Juggler's World: Vol. 43, No. 2

Notes

• Several juggling acts won prizes at recent circus festivals. At the 14th World Festival of the Circus of Tomorrow, silver medals went to Spain's Antonio Alvarez and Czechoslovakia's Zdenek Polach. Poland's Sos Petrossian won a special prize. During the concurrent 5th World Festival of the Circus of the Future, Daniel Hochsteiner from Germany won a silver medal, and Michel Arias won a special prize.

• Another European winner was Red Ryder, A.K.A. Ryder Schwartz, who was a finalist and the top-rated solo juggler at the first annual Varietipreis Festival in Stuttgart, Germany, in January. He was one of eight finalists chosen to perform from 32 invited entrants for the televised final night of the festival. Schwartz opened his 10-minute act as a tough motorcycle punk, juggling up to four "hubcaps" in Frisbee style. A flashy confetti explosion cued an on-stage costume change and a hat, cane and ball routine that included some magic illusions. That was followed by a comic sight gag, and a cigar box routine with pirouettes and spins. He finished as a cowboy character doing five and four clubs, as well as three clubs and his ten-gallon hat. Under the management of The Jugglers Network, Schwartz is back in Europe this summer working a disco stage in Lausanne, a variety theatre in Stuttgart, and at the Polygon Theatre in Zurich in July and August.

• Here in baseball season we find this year's Topps card of St. Louis Cardinals infielder Craig Wilson depicts him juggling. He's not the first with this honor, though. The 1988 Donruss #648 features Orel Hershiser juggling three baseballs also!

• Any more juggling vanity license plates out there? Only one sent in this issue: JUGGLE - Timothy Sullivan of Newport, R.I.

• West End MarketPlace in Dallas, the first festival urban center in Texas and the Southwest, is auditioning entertainers interested in performing for tips in this historic area of the city. For more information, call Alisa Keas at 214/954-4350 during work hours on weekdays.

• Notes on jugglers in circuses gathered from various publications:

  • Eric Brenn at the Tigerpalast variety club in Germany.

  • The Jaromy Duo with the Martin Hanson Christmas Circus in the Netherlands.

  • Serge Percelly with the Menschen-Tiere-Sensationen show in Berlin.

  • Three Jugglers with the Shrine Circus in Monroe, La. - Sampion, Jurgens and The Carlos Duo. Fernando & Irene Bautistas with the Cole All Star Circus.

  • The Caros and the six members of the Los Fernandes with Circus Vargas.

  • T.J. Howell at Busch Gardens in Tampa.

  • Vlastec Bertini at the Florida Circus Festival, along with Nicklaus Souren and his sister, Delilah Zerbini, and Timothy and Lynea Hernandez.

  • The Casey Cainan Duo in Paul Lee's Magic Show.

  • The Torres Brothers with Circus Vargas.

  • Ibrajim Macias juggles on slack wire and does five clubs, four balls and ping pong balls with Bentley Bros. Circus.

  • Five rings of simultaneous juggling with Carson & Barnes Circus - Tonino & Freddy Rosales, The Padillas (Alejandro, Romel and Sebastian, and Rosa Alena), The Rosales Family (Jorge, Carmen, Ricardom, Chicu), The Ramirez Family (Betty, Ruth, Richardo, Edgardo) and Christine Byrd.

  • Bob Welz juggles and serves as ringmaster with the George Hanneford Family Circus in Ft. Lauderdale.

  • The 19th edition of the Royal Lichtenstein Circus includes juggling by James Myers, Darren Peterson, Joe Reichlin and Bill Tomber.

  • The Espanas with the Great American Circus, as well as Milton Zamudio, who juggles on the trapeze.

  • Amy Muller with Kelly Miller Circus.

  • Jose & Antonio Olmeda with George Carden Circus.

  • Mauricio & Julie Drougett with The Famous Cole Show.

  • Duo Anastasini doing diabolo with the Yankee Doodle Circus.

  • Christine Weiner Herriott with Plunkett Brothers Circus.

  • Bob Welz with the Hanneford Circus.

  • The Daniels, Kris Kristov and Ivan & Son in a three-ring "juggling jamboree" with the Beatty Cole Circus.

  • Big Apple Circus includes a clown gag with Oaf and Mr. Fish juggling eggs. The eggs are real and the yolks fly!

  • David Lucas with the "Zing" show at Harrah's in Reno.

  • Justino Zoppe eliciting high praise for his moonwalking imitation of Michael Jackson while juggling with the Medinah Shrine Circus in Chicago.

  • T.J. Howell at the Circus World Museum in Baraboo, Wisc., for the summer.

  • In Ireland, jugglers included Three Rusu with Fossett's Circus, Abdul Azikee with Tom Duffy & Son's Circus, Richard Courtney with Big Top Circus, Corellis with J.B.A. Brothers Circus.

  • In England, Andrew Van Buren with Royalle's Circus Spectacular, The Faltinys from Czechoslovakia with Gerry Cottle's Circus.

  • the Soviet antipodist Nadia Krushnikova with Circus King.

  • Austen Brothers Circus includes a number called "Juggle!" which ultimately involves 10 jugglers. David Konyot attempts to learn from a book, white-faced clown Jeff Jayes emerges from a giant white clown hat to juggle three clubs, joined by Jo Robley-Dixon, David Hibling, Michael Austen Jr., Andy Kemp, Pam Konyot and antipodist Rebecca Austen. This leads up to the entry of Maria Garcia, who ascends and descends in a headstand on the trapeze while juggling.

• Bud Markowitz of The Orange Jugglers in Los Angeles got the enviable opportunity to give a juggling lesson to actress Michelle Pfeiffer. Markowitz got a part in the upcoming movie, "Frankie and Johnny and Claire de Lune" through his football stadium friendship with the film's producer, Gary Marshall. Markowitz plays a regular at a Greek restaurant, and did some juggling in two scenes. Pfeiffer, who stars in the film along with Al Pacino, mentioned to Markowitz that her boyfriend juggles, and he gave her a quick lesson on the set. She apparently hasn't been practicing much, but since Markowitz has joined the Screen Actors Guild he should have plenty of opportunities to give lessons to other stars.

• Also to be seen on the silver screen is Greg Kovacevich, who juggles in the carnival scene of the new movie "Giant of Thunder Mountain." The movie stars Richard Kiel and was filmed in Yosemite National Park, near Kovacevich's home in Fresno.

• Bryan Nash in North Hollywood, Calif., a professional juggler for the past two years, has appeared in a number of spot roles on television. He was on the former NBC show "Sunday's Best" and in a pilot for a new show, "Mimi and Me." He did unicycling in the movie, "Shakes The Clown," and juggled torches in a night carnival scene in "Ricochet," an upcoming film starring Denzel Washington. His specialty is four torches, but his act also features clubs, balls and cigar boxes.

• In Munich Markus Markoni was joined by Owen Morse, who wanted to see the European scene first-hand. Others headed to Europe for the summer included Terry Hurd and Susie Williams, who planned to perform together before returning to the states for the St. Louis festival. Markus also reported excitement building about the European convention in Verona and the Tbilisi convention in Soviet Georgia, with several Americans planning to make the long journey.

• Kris Kremo is fulfilling a promise made seven years ago to perform with Circus Knie during its 700th Swiss Anniversary Season. Knie's entire lineup this season is Swiss performers, and Kremo grew up and learned juggling in that country.

• The Associated Press ran a national wire story and juggling photo about Gary Isaacs, a mechanical engineer who "traded his slide rule, business suits and six-figure salary for a bright red nose and floppy shoes." Isaacs, who holds a master's degree in mechanical engineering from MIT and a graduate business degree from UCLA, decided he really wanted to be a clown. He enrolled in Ringling Brothers Clown College, graduated and was looking for a job in his new field at the time the article was written.

• The Fettucini Brothers, Steve Langley and Sean Sullivan, have taken their comedy juggling act on the ocean. They got their first cruise ship job in February, plying the waters between Ft. Lauderdale and the Bahamas for three weeks on the SS Mardi Gras. They've been back on board Carnival's ships several times since then. They juggled at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, have done several comedy clubs and were filmed for the cable show, "Works In Progress." They're also hoping to get onto the college circuit through representation at seven regional conventions of NACA this year. They signed off the report saying, "that's what's up in the fast-paced, slam-bang, live-on-the-razor's-edge, laugh-in-the-face-of-death world of the Fettucini Brothers!"

• The American Dream Comedy Team spent time this spring in Australia, appearing three times in one week on the nationally broadcast "Midday with Ray Martin" television show. Actually, John Park was only on the show twice to Scott Meltzer's three times. The first time Scott was on the show by himself because he couldn't find John. Later, John, who is working hard on the cups and saucers kickup trick, met Aussie Llynda Nairn (nee Gobi), whom many people may remember doing the same trick in the SUNY-Purchase convention public show. She gave him some good hints, but he is still soliciting suggestions for a good last object to kick into the last cup besides the usual lump of sugar or teaspoon. Any suggestions?

• Friends and colleagues from the Chelmsford (England) Juggling and Unicycle Club formed a guard of honor when John Hawkins and Naomi Helen Cook were married in February. John, a postman in Chelmsford, took up juggling four years ago. He says he won't be juggling the wedding china, but may give it a whirl with three rolling pins the couple received as wedding gifts.

• Comedy juggler Dieter Tasso is appearing with the Tommy Bartlett Show in Wisconsin Dells, Wisc., through early September.

• The April 22 issue of "The New Yorker" magazine includes a short article on Lottie Brunn. It begins with a description of Gregory Popovich's act with the Moscow Circus, and segues into a visit with Brunn. It includes some biographical material and her assertion that numbers juggling means very little if the act is not "beautiful" above all.

• Bob Goetzelman of Ft. Myers, Fla., took his clubs along for a ride on a parasail and managed a cascade that got him pictured prominently in the Ft. Myers New Press. Goetzelman, who operates the Gulf Coast Juggling Institute, said the wind was very gusty, the experience very enjoyable, and that he'd do it again. He didn't explain how he'd pick up those drops, though!

• The Festival of the Circus of Tomorrow in Paris awarded medals to at least two jugglers. Antonio Alvarez, a 19-year-old Spaniard, won a silver medal and the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Trophy. Her will tour Canada this summer with the Bouglione Circus. Czech juggler Zdenek Polach also won a silver medal.

• Jonathan Seglins and his partner, Jonathan Austin, wrote a special show about handling business affairs and trusting in partnership for the national sales meeting of Planters-Lifesavers. They juggled five balls together and passed six torches on tall unicycles. Seglins was headed for the British Isles this spring.

• Another feature of the Planter-Lifesavers multimedia show was a video of Dan Menendez and his keyboard juggling. A few seconds of that act will appear in a Planters "everyone loves a nut" TV commercial. Menendez appeared at the President's Ford's Theatre Show in March, performing for George Bush and some top generals fresh back from the mideast war. He also did more than a dozen NBA half-time shows last season, and appeared at the Nugget in Reno for two weeks in April.

• Pierre-Auguste Renoir, the famous French impressionist painter, juggled. It's a fact, according to the magazine OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY WEEK. The April 25 edition reports that Dr. James S. Louie of the UCLA med center has studied Renoir's rheumatoid arthritis for 30 years, and discovered that Renoir juggled leather balls to improve his agility, among other exercises and methods of coping with his disease.

• Lovell Buchanan will be clowning around this summer at Willow Valley Inn in Lancaster, Pa. His nightly tent-show production of Prof. Funfoolery's Vaudeville Variety Extravaganza will feature a three and four ball comedy juggling routine. He's also an experienced magician, cartoonist, clown and puppeteer who builds many of his own tricks and technical stage props.

• Appearing at Holland Village theme park in Japan last winter, Cindy Marvell fell off a unicycle and fractured an elbow. She hastily concocted a new one-handed show for the month in which she was in a cast. Other jugglers there at the same time were Victor & Manuel Zuniga, Jeanne Wall and Brad Zupp.

• Gene Jones, Guinness World Judge for Juggling, reports that another record has fallen recently. Bruce Crevier has successful spun 15 basketballs at once!

• Dave Buase of Reading, Penn., got some good press for a four-week juggling class he taught there. The 55-year-old copy shop owner says juggling helps him relieve the stress of the work day and he wanted to share the joy with others. Jim Kerr of Anchorage, Alaska, was also featured in a two page photo feature about his class at the university there.