Isaac Hou's Incredible Ring Acrobatics

Isaac Hou is a street performer, acrobat, and juggler in Taiwan. His signature work uses a Cyr wheel--a steel and PVC ring that weighs 15 kg. Hou is also a master of contact and torch juggling.

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Here's a video showing him busking in Taipei. It's all amazing, but I'm especially impressed with his performance beginning at the 2:30 mark. Hou is contantly in motion and mesmerizes the crowd.

But Hou isn't limited to work on the street. He's increasingly in demand to perform before live audiences across the globe. It's been a long journey that began in New Jersey, where his parents raised him. They wanted him to be an engineer or work in some other conventionally professional career. But Hou wasn't satisfied with that lifestyle. A 2010 article in the Taipei Times reports:

But Hou was ambivalent about following in his parents’ footsteps because “they just worked themselves to death.” After finishing high school, he traveled around the world instead of heading straight to university, supporting himself with a variety of odd jobs. Before settling in Taiwan, Hou cleaned rooms at a hotel in London, ran errands on a tourist boat in Israel, studied kung fu at Shaolin Temple and lived in Denmark, Russia, Sweden, Spain, Turkey, Egypt and Greece.

Eventually, Hou worked as a juggler's assistant in London. He figured that he could do that work well, so he studied at circus schools in Denmark and Russia and learned his trade.

You can watch more videos of Hou in action at Kotaku.