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Q: How long have you been doing this?
A: So long it makes me feel old. The first place that ever hired me for juggling was Southern Renaissance Pleasure Faire in 1989. That's 20 years.
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Q: Your site seems pretty family oriented. Do you have an adult show too?
A: Due to marketing viability, the website is geared so as to not scare away those that want clean comedy. I have performed at churches with standing ovations. HOWEVER Certainly I do an adult-oriented show as well. In fact I'm well known for it.
"Like what? How adult do you mean?" you might ask.
Example:
(Grasping the hand of a lovely blonde volunteer) "I have always had this fantasy about a pretty blonde.....and a BALD MIDGET PROCTOLOGIST with NO TEETH! ..... I was wondering if later you'd be willing to shave your head and put little shoes on your knees."
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Q: Is (insert trick here) real?
A: I am not an illusionist. I am a juggler. There is a big difference between jugglers and illusionists. You see, when a juggler looks like he’s doing something really cool, he’s actually doing something really cool.
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Q: What is the trick to fire eating?
A: The real trick to fire eating is that it’s not a trick at all. I really am taking a large flaming torch and putting it into my mouth. I’m not saying it’s a smart act, I’m saying it’s an act.
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Q: Where do you do this?
A: Anywhere I am hired. I tend to perform for a lot of Renaissance Faires, trade shows, concerts, and private parties, clubs, etc. I have traveled as far as Germany for a gig. I figure if I went any further I would be coming back.
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Q: How did you learn to contact juggle?
A: Like a lot of art it was born out of tragedy for me. I had a broken heart and went into a park with a couple of Chinese medicine balls. I was watching the way they would roll and thought of different ways to roll them. I applied what I knew from both art and martial arts into coming up with movements that would make one motion flow into the next with the balls, while trying not to break the visual line. There is a common misconception that I stole the idea from a movie or performer. This is not true. I learned how to do it and then saw that others had tried a similar art. If you are sharp you can look at the type of contact juggling I do and notice that the way the motions are put together and the footwork is different from my predecessors, because it came from a different place. There are records that I know of not only of vaudvillian folk doing a lot of the same, but of King Henry the 8th contact juggling a cannon ball. A lot of people tend to look at it as a new art form, but it's been around as long as balls have had the ability to roll and people have been artists.
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Q: How did you learn to eat fire?
A: I learned from an ex-circus performer, Mike Moreena. I had seen a woman do a fire act, and fell in love with the art. I said to my roommate that I wanted to learn to eat fire and like magic within a week Mike showed up saying "I would like to learn to juggle. I can’t pay you anything, but I can teach you to eat fire." A deal was struck. I learned to eat fire, but teaching Mike to juggle proved challenging. He can do it but it took a while.
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Q: What type of fuel do you use?
A: For the most part I use Coleman White Gas for fire eating.. It is both highly toxic and highly flammable. I would not recommend EVER trying something so foolish. I slowly poison myself every time I eat fire. I also use lamp oil, and a type of non-toxic powder for throws blows and breathing.
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Q: How did you learn to juggle?
A: When I turned 15 is used my birthday money to buy the book "Juggling for the Complete Klutz". It’s a funny thing learning a physical skill from a book, but rewarding.
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Q: What got you started as a professional juggler?
A: O.K., this is not a happy story but it has a happy ending. A drunk driver hit me back in 1991. The accident was bad enough that I broke my toe on the back of my own head. I was pushing a 1971 pinto and he plowed into me from behind. I was laid up for about a year with a lot of back, neck, and shoulder injuries. When the disability ran out and my body still could not do an 8-hour day I had to figure out an alternative way to make a living. With my then current skill it came down between a life of crime or juggling and performing. I became a juggler. I fell in love with performing, and even after I healed I stuck with it. I’m not going to say that being hit by a drunk driver was the best thing that ever happened to me, but it did force me to take the necessary risks that it took to make me happy. I have no regrets.
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Q: Why do you do this?
A: For you! OK for me too. See the above.
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Q: Why do you eat fire if it hurts?
A: Again...For you! See the above.
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Q: Does fire-eating hurt?
A: It’s fire, people.
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Q: Is it hot?
A: It’s FIRE, people.
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Q: Do you teach?
A: That is a sticky one. I don’t like to teach a lot of people for a few reasons. Fire eating really is dangerous. I don’t like the thought that I might have taught someone something that helped to burn his or her face off. I like people to take it seriously. Yes I teach juggling, but I often end up creating my worst competition. If you must learn fire eating remember this is natural selection in action. If you are that bound and determined to be Darwin’s little helper, I will charge for lessons substantially to assure that you are serious and don’t just blow it off as a party trick. As for juggling, yes, I teach, but again I will charge. I actually like teaching, but if I am to teach juggling I like to have students that really work on it.
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Q: Has anyone ever told you you look like:
1. Kirk Hammett?
A: EVERY. DAY. Next time you see him ask him if anyone has ever told him he looks like Thomas Wood.
2. Lando Calrissian?
A: Once, and I welcomed the change!
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