Anthony Gatto A Tiny Tower Of Juggling Talent

Proving at age 9 that nothing is impossible!

By BiIl Giduz, editor

Davidson, North Carolina

 

Anthony Gatto's January jaunt to Paris will be recalled by entertainment historians in the future as the launching pad for his professional juggling career.

 

A few people around his Ellicott City, Maryland, home have seen him perform at corporate parties, and several hundred IJA members watched in astonishment as he won the 1981 Juniors competition and placed second in the U.S. Nationals this past summer.

 

Actually, millions of television viewers have already seen him during an often-rerun appearance on "That's Incredible."

 

But in Paris, knowledgeable and influential circus and nightclub managers from around the world saw Anthony win a gold medal at the Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain (International Circus of Tomorrow).

 

The contract offers began pouring in, and unless fate intervenes cruelly, they won't stop until Anthony himself does.

 

His father, trainer, and chief cheerleader, Nick, accompanied Anthony to Paris while his mother, Barbara, stayed home to take care of the rest of the family and mind the pipe shop.   "I'll miss him; he's only nine years old. I'm not ready to let him go," said Barbara before he left.

 

She couldn't have known at that time that Anthony would win, but her comment bespoke the terrible knowledge that her son would be leaving home for good.  That motherly emotion hints at an aspect of Anthony that the entertainment world knows, and cares, very little about - that besides being a phenomenal juggler, he's just a mother's normal son.

 

But after four years of practice in dad's pipe shop in the local shopping mall, it is time for the 4'3", 60-pound "wunderkind" to take his place among other world-class juggling entertainers.   He shows signs of surpassing them all. An aunt of the great Rastelli, upon seeing Anthony perform in Paris, said Gatto was more accomplished than Rastelli at that young age.

 

She and 6,000 other spectators witnessed him demonstrate mastery of five clubs, control of seven balls and rings and combinations of balance and juggling appropriate for the classiest big tops of the world. He received a standing ovation and several curtain calls from the audience, and was interviewed on a popular French television show by host Michel Drucker.

 

He was the only American competitor among the more than 30 entrants, and the only Western performer and only juggler to win one of the five gold medals. Other winners were three Chinese performers and a Mongolian contortionist.

 

Before the week was over, Anthony had flown to Hollywood to film another segment of "That's Incredible," been interviewed for a "People" magazine feature and flown off to Australia for an 11-week all-star circus tour.

 

It's a totally different view of life from that of a mother who sees a child bringing her flowers, playing on the living room floor with his brother and nursing to health an injured turtle he has found squashed in the road.

 

As all child-stars do, Anthony now finds himself uprooted from the familiar environment of a family, pets, and schoolmates, cast into the lifestyle of a profes­sional performer. Adjusting to the lifestyle will probably be a far more difficult task than keeping all those objects aloft and in balance, but those close to him have no doubts he'll make the adjustment successfully.