BY: JACKIE HONG
PHOTOS BY: LISA MACINTOSH
Jordan Kells performs in Dundas Square most days during the summer, but his act is quicker to drop jaws than, say, Toronto Batman or Spiderman.
The 24-year-old’s act is a form of contact juggling – he moves a clear acrylic ball around his body with an ethereal fluidity that, when combined with his chilled-out, slightly trippy music is absolutely enthralling.
“It doesn’t matter what age they are, when people see my act, they’re just, like, jaw-dropped and totally mesmerized by it,” Kells said.
Originally from Wasaga Beach, Kells first picked up contact juggling while hitchhiking across Canada four years ago
“I was sorta trying to figure out what my thing was going to be, you know? ‘Cause I really had no clue in high school,” he said. “It wasn’t until I left and went travelling I started like practicing different things, like trying to busk on the streets. And that wasn’t really working out. Then I thought I could be a farmer, that didn’t really work out. Then my one friend was juggling… had an extra stage ball, just a rubber ball, and I decided to start learning how to roll it around my body and balance it all over the place, and it just clicked. And then I started performing right away, to get a cigarette off somebody or get a couple of bucks here and there.”
