My Story

A children and youth circus
of a unique kind

It all started when I joined a children’s and youth circus in my hometown of Hagen in Germany when I was 12 years old. Unlike what you think, this was no ordinary circus that traveled from town to town. The kids and teens, ages 10 to 17, spent over a year practicing different genres they were interested in – from plate spinning to aerial acrobatics to club juggling.

Then, every summer vacation, there was a three-week circus camp where the tricks they had learned over the year were consolidated once again. The circus directors and trainers then worked with the circus participants to create a performance ready for an audience. Each year, there was a different creative theme that guided the program. The finished variety show was then performed at the end of the circus camp in a real circus tent in front of more than 300 people. There was an average of 9 performances per circus camp and almost every performance was sold out.

Bastian stands in the circus ring as a young diabolo beginner and prepares his diabolo to play.
Bastian and the other diabolo players show their diabolo tricks in the circus ring.

Practice makes perfect in diabolo

It quickly turned out that my great passion was playing the diabolo. I was fascinated by the seemingly effortless trick combinations of the older boys and girls in my team. In the beginning, it was a great overcoming for me to perform in front of a large audience. I made many mistakes and knotted my strings with sweaty hands. But performing as a community always calmed me down and gave me strength.

Bastian stands in the circus ring and plays two diabolos around his arm.
Bastian stands in the circus ring and plays two diabolos around the leg.

Full of ambition and motivation, I trained daily and improved my skills. At some point, I reached the stage where the circus trainers could no longer teach me new tricks. So I painstakingly taught myself new tricks via video tutorials (which were anything but user-friendly). At weddings, birthdays, graduation parties, talent contests, etc. I then demonstrated my skills and continued to develop.

Bastian shows an impressive knot trick with two diabolos.
Bastian juggles fire clubs, spits fire and plays diabolo at a circus performance at a school.

On a circus mission in faraway Costa Rica

During high school, I applied for the state-supported volunteer service “Weltwärts” in a circus project in Costa Rica. When I was selected for the project, I could hardly believe my happiness and jumped for joy. For one year, I accompanied children and teenagers from difficult socioeconomic conditions to teach them juggling and acrobatics.

A newspaper article about Bastian with pictures of fire breathing and juggling.
A human pyramid of the participants of the children and youth circus in Costa Rica.

The aim of the social project was to offer the young people a meaningful leisure activity to keep them away from street crime and drug use. Just like my circus in Germany, the Costa Rican circus rarely traveled around. Training took place regularly at the circus center in the city, or we trainers visited the individual districts to train and prepare performances with the young people there.

This year had a great impact on me and broadened my intercultural awareness enormously. The circus received regular international visits from artists from all over the world. We also visited a circus festival in Nicaragua. Through the exchange with other artists, I was able to expand my technical know-how of diabolo enormously.

Bastian performs a diabolo trick with two diabolos to live music.
Bastian and a group of children from Costa Rica at circus training.

Now I want to share my years of experience as a diabolo coach and teach you how to play diabolos properly. Get tips & advice on the most diverse diabolos tricks.

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