are his spinning basins. These were made by combining a plastic spinning plate with a plastic basin, making for a very visual prop.
Jay Green and a volunteer spinning two basins
Ball Spinning Cone
Jay Green created and sold a plastic cone with a rounded metal tip and an elastic strap to wear on the juggler’s head and spin a ball on. You can see it in the previous photo and the following ones as well.
Jay Green Ball Spinning Cone
Mickey Simple using his Jay Green Cone
Jay Green using his ball spinning cone
I use one of Jay’s cones for the Horn and Rings routine.
Double Walled Spinning Ball
Jay Green has made and sold double-walled spinning balls.
Jay Green spinning balls
Parasol and Wheel
Jay Green sold parasols with very visual prismatic “wheels” for spinning on the parasols.
Parasol with wheels in the center
Jay Green parasol wheel
Jay Green parasol wheel
Spinning plate
Jay Green made spinning plates that had a frisbee attached to the top for additional weight.
Jay Green Spinning Plate
Torches
Jay Green made torches of various types, including standard torches as well as torches that have cones that cover the wick end. These could be taped to the body of the torch, resulting in a club. The cone also protected other props from the torch residue. You can see both kinds below, from a catalog and from the Museum of Juggling History.
Jay Green with torches
Jay Green torches
Jay Green torches
Standard Jay Green torches
You can see Jay use many of his iconic props in the following video.
David Cain
David Cain is a professional juggler, juggling historian, and the owner of the world's only juggling museum, the Museum of Juggling History. He is a Guinness world record holder and 16 time IJA gold medalist. In addition to his juggling pursuits, David is a successful composer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and singer as well as the author of twenty-six books. He and his children live in Middletown, OH (USA).