Busking Juggler Isaac Hou

Though he "takes the stage" without any fanfare, he immediately commands the attention of passing pedestrians. When he starts up his music and begins his routine-bending over to pick up a crystal ball, then bringing his palms together and letting the ball hang suspended between his fingers-there's something both beautiful and poetic in his movements. It's as if he's brought the ball to life as he slides it back and forth across his arms, his palms, the backs of his hands, his shoulders, and his fingers. As this brilliant solo show, one of the most elegant and graceful sights to be seen on our city streets, continues, the watching crowd grows and deepens.

Isaac Hou, a 29-year-old overseas Chinese, began performing fire dancing and crystal-ball juggling in Taipei's Ximending four years ago. Last year, he added a unique new Cyr-wheel spin maneuver to his routine-Hou plants his hands and feet inside a ring about six feet in diameter, then spins rapidly around the axis of his spine. When done properly, the wheel takes on the appearance of a giant copper coin spinning on its side. Completely calm at the center of the ring, Hou rolls it around like a tire then angles it more and more acutely until it faces almost straight down while whizzing rapidly around. Utterly gripped by the performance, the audience rewards him enthusiastically.

Over the last year, Hou has been performing for an hourly rate at corporate functions in addition to his weekend shows on Ashanti Square in Taipei's Xinyi District. So far the high point in his career was the invitation for him to perform his crystal-ball and Cyr-wheel routines at the closing ceremony of Kaohsiung's World Games in July.

Poised and serious onstage, Hou demonstrates a childlike enthusiasm for the world in his personal life. Traces of his youth still course through his veins, keeping him free of cynicism and curious about everything.

The new styles of juggling focus on the expression of ideas. Their blends of object manipulation, body language, music, and lighting effects appeal to sophisticated and unsophisticated audiences alike. In the photo, Hou performs with a crystal ball at the 2006 World Music Festival on Drum & Dance.

Childhood dreams

Hou was born in the United States to Taiwanese immigrant parents. If he'd followed the typical path, he would have done what his older brother (and his parents) did: graduate from university then get a steady job in computer engineering. "But I had unusual dreams as a kid," explains Hou, speaking slowly and carefully in not-quite-fluent Mandarin. "One was to study martial arts at the Shaolin Temple. The other was to perform. I just never liked school and couldn't imagine being cooped up in an office job. It drove my parents crazy, but they couldn't do anything about it."

Juggling and circuses were thriving in the early 1990s, and no doubt inspiring many children to attempt to master juggling and ninja moves on the sly. But Hou's passion continued to burn long after most had set these dreams aside; when he reached adulthood, he thought long and hard about whether he had the talent for a career in performance.

At age 22, he began studying juggling at a Danish school for performers. By the time he enrolled, he'd already spent four years working part-time in Europe and knew that "juggling on the street with a partner was more interesting and lucrative than janitorial work." The school enabled him to learn more systematically and, by introducing him to some of best people in the field, helped him feel less alone in his chosen profession.

The school offered courses on an incredible variety of subjects, but was terribly expensive. One-on-one training ran NT$2,000-3,000 per hour (including rental fees for the location and equipment). After three months, Hou, who was supporting himself, couldn't afford it any longer. He and a friend with whom he'd studied partner acrobatics decided to go to Russia. "The tuition and living expenses were lower there, so we could afford eight hours of intensive training per week. We planned to travel and busk together once we'd finished training. We were going to take the world by storm."

The new styles of juggling focus on the expression of ideas. Their blends of object manipulation, body language, music, and lighting effects appeal to sophisticated and unsophisticated audiences alike. In the photo, Hou performs with a crystal ball at the 2006 World Music Festival on Drum & Dance.

Performing solo

But three months eating, drinking, sleeping, and training together "like husband and wife" had the two arguing incessantly. They went their separate ways. Left a wreck by the loss of his partner, Hou came to Taiwan "to earn a little money teaching English and figure out what to do next." Taiwan has little in the way of a street-arts community and few resources for study, but it was here that he decided to embark on his solo busking career.

Hou affirms that busking solo feels very different from busking with a partner or group. "Without a partner, you become the sole focus of attention," he explains. "You see how every single person reacts to your performance, and you never know if people are going to just glance at you then walk away. I would have been hurt if they had done that. I probably would have packed up my things and scurried away."

Hou hates to bother people (to the point that he gets embarrassed if his stereo is turned up too loudly). But an aimless year in Taiwan and a depressing 24th birthday gave the impetus to try busking in Ximending to break out of his rut. His reticence leaves him as he thinks back to those days. "I really didn't know how to begin, and finally just did whatever," he recalls. "If I hadn't, I'd never have gotten started."

Hou's props were as simple then as they are now (the only difference being the lack of music), but his movements were incredibly fluid. When his audience responded enthusiastically, he felt an enormous weight lift from his shoulders. More importantly, he started learning more quickly once he started getting out and performing. "Busking helped me establish a baseline, gave me direction, and showed me that I didn't need to fixate on really over-the-top techniques."

The new styles of juggling focus on the expression of ideas. Their blends of object manipulation, body language, music, and lighting effects appeal to sophisticated and unsophisticated audiences alike. In the photo, Hou performs with a crystal ball at the 2006 World Music Festival on Drum & Dance.

A juggler's discipline

Hou takes two jazz dance, one ballet, and one tango class per week in addition to the 15-20 hours a week he spends practicing with a Cyr wheel in a borrowed warehouse space. The dance classes help him relax his lower body, improve his rhythm and balance, and give him access to dance techniques that he can use to enrich his performances.

Hou has also made two study trips to Montreal, Canada (where the Cyr wheel was invented) to further his study of wheel techniques and the development of his own style. He practices hard every day, and has paid his dues in the school of hard knocks-his numerous injuries include sprained fingers and toes, a cut on his forehead that took 13 stitches to patch up, and a shoulder injury that required two months off and still pains him slightly. (This last injury occurred while practicing two techniques that he developed himself- coin spin, which is done while facing the ground, and the more frightening tail spin, which is done while facing upwards.) That's not to mention his scarred and calloused hands, and his regular appointments with a physical therapist.

"Sometimes all the practicing wears me out," says Hou. "But I have yet to find anything more fulfilling than juggling." He argues that juggling is interesting both for its structure and methods, which allow you to advance and transcend yourself one step at a time, and for the fact that juggling skills allow you to perform to your heart's content; you don't have to be stuck in an office.

"Buskers have no boss to please, and are open to attack and ridicule from their audiences. They're strong people, and create marvelous things," says Chang Wang, director of Headspring Theatre and an ardent proponent of Taiwan's street performance scene. Speaking of Hou, Chang remarks: "He's one of the few geniuses on Taiwan's busking scene, and understands better than anyone the importance of constant practice."

Hou, who touched down in Taiwan after visiting more than 10 other countries, will be eligible to obtain a national ID and settle here formally next year. Supported by his wife, a Polish Canadian woman he met here, Hou currently has no plans to leave Taiwan. "My family thinks this is a pretty good way to further my career, too," he says. "I plan to continue performing while studying a little bit about business management on the side. If I have the chance, I'd like to sail around the world someday. And if I ever save enough money, my old age would make a fine time to go back to school," he adds with a grin.

The new styles of juggling focus on the expression of ideas. Their blends of object manipulation, body language, music, and lighting effects appeal to sophisticated and unsophisticated audiences alike. In the photo, Hou performs with a crystal ball at the 2006 World Music Festival on Drum & Dance.

Hou says that Ximending's streets are somewhat glossy, making them well suited to performances involving fire. On the downside, the area is also very noisy and very crowded. On the other hand, the Xinyi District's Ashanti Square offers wide-open spaces and a relatively "sticky" surface that make it a good place for "rolling." Hou just has to be careful to avoid areas that are canted to aid runoff.

The new styles of juggling focus on the expression of ideas. Their blends of object manipulation, body language, music, and lighting effects appeal to sophisticated and unsophisticated audiences alike. In the photo, Hou performs with a crystal ball at the 2006 World Music Festival on Drum & Dance.

While his audiences are awed by the difficult, balletic movements of his Cyr wheel, Hou himself is just spinning happily, the lines of his body and his muscles all radiating his joy. courtesy of Isaac Hou)

The new styles of juggling focus on the expression of ideas. Their blends of object manipulation, body language, music, and lighting effects appeal to sophisticated and unsophisticated audiences alike. In the photo, Hou performs with a crystal ball at the 2006 World Music Festival on Drum & Dance.