Cigar boxes are popular juggling props. Their rectangular shape resembles that of its namesake; they are sometimes padded on the ends and/or the sides with a felt-like material.

Routines performed with cigar boxes include quick midair box-exchanging tricks, balancing tricks, and more. Most tricks are done with three boxes; few jugglers perform tricks with more than three boxes in their routines. Cigar boxes are a standard element of a gentleman juggler-style routine.(clarification needed)

Rather than the "flowing" style of ball juggling, cigar boxes have what is often referred to as a "stop-and-start" style. In effect, this means that after the majority of tricks the boxes return to the home position (three or more boxes in a line, smallest ends together) and stop before the juggler starts the next trick.

Most cigar box tricks are achieved by bouncing up and down (normally from the knees, keeping one's arms in the same place relative to one's body). The trick is started at the apex of the 'bounce' and the boxes are pinned in the home position on the downstroke, preferably at the same altitude at which they started. This leads to the visual effect of the boxes being connected by an invisible wire (in tricks where the boxes not involved in the trick are separate; see take out) or it can appear as if the boxes are magnetic in some way (where two boxes remain 'stuck' together in the air; see end round below). This is just an illusion; the boxes are not in any way connected.