A teenage juggler is taking Dundee worldwide — after being sponsored to film his tricks in front of the city’s landmarks.
Schoolboy Luke Davies, 17, has been juggling for just five years, but he already appears set for stardom after being commissioned by UK-based company Juggle Dream to video himself performing for their website.
The Tayport lad has even been asked to travel all the way to Canada to perform for a club, but Luke had to pull out so he could continue his studies at Madras College in St Andrews.
But in his spare time, Luke somehow finds up to five hours a day to practise and recently made a video showing off his tricks in front of landmarks such as the Caird Hall and the RRS Discovery for Juggle Dream.
Luke said: “It was great fun and I just wanted the video to feature some of the cool places around the city.
“I normally try to do juggling away from people in case it puts me off, but you often get people stopping and watching, which is really nice. One woman even handed me a fiver, even though I tried not to take it, but she insisted.”
When Luke finishes school he only has one ambition, and that’s to become a world class juggler, performing around the world and even taking part in competitions on TV.
He can already juggle 10 balls — just one short of the world record — and he firmly believes he will reach his target.
He said: “It all started about five years ago when I was at a gala, there were three balls there and I thought I might as well give it a go. Within 10 minutes I had figured it out myself and it just carried on from there. I can now juggle 10 balls and I’m working on 11 at the moment.
“This is definitely what I want to do as a career though. I’ve always had just below average grades so I’ve never wanted to do anything else.
“I want to get my studies done first, just in case, but juggling is definitely my main focus now.”
When Luke first started juggling, his family and friends laughed off his ambitions to become a star, but now they’re all right behind him.
He said: “Everyone dismissed it at first, but when I showed my teachers that I could juggle nine balls, they were astonished.
“And at the start, my mum wasn’t very impressed either. I would regularly show her what new tricks I could do and I think it probably got a bit boring for her. But now that I’ve stuck at it so long and really improved, she’s become really interested.
“So much so, she has spent £300 on equipment for me.
“Everyone is really supportive of me now and fingers crossed it’ll all work out.”