One late night, two self-confessed circus obsessives notice that circus performers lack a platform where they can share ideas. The fix? Circus Geeks, a blog and theatre company that focuses on the nerdier sides of circus, run by its creator Arron Sparks, self-taught juggler Jon Udry and circus school graduate Matt Pang. For their next trick, the trio present Beta Testing, a balancing act of circus knowledge, TED talks and – oddly – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Sparks takes a sip of coffee upon admitting that meeting for coffee is an “ever-developing pattern” in his life. Locations for interviews are picked with the best coffee in mind and serious thinking is done with mug in hand. Beta Testing, too, was devised by Circus Geeks in a coffee shop. It was developed from their more popular blog posts into a funny, inventive show that analyses logically approaching life, social awkwardness and excuses.

Beta Testing, though, is mainly about juggling and people who love juggling. Unavoidable, really, when the trio responsible met at a juggling convention in their early teens. Like many others, Sparks was obsessed with yo-yos as child. “But”, he laughs, “when everyone else moved onto other things, I stayed with the yo-yo”. He soon joined a juggling club which catered to yo-yo artists. “After a year and a half at the juggling club, I thought I should probably learn to juggle”. Six years later, Sparks was accepted to study at the The National Centre for Circus Arts where – after suffering through performing other circus tricks such as trapeze – he graduated as a juggler.

Sparks attests much of his success to luck. “I developed quite a commercial seven-minute solo act which I performed in cabarets and other shows. I was quite business-savvy. I could perform it anywhere. I could perform it on this table…” he says, gesturing in the busy coffee shop and I half-wish he did just that. “I was lucky to get scouted”. He applies the same luck philosophy to Beta Testing: “audience reactions have been really good. We’ve been very lucky with that,” as too, he thinks, they have been with the show’s funding.

I suggest that he makes some of his own luck: circus has a tradition of graft, and the work behind Beta Testing is no different. Performances involve 12-hour days with the three providing their own lighting. They are not just jugglers but directors and technicians, performers and actors. This is an example of why Sparks thinks “one of the great things about being a circus performer is that it bleeds into so many other art forms. You can push the direction you want to go. If you got really into circus and contemporary dance, that is totally feasible. Whereas if you were just a contemporary dancer, you would have to be a lot luckier to get into certain venues.”

Beta Testing performance are being received well, but there is always the potential for mistakes with juggling. “To me,” says Sparks, “that’s the beauty of it. It’s as close to real as you’re going to get in circus… Some circus disciplines are perceived as more dangerous and riskier than others. Juggling doesn’t seem very dangerous but the risk is pretty much genuine. You can drop even on the simplest task. But it’s very rare that a tightrope artist will fall off. You can celebrate failure in it: no one dies if I drop. And the way we get around that is playing on it comically or taking it on the chin.”

Ultimately – just like one of its inspirations, TED Talks, and the juggling convention at which the trio met – Beta Testing involves people driven by curiosity who love what they do. In juggling, there’s always something new to learn and, likewise, in politics, sport and sceptical thinking. Sparks aspires to interweave these ideas into future shows such as his solo yo-yo show Down-Up, which examines how ideas come about. I ask how he explores that with a yo-yo; there is a silence and then “with difficulty” – but, of course, Beta Testing overcame the same troubles. And, right now, Beta Testing is what Sparks is concentrating on. “It’s based on an emerging art form, is an accessible show but still weird and fun, and something really different that people will enjoy”.

Beta Testing is playing Jacksons Lane until 30 April and Udderbelly London until 21 June. For more information and tickets, click these links http://www.jacksonslane.org.uk/ and http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/