I'm probably mis-remembering the story, but I believe they were Penn Jillette's balls that Michael Moschen used to invent "contact juggling". Moschen's hands were the ones doing David Bowie's ball playing. The balls aren't gimmick'd, he's just good with his hands.
Fun fact. Bowie had a sack of potpourri next to his other sack since he felt bad the juggler guy was so close to balls for hours at a time.
You even see it in the movie!
Director: After you have unprotected sex with multiple partners in your trailer... could you shower before we do the scene?
Bowie: Put some potpourri near my balls.
What a legend.
You’re half right.
Michael Moschen didn’t “invent” contact juggling*, but those were his hands when the Goblin King was doing his thing.
*He was definitely the biggest innovator of the art form, to the point where he might as well have invented it.
So much Bowie package in dance baby dance.
(Memory is weird i totally had it in my head as dance baby dance) thanks for the correction. Going to go watch it now on plex.
This is actually called Contact Juggling, and those Fushigi balls were quite dangerous as they could shatter when dropped.
If you're interested in learning Contact Juggling, I recommend [Contact Juggling by James Ernest](https://amzn.eu/d/dMB4b8h). It takes a lot of patience and practice, but once you learn the basics, it's actually quite meditative.
I remember being mildly intrigued and entranced by this commercial, then I saw the ball in the As Seen on TV section at Duane Reade and took it out of the box... and it was just a fucking ball. Just plain acrylic, no special gadgetry to assist. They were really selling this ball as if it would give you this skill, but no. You could learn "contact juggling" with an orange or something. It was such bullshit!
I went to college in the early to mid 2000’s. There was a kid that would stand outside one of the buildings and do this at least once a week trying to get attention and people to talk to him. No one did.
Saw 2 guys who were positioned near the entrance of the cafeteria. They practiced something unidentifiable (probably has something to do with ancient Chinese weapons, made harmless for practice). They did not only chose the entrance, they desperately looked at people passing by to give them attention. Oh boy oh boy was this hilarious and sad at the same time
Its generally an outside toy, the acrylic spheres are super heavy and make really loud noises when dropped. You drop often when doing this kind of stuff. Practice balls for indoors are usually silicone or vinyl.
This reminds there was a guy in the mall that would do this. I'm not even sure if he was selling them. But I do remember he had a sign that he was for hire for birthday parties. Not sure how much business he got...
No I'm pretty sure most people would avoid losers like that guy. They give off the same vibe as my little pony loving fedora wearing, trenchcoat wearing guys do.
One of these almost burned my room down. I left it on my bed and the sun shifted just right that it acted like a magnifying glass, and burnt a hole in my comforter.
That's crazy. Fun fact: the instructions say very emphatically "DO NOT leave on dashboards, window sills, or ANYWHERE near sunlight!" But the DVD instructional that's included says right at the very beginning "Fushigi is fun, and totally safe around sunlight ☺️"
Guy’s acting like he invented contact juggling. Shit is extremely difficult to learn. Each clip of first time users is less than a second long. Ridiculous
The American Dream right here. Make something, market it, reach the youth (or at least make enough of them look like they like it), and you're set. Doesn't matter whether or not it actually makes any sense lol.
hey are you tired of real doors cluttering up your house where you open them and you actually go somewhere and you go into another room, get on down to real fake doors thats us fill a whole room up with them, see watch, check this out it won't open, won't open, not this one, none of them open, fakedoors is our website so check it out for a lot of really great deals on fake doors
Then he leaves the set, drives home, dealing with traffic along the way, makes a sandwich at the house, then reveals that it's still the same fake doors commercial. 😁
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h58uT\_BGV4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h58uT_BGV4)
>The REAL
>
>Fake Doors
>
>[www.fakedoors.com](https://www.fakedoors.com)
>
>"Don't even Hesitate" "Don't Even
>
>Worry" "Don't even Give it a Second
>
>Thought" "See it at the bottom of
>
>our screen, below our name"
>
>*That's our slogan! Here's another slogan!*
>
>"What are you worried about?
>
>Come get FAKE DOORS!" "Get in
>
>here quick, ... Get out Quicker, with
>
>an arm of fake doors in your arms."
ruthless butter payment historical rainstorm skirt plate ten sheet innocent
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Your wish is my command [https://www.reddit.com/user/RamenTheory/comments/1chbi55/fushigi\_ball\_commercial\_without\_music/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/user/RamenTheory/comments/1chbi55/fushigi_ball_commercial_without_music/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
If they were anything like me, they wanted one badly but their parents saw through the gimmicky stupid ad and refused. My parents foresaw a very disappointed child and prevented that, and I appreciate that.
If you're still interested, I recommend reading [Contact Juggling by James Ernest](https://amzn.eu/d/dHoq7GY). It's a quite intuitive book for learning Contact Juggling, but be warned: it takes A LOT of practice and patience to learn, but it is quite meditative once you learn the basics.
This reminds me of the ventriloquist dummy craze that swept the nation in the 90s...crazy kids were even buying ventriloquist dummy CDs! Too bad the east coast/west coast ventriloquist dummy/rapper war put an end to it...
My buddy has been hand juggling since he was little and this shit pissed him right off. Bunch of hacks at Ren Faires and Raves doing it all wrong...
/He was a bit of a gatekeeper, but he made the juggler in Labyrinth look like a noob.
My parents got me one when I was like, ten? Whenever it came out at least. Was so disappointed cause idiot child me thought it would be easy but couldn’t figure out how to actually do any tricks (fair cause I’m clumsy af still) and it just hung around in my and my brothers toy boxes until it disappeared when we moved lol.
I've been contact juggling since the mid 'aughts. This commercial bugged the crap out of me. It trivialized a skill that took years to master, meaning that it both diminished the time and effort it takes and it also lessened the impact of a good technique.
The one good thing about these balls is that the chrome ball in the middle blocks the sunlight from focusing into a heat beam of death.
shocking truck exultant attractive cooing vase bells aback foolish disarm
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
They or a similar company used to hire kids to sell them at HS football games.
One of my friends at the time picked up juggling as a coping mechanism when he was in a mental hospital and it was a way for him to make a little money and reenter the social sphere. I don't think he made any money.
i wanted one of these SOOOO bad when i was a kid and then when i got older my brother got his hands on one somehow and brought it home and honestly, it was kind of a let down.
Nope. It's a juggling skill you have to learn, practice, and be proficient with to even hope to look as good performing it as those in the commercial. There are people who do it with actual crystal balls because the weight of the glass helps. But this product was an acrylic ball and an instruction manual or dvd.
It's called Contact Juggling. Essentially, juggling without throwing the ball. It stays in contact with you.
I learned the basics not by buying this product but by a friend who was a student of Michael Moschen. I never mastered it. But I was able to do some pretty impressive moves nonetheless. I used to practice with a billiard ball. But I used a crystal ball too.
I love that episode of Napoleon Dynamite where Kip does Fushigi. Uncle Rico thinks he can make money from Kip performing, but he says the name "Kip Dynamite" isn't flashy enough, so he goes by the name "Kip Create" instead.
The guy who invented Billy Bob teeth reportedly made $54 million. This is not an endorsement, just a little factoid that rattles around in my brain and makes me wonder wtf I'm doing with my life.
https://billybobproducts.com/
All I think of when I see this is David Bowie playing with his balls in Labyrinth.
I'm probably mis-remembering the story, but I believe they were Penn Jillette's balls that Michael Moschen used to invent "contact juggling". Moschen's hands were the ones doing David Bowie's ball playing. The balls aren't gimmick'd, he's just good with his hands.
Fun fact. Bowie had a sack of potpourri next to his other sack since he felt bad the juggler guy was so close to balls for hours at a time. You even see it in the movie!
Director: After you have unprotected sex with multiple partners in your trailer... could you shower before we do the scene? Bowie: Put some potpourri near my balls. What a legend.
Didn't believe you but damn, thats just downright courteous.
You’re half right. Michael Moschen didn’t “invent” contact juggling*, but those were his hands when the Goblin King was doing his thing. *He was definitely the biggest innovator of the art form, to the point where he might as well have invented it.
This guy juggles
Having someone else do your ball playing? Classic Bowie.
So much Bowie package in dance baby dance. (Memory is weird i totally had it in my head as dance baby dance) thanks for the correction. Going to go watch it now on plex.
*dance magic dance And also Jump magic jump
PANTS, MAGIC PANTS!
I send it to the wife once and awhile https://i.imgur.com/j95f9wv.gif
I really wish the sub let us post gifs as comments.
This is actually called Contact Juggling, and those Fushigi balls were quite dangerous as they could shatter when dropped. If you're interested in learning Contact Juggling, I recommend [Contact Juggling by James Ernest](https://amzn.eu/d/dMB4b8h). It takes a lot of patience and practice, but once you learn the basics, it's actually quite meditative.
You remind me of the babe…
…What babe?
The babe with the power…
What power?
Power of voodoo…
...who do?
You do.
Do what
Remind me of the babe.
Remind me of the babe.
“David Bowie” playing with his balls in Labyrinth. It was probably one of these dorks.
I remember being mildly intrigued and entranced by this commercial, then I saw the ball in the As Seen on TV section at Duane Reade and took it out of the box... and it was just a fucking ball. Just plain acrylic, no special gadgetry to assist. They were really selling this ball as if it would give you this skill, but no. You could learn "contact juggling" with an orange or something. It was such bullshit!
Bullshigi
/r/bullshido
And at least you could eat the orange.
I bought one of these stupid ass things too. Smh
The emo girl on the phone lmao I had completely forgot about that
Mom!! Guess what!!!!
FUSHIGI ISN’T A PHASE GAWD
I went to college in the early to mid 2000’s. There was a kid that would stand outside one of the buildings and do this at least once a week trying to get attention and people to talk to him. No one did.
How do you know he was trying to get people's attention? Maybe he was just deep in the Fushigi zone, Man, you wouldn't get it
Saw 2 guys who were positioned near the entrance of the cafeteria. They practiced something unidentifiable (probably has something to do with ancient Chinese weapons, made harmless for practice). They did not only chose the entrance, they desperately looked at people passing by to give them attention. Oh boy oh boy was this hilarious and sad at the same time
Its generally an outside toy, the acrylic spheres are super heavy and make really loud noises when dropped. You drop often when doing this kind of stuff. Practice balls for indoors are usually silicone or vinyl.
Poor bloke. Hope he made friends some other way later in life.
The devil sticks did it
Heh
Well then, off to new horizons. (New horizons being ventriloquism, card tricks, unicycling, juggling, and finally sticking the landing on ham radio)
Nah, it was acoustic guitar. Sitting outside the cafeteria/market with an acoustic guitar and ponytail. Trying to attract girls.
I'm gonna be honest, though. Ponytails are cool as shit.
Did he have a ponytail?
But im fine now
This reminds there was a guy in the mall that would do this. I'm not even sure if he was selling them. But I do remember he had a sign that he was for hire for birthday parties. Not sure how much business he got...
Dude's booked through 2027 charging clown prices.
So he can afford to dress like Wesley Snipes?
I joined the smokers tables and decades later I’m still friends with half of them. Haha! I did stop smoking though. Horrible Habit.
If only there were a Fushigi table
Yeah because everyone was going home to play with theirs. It swept the nation.
Do you think he’s all right?
Yet HERE WE ARE TALKING ABOUT HIM. who's the loser now, dad?!?!?!
I love this story.
I would avoid someone like that, it sounds really cringe. I wonder if he ever figured out that it had the opposite effect he was hoping for.
You should "Super" at the beginning of your name
No I'm pretty sure most people would avoid losers like that guy. They give off the same vibe as my little pony loving fedora wearing, trenchcoat wearing guys do.
One of these almost burned my room down. I left it on my bed and the sun shifted just right that it acted like a magnifying glass, and burnt a hole in my comforter.
That's crazy. Fun fact: the instructions say very emphatically "DO NOT leave on dashboards, window sills, or ANYWHERE near sunlight!" But the DVD instructional that's included says right at the very beginning "Fushigi is fun, and totally safe around sunlight ☺️"
They also were quite dangerous because they could shatter when dropped.
Guy’s acting like he invented contact juggling. Shit is extremely difficult to learn. Each clip of first time users is less than a second long. Ridiculous
The American Dream right here. Make something, market it, reach the youth (or at least make enough of them look like they like it), and you're set. Doesn't matter whether or not it actually makes any sense lol.
...like one of the advertisements that Rick and Morty would watch on TV in an alternate universe or on an alien planet.
hey are you tired of real doors cluttering up your house where you open them and you actually go somewhere and you go into another room, get on down to real fake doors thats us fill a whole room up with them, see watch, check this out it won't open, won't open, not this one, none of them open, fakedoors is our website so check it out for a lot of really great deals on fake doors
Then he leaves the set, drives home, dealing with traffic along the way, makes a sandwich at the house, then reveals that it's still the same fake doors commercial. 😁 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h58uT\_BGV4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h58uT_BGV4) >The REAL > >Fake Doors > >[www.fakedoors.com](https://www.fakedoors.com) > >"Don't even Hesitate" "Don't Even > >Worry" "Don't even Give it a Second > >Thought" "See it at the bottom of > >our screen, below our name" > >*That's our slogan! Here's another slogan!* > >"What are you worried about? > >Come get FAKE DOORS!" "Get in > >here quick, ... Get out Quicker, with > >an arm of fake doors in your arms."
Lmfao, it cuts out right as the girl goes, "I get it now! Th" haha She was probably about to say, "This is just a plastic ball with a hollow center!"
“Best of all it’s amazing!!!”
Nope. It's Happy Fun Ball or nothing
Do not taunt *FUSHIGI.*
ruthless butter payment historical rainstorm skirt plate ten sheet innocent *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
If fushigi begins to smoke...get away
Kurtis Conner did a great video on this about all the hype the commercial delivers vs the underwhelming product itself.
Literally just a ball.
Gotta be one of the greatest ads of all time.
The antigravity boots was a great one too
Sauce?
https://youtu.be/IVwERXiRfY8?feature=shared
The Lizard himself?
I remember that commercial. It's amazing how much late night tv we used to consume. Not anymore..lol.
Now we consume late-night social media.
Now remove the music and add random sounds like dudes coughing and sneakers on the ground.
Your wish is my command [https://www.reddit.com/user/RamenTheory/comments/1chbi55/fushigi\_ball\_commercial\_without\_music/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/user/RamenTheory/comments/1chbi55/fushigi_ball_commercial_without_music/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
Hahaha you madman you actually did it!
Guy made a toy to make people better ball fondlers. Smart as hell move
Makes me think of the south park episode with the shake-weight lmao
This ad is so much funnier when you find out that "Fushigi" is just Japanese for "weird" or "strange".
It reminds me of the babe.
What babe?
The babe with the power.
Power of the babe
"How do we get gullible dorks in America to buy these useless balls?" "What if we gave it a vaguely Japanese sounding name?"
Ooo shiny.
*in Homer's voice
I don’t know anybody who owned one of these
Oh my old roommate had one and let me tell You did he try to sell everyone on it.
Like a pyramid scheme or something lol
Not, *not* like a pyramid scheme
If they were anything like me, they wanted one badly but their parents saw through the gimmicky stupid ad and refused. My parents foresaw a very disappointed child and prevented that, and I appreciate that.
Lol yeah that's my story also.
If you're still interested, I recommend reading [Contact Juggling by James Ernest](https://amzn.eu/d/dHoq7GY). It's a quite intuitive book for learning Contact Juggling, but be warned: it takes A LOT of practice and patience to learn, but it is quite meditative once you learn the basics.
Yeah I’ve literally only seen it from a magician on X Factor or something like that. Last decade.
This reminds me of the ventriloquist dummy craze that swept the nation in the 90s...crazy kids were even buying ventriloquist dummy CDs! Too bad the east coast/west coast ventriloquist dummy/rapper war put an end to it...
Whoever’s parents put this piece of turd in their stocking at Christmas I feel very sorry for you. I am sorry. Have my slinky.
I remember a kid had one of these then dropped it. It rolled in the sewer lose to time
The funniest part about this dumb toy is that professional contact jugglers straight up *LOST. THEIR. SHIT.* over this being mass-marketed.
is there somewhere i can just watch 2000's era infomercials?
Remember the guy always standing out in front of kb toys demoing devil sticks
Only 19.99$ or corrected for todays inflation, 89.99$
Wasn't this a huge scam?
Yep just a regular ball and not a particularly good one either.
I absolutely seen this at like 3am on an adult swim commercial in 2006
My buddy has been hand juggling since he was little and this shit pissed him right off. Bunch of hacks at Ren Faires and Raves doing it all wrong... /He was a bit of a gatekeeper, but he made the juggler in Labyrinth look like a noob.
I had 2 of these things. Though, I feel like I got more use out of them than most people. I was already familiar with contact juggling.
This guy ended up on American greed lol
Got one as a kid thinking it would be as easy as it looks. Dropped it on my toe and didn’t touch it again. Still have it in my drawer though
My parents got me one when I was like, ten? Whenever it came out at least. Was so disappointed cause idiot child me thought it would be easy but couldn’t figure out how to actually do any tricks (fair cause I’m clumsy af still) and it just hung around in my and my brothers toy boxes until it disappeared when we moved lol.
Apparently it's super difficult to learn even if you're not clumsy!
I remember this commercial aired in the 2000s, and I think this was my earliest exposure to emo anything. XD
I've been contact juggling since the mid 'aughts. This commercial bugged the crap out of me. It trivialized a skill that took years to master, meaning that it both diminished the time and effort it takes and it also lessened the impact of a good technique. The one good thing about these balls is that the chrome ball in the middle blocks the sunlight from focusing into a heat beam of death.
shocking truck exultant attractive cooing vase bells aback foolish disarm *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
You don’t say….
They were also quite dangerous as they could shatter when dropped.
I had one. Gave it to a friend that loved that stuff.
I have one of these somewhere, never learned how to do it
It's what all the Alt kids are doing!
I absolutely can’t stand the dickhead with the ponytail.
He's also the guy who teaches you how to Fushigi on the instructional DVD included
They or a similar company used to hire kids to sell them at HS football games. One of my friends at the time picked up juggling as a coping mechanism when he was in a mental hospital and it was a way for him to make a little money and reenter the social sphere. I don't think he made any money.
Should’ve learned from the yoyo craze and sent Fushigi World Champions to visit schools to perform tricks at school assembly
That guy with the ponytail swore he was killing it with those moves LMFAO😂
guys with ponytails often think they are killing it
i wanted one of these SOOOO bad when i was a kid and then when i got older my brother got his hands on one somehow and brought it home and honestly, it was kind of a let down.
Every generation has a Pet Rock
I saw one of these at a thrift store with acompanying dvd
so you swept that baby right up, right
Woah. Core memory unlocked
So how do these work, do they have a gyroscope inside or something?
Nope. It's a juggling skill you have to learn, practice, and be proficient with to even hope to look as good performing it as those in the commercial. There are people who do it with actual crystal balls because the weight of the glass helps. But this product was an acrylic ball and an instruction manual or dvd. It's called Contact Juggling. Essentially, juggling without throwing the ball. It stays in contact with you. I learned the basics not by buying this product but by a friend who was a student of Michael Moschen. I never mastered it. But I was able to do some pretty impressive moves nonetheless. I used to practice with a billiard ball. But I used a crystal ball too.
Well it's a translucent ball with another metal ball in the center. That's uh, it really
Ah so it's weighted. Makes a little more sense now with the way they handle it
I still have one of these lol
I love that episode of Napoleon Dynamite where Kip does Fushigi. Uncle Rico thinks he can make money from Kip performing, but he says the name "Kip Dynamite" isn't flashy enough, so he goes by the name "Kip Create" instead.
Kurtis Conner has a great bit about these on YouTube
Somehow this evaded me
I see. Damn I missed this
When Ross refers to the self-defense technique as Unagi, I think he meant to say FUSHIGI.
Makes me think of Parks and Rec when the chard guy was trying to make it sexy and they had to have their farmers market after dark
With a little practice you can sit on it!!!!
Me too brother. Me too
Anybody can use em.
paymoneywubby anybody?
I think this thing is either gonna get me laid or a least allow me confuse the senses. LFG.
[all I can think of](https://youtu.be/EYqZJrGV_tc?si=eDEANiCRCiPjs3KP)
This product always made me have flashbacks to the anime Fushigi Yugi.
lol I bought one of these nonsense things in 2011
https://youtu.be/LHit6WQSsoU?si=HLEMi41l2lZDyxx5 Here’s a better version.
So many edit cuts. Making me dizzy.
I love the black guy just says "fushigi"
The G saying the name at the end sold it for me. Talk about social proof…
Goebbels would be proud.
One of my buddies shattered a pipe I had messing around with the Fushigi ball
The 2000s pet rock
Mom I don't wanna be good at this
"Foo-sheegi..."
This reminds me of the Myachi hand sacks.
Never heard of it
It’s……..a clear ball.
I remember this, but what the name actually makes me think of is the manga/anime Fushigi Yugi!
Omg I remember wanting this as a kid and my parents said no lol
Honestly wtf. I am 39 why don't I remember this?
Possibly because you are 39. I am 24 and my younger siblings and I would see this ad on Nickelodeon as children
I'm 56 and I remember this
[удалено]
I was going to say, judging by the outfits it was 2009 ish. I too never say this as I was 21 at the time.
Bet this guy made a million. Good for him. Capitalism is cool
The guy who invented Billy Bob teeth reportedly made $54 million. This is not an endorsement, just a little factoid that rattles around in my brain and makes me wonder wtf I'm doing with my life. https://billybobproducts.com/
I'm 39 and don't remember this ridiculously hilarious informercial.
I have to balls I can play for free with anyday
Stuff used to be soooo interesting and entertaining, now it’s just mind numbing trash for the most part…
Novelty items lol
Omg, what a bunch of redditors.