“Whatever you throw [to] me, I will catch it,” Jonathan Billing confidently announced to the other members of the Cornell Juggling Club. Sounding more like they were dividing up a restaurant bill, Billing and three other jugglers discussed the logistics of their next group juggling pattern.

After working out how many counts the pattern should be, how many items they would each be juggling, how frequently they would pass to one another, and where they would each be juggling in relation to one another, Billing threw in another suggestion to increase the difficulty of their four-person Y-pattern: “We should try rotating it.”

He proceeded to explain — in a series of instructions that sounded like a foreign language to the untrained ear — in what order everyone should switch places and when they should turn and switch directions, and concluded by explaining that, “You’ll each always be facing the same person at all times, so if you do it right it should look like you’re constantly moving in a circle.”

Billing, a SUNY Cortland graduate who also instructs the juggling class for the P.E. department, provides much of the instruction to juggling club members — both to novices and advanced jugglers alike. Although he is not a Cornell student, it was originally family Cornell connections that brought Billing to the club.

After growing up in the area and learning how to juggle as a youngster, Billing got involved in the Cornell Juggling Club, because “it’s only Ithaca’s biggest [juggling] club, so I started to come up to Cornell from high school. Also my brother [Gregory Billing ’08] was Juggling Club president for the previous two years.”

Although the exact membership count is a little fuzzy, Billing said, “We have about 300 people on our mailing list and usually we have a core of five to seven people who come to every meeting and then we have another 10-15 people who sometimes show up.”

One of the advantages to being one of the biggest juggling clubs in the area is that Cornell’s club is able to sponsor a Juggling Festival every year. The three-day festival usually occurs during the fall semester — although this year it will be during the spring semester due to room reservation constraints — and features a show with guest jugglers. Although the SAFC is a partial source of funding for the festival, the club pays for the rest of it.

“It’s a self-sufficient festival,” Billing explained. “So any money that we put in we end up getting back. We sell shirts and we only charge for the show, though, the actual festival is free.”

Nate Marshall, grad, (who noted that he performs as “Nate the Great”) fondly reminisces about festivals past.

“One year we had 11 [guest] jugglers from Montreal staying with us,” Marshall recalled. “We went to the diner and were juggling — we had six-creamer overhead passes going.”

Although Marshall has already graduated, because of its size, the Cornell Juggling Club attracts a number of grads and non-students, such as Marshall and Billing. Billing explained that as long as a certain percentage of the club’s membership is made up of current students, non-students and alumni are allowed.

Despite the club’s attraction for old-timers, Billing emphasizes that the Cornell Juggling Club welcomes newcomers; according to Billing, anyone can learn how to juggle.

“Juggling, when it’s broken down, is very simple, in my belief,” Billing said, “like 90 percent of people can juggle with a little bit of practice.”

Many of the club’s members, though, attribute their improved juggling abilities to the helpful instruction they receive at Juggling Club practice.

“I spent eight years on three balls,” Nick Voerg ’11 said. “And I came [to a club meeting] once and learned [how to juggle] four balls.”

Olivia Hentz ’13 said, “My dad has tried to teach me [to juggle] moderately in the past … So I’ve tried juggling before and I can ride a unicycle, so I thought I’d combine the two.”

“I’ve never juggled before in my life and could never do it,” Sam Bobra ’13 concurred. “I’ve always wanted to learn — it’s an important life skill.”

“Yes, it is [an important life skill],” Hentz agreed. “You never know when objects will be thrown at you, and you’ll be expected to throw them to yourself repeatedly.”