In 1983 Toby Philpott ran a juggling class at the Rubicon dance centre in Cardiff. He had been making a living as a juggler for ten years, but also had spent time promoting juggling and related circus arts through workshops and evening classes. A couple of the founder members of NoFit State came to that class.
Shortly after, the students from that group decided they should form a University juggling club. They roped in Pete Wells who managed the University Juggling club. The benefits included the uni paying for the tutor; some money for equipment, a van plus petrol mileage (for attending festivals) and the use of the main hall. And so Balls Up was born. It was a group of about 25 people (not all students at the Uni) and their interests diversified quite quickly, going from juggling to unicycles, stilts, tumbling and other circus/variety skills. They did discover the network of like-minded people across the country, through the circus festivals run by Goffee the Clown in Hay On Wye in between 1984 and 1990, so a lot of their learning was skill-sharing, At these festivals there were workshops in performance, clown, eccentric dance, and circus technique and Welsh contingent lapped it up and learnt what they could from their peers.
Balls Up Jugglers had a go at busking around Cardiff, and ran a float for Student Rag Week. At times they even did group shows at places like London's Covent Garden.
And in 1985 they performed a full show on Queen Street in Cardiff to raise money for Live Aid. At the beginning of 1986 five members of Balls Up decided to have a go at making a circus company and Nofit State Circus was formed
