By TERESSA SCOTT
Teressa@newsroom.byu.edu
Two socks and a handful of rice was inspiration enough for Kevin Bylund.
In those days Bylund was 9, and with a little bit of imagination and a whole lot of practice, he could turn those socks into top notch juggling supplies.
These days Bylund, 21, goes to school at BYU, and, oh yes, in his spare time, he performs world-class juggling tricks.
Over the years, his tools have become a bit more sophisticated. Instead of socks, his bag is overflowing with about a dozen or so balls; they come in about every color and size imaginable. Buried deeper are his clubs and rings. (His knives and fire clubs stay hidden at home.)
'I got interviewed on TV one time, and I told them that one day I wanted to break a world record,' Bylund said.
He hasn't made it to that record yet, but his juggling resume does boast a bronze medal at the 1995 International Juggling Festival. He competed in the 18 and under category. The festival hosts the best jugglers from the United States and around the world.
'I did three, four and then seven balls,' Bylund said. 'I also did three to five clubs, and I got up to about six rings.'
The guy who won first place was a 12-year-old Russian boy with one hand, Bylund remembers.
As a teen-ager, Kevin performed about 80 shows a year with a youth group called Adropalotus. The local art council in Nebraska booked gigs in the Midwest, including tours to Kansas, Missouri and Iowa.
Since coming to BYU, performances have slowed down, but Bylund decided to keep in practice by chartering a juggling club.
'I'm president. My sister is vice president, and my cousin is the secretary,' Bylund joked. By the way, his sister and cousin really can juggle.
The backbone of the club is Bylund and Drew Briney, a law student at BYU. Besides these two, most of the other members come and go.
Briney is the club's unofficial historian. He has researched about every juggling fact out there on the World Wide Web.
Briney says according to Jewish legend David may have slayed Goliath by using some form of juggling.
With all this knowledge, it's hard to believe Briney only starting juggling a year ago. He could juggle three balls as a kid, so he listed it as a talent on his law school application.
'As long as I'm using it on my resume, I thought, I had better start doing it more,' Briney said. 'I did it, and I got addicted.
Between school and his two children, he says it is juggling that helps him kept his sanity.
Briney and Bylund have performed shows at a few of the local elementary schools.
'I like performing for the kids,' Kevin said. 'They start screaming, and go 'wow', even when you screw up.'
Bylund said the biggest problem with audiences, even adult audiences, is that they don't understand which tricks are hard and which tricks are easy.
For example, throwing rings up high can look impressive, but Bylund says it is much more difficult to toss the rings between his legs.
'They think the hard tricks are easy, and the easy ones are hard,' said Bylund, who tries to let the audience know when he's about to perform a stupefying trick.
Bylund's favorite trick is to balance one club on his chin, and then juggle three other clubs in his hands. But with practice, even that trick has become humdrum.
His next conquest is master contact juggling. That's when the ball always stays in contact with the body.
With practice, Kevin said just about anyone has the speed to juggle -- it's the accuracy that gives them trouble. He said most people just don't give themselves enough credit.
'People will come to the club, and then we'll show them how to do it. They'll just be amazed that they can.'