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No really, there was literally someone behind David Bowie during those crystal ball scenes in Labyrinth.
We all know that Bowie is a talented guy but one thing that he can’t do is the type of juggling that was required for those scenes, something called ‘contact juggling’.
To do the contact juggling the producers of the movie brought in Michael Moschen, who is a world famous juggler. He had the extremely uncomfortable job of manipulating David Bowie’s balls having to jam himself behind Bowie and pretend to be the arms of Bowie’s character, the Goblin King.
To make things worse he had to do it all blind. He had to stay out of the camera shot, which meant that even getting a small glimpse of the crystal balls was out of the question.
I saw some behind the scenes footage of these scenes being filmed and let’s just say that there were a lot of crystal balls crashing to the ground lol. There was a guy off to the side ready with a box of crystal balls to hand to Moschen.
Michael Moschen looked totally miserable during these scenes, even to the point of looking pissed off at some points. I can’t say I blame him. David Bowie however was very calm and patient and even seemed to get a kick out of how bizarre the whole setup was.
Hats off to Michael Moschen who had to do a very difficult job and pulled it off nicely. In case you haven’t seen it or don’t remember here’s a clip of one of the crystal ball juggling scenes in Labyrinth. Just imagine that crammed behind David Bowie is a very grumpy Michael Moschen:
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Very interesting facts. I saw Labyrinth years ago. This makes me want to see it again. Sharon
Sharon,
Who knows you might even like it more now, I know I did.
At least this method made it look real. Today, they would’ve used CGI or whatever and that would have ruined it. RUINED IT!! :-)
Hi StumbleBum,
True that!
Hi, I love your blog! XD
Just made me want to watch the movie again
Hi Roxy!
Happy to hear that you liked the blog :). How long has it been since you last watched Labyrinth?
It had been a long time for me and I like it even more now, though some parts are just hilarious lol.
Probably watch it about 12 years ago, i’m 27 now. I found it to be pretty awesome when I first watched it, being David Bowie Fan and all, I couldn’t find it over the weekend I really wanted to watch it again, now when I see that part, I won’t be that amazed at bowie! haha it’s all about Michael Moschen!!! lol… noo I still love David Bowie :)
If you have Netflix they have it on both instant streaming and DVD. I agree with you that Bowie is awesome, the movie wouldn’t have been good without him imo.
So looking forward to your next post :)
Thanks, I definitely appreciate you reading the blog! Just posted something today about a guy called Unzi The Albino, a crazy looking guy with a crazy life 0_0 http://anitasnotebook.com/2012/02/mystery-of-the-old-school-fro-solved-unzie-the-albino.html