Any advice on starting or stopping?

I sometimes perform with big 6 inch tennis balls. I can only hold one in each hand but by balancing them and trapping them along my arm I can hold four in one hand quite well.

There are two methods I use for launching into a five big tennis ball cascade:

1.
- Trap one either between my legs or, by standing on one leg, trap it in the crook of my other leg.
- Juggle four balls, throw (in siteswap talk) 44445555 GRAB 55555. A video of me performing this (while drunk) can be found here: clicky

2.
- Hold four balls with my left arm and one in my right hand.
- Throw the first ball as very high, crossing ball to land in the left hand.
- Quickly grab another ball from under the left arm and throw that just as high but not crossing, so it is aiming for the right hand.
- Grab another ball from the left and throw it exactly the same as the first ball, high and crossing.
- Grab another ball with your right hand and leave the last ball in your left hand.
- By now there are three balls in the air and one in each hand. The balls in the air are dropping in perfect time, two towards your left hand and one towards your right.
- Throw the ball from your left hand and continue with the five ball cascade.

When I do street shows I do a lengthily piece that revolves around the audience members throwing me balls, or holding them where I can grab them. Once I'm juggling four balls with one between my legs I drop that fifth ball and get good-looking female audience members to put it back in my general crotch area.

There are many other more elegant ways to start juggling big balls, various kickups and head balances and bounces and throws from the audience. I like the way that Ursepio juggles his HUGE tennis balls (must be 10 inchers). He holds four, somehow, and kicks the last really high. In the Cirque du Soleil show Quidam the juggler ends with a five red football cascade by juggling four and dropping the last in from a head bounce. Steve Ragatz starts with a head bounce but without the juggle. Ben Jennings can balance a ball on the top of his head while juggling four others.

No matter how you start to juggle five big balls, the really challenging bit is stopping! I'm very much a "throw them all at the hapless volunteer" type guy when doing a street show and while it gets laughs there are many far more elegant ways to do that too.

Referring back to my previous examples, Ursepio throws one high, gathers four in his arms (somehow) to make a square in front of him. The last ball is caught in a huge pyramid shape. In Quidam the juggler had about 20 helpers acting like seals who he deftly passed the balls to and they rolled them out of his way. Steve Ragatz gathers four under his left arm, throwing the last ball high to give him time and space in the pattern.

There is no right or wrong way to do it. The way you start and stop juggling five big balls depends very much on lots of factors:
The size of the balls
The surface of the balls
The bounce of the balls
The juggler's skill level
The character of the juggler on stage

I simply found the easiest way to do the trick and built an act (or part of an act) around it. On the other hand, if you just want this trick to be your big finale, find a way to do it that looks fantastic. Grabbing a ball from between your legs doesn't look good, bouncing a ball on your head does. Experiment with as many different methods you can and find one appropriate to your requirements.