By David Cain
In just the past two weeks, jugglers have asked me about two old school balancing tricks involving a newspaper. One involves balancing a burning cone made of newspaper while the other involves balancing a large sheet of newspaper from one diagonal corner. Let’s take a look at them.
The Burning Cone Balance
The Burning Cone Balance is a trick I’ve read about for many years, but I’ve rarely seen it done in person or on video. The earliest reference to it that I know comes from New Juggling Tricks by Ellis Stanyon, the first known juggling instructional pamphlet, published in 1901. In this pamphlet, the trick is referred to as “Balancing a Paper Bag”. You can see it below.
The trick was included in the first full-length juggling instruction book, The Art of Modern Juggling By Anglo (1907). It is called “The Volcano” in this book.
The trick appeared in other juggling books over the years and occasionally appears in act descriptions during the middle of the twentieth century.
Below you can see British juggling icon Steve Rawlings experimenting with the trick.
Mark Williams found that using tissue paper makes the trick go very quickly, as you can see by clicking here.
Obviously, only very experienced jugglers should try this trick, and only under controlled conditions with proper safety precautions. Eye protection would be greatly advised. As stated in the original Stanyon pamphlet, the cone can be balanced without setting it on fire. This might be the best suggestion for most jugglers.
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The Diagonal Newspaper Balance
The second newspaper balance is more difficult to find historical references on, but the trick is definitely old. The earliest reference I’ve found to it comes from the September 1946 Juggler’s Bulletin, where Joe Marsh provides the following illustration of the balance, calling it “the old newspaper balance”.
Joe Marsh illustration, 1946
It involves taking a single large piece of newspaper, making a crease or two from a bottom corner to a top corner diagonal from the bottom one. The newspaper is then balanced on the performer’s nose or forehead as pictured below.
Charlie Frye balancing a newspaper
You can see the trick performed by Soviet juggler Boris Gavrilin at the 35 second mark of the following video. He even rotates 360 degrees under the newspaper without it turning.
Well-known juggler and juggling teacher Lauri Koskinen has made a tutorial video teaching the method he uses to do this trick. You can see it below.
These are two fun tricks that require a readily available newspaper. If you know of any other historical accounts of the Diagonal Newspaper Balance, please let me know.
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).