He did five clubs for the first time in April 1982. Three months later, he put together three straight runs of over 70 seconds to win fourth place in the IJA five club competition.

 

His favorite trick to practice currently is seven balls. As Nick explained, "He's always liked numbers. "

 

Nick continued, "He can't stand still. He has to continue to make progress or he'll be just another juggler. By the time he's 11 or 12 he'll have to be doing nine balls. He's practically doing eight rings now. "

 

Anthony's extraordinary balance gets attention in practice, too, with daily workouts at keeping increasingly short objects perched on his nose. He stands beneath a teaspoon with steady grace, squats to the floor, rolls over and stands again without losing control of it.

 

A calendar in the pipe shop is marked with great moments in Anthony's juggling career. December 16, 1982, proclaims with a big exclamation point that Anthony made 70 right-handed tosses of seven balls.

 

Father and son look to the future in a big way. They practice up to 12 rings by having Anthony toss them to his father rather than trying to catch them himself. Nick explained, "The hardest thing about juggling large numbers is releasing them from your hands cleanly, so we're working on that with this exercise. "

 

Stretching it to the limit, Anthony holds nine rings in one hand and attempts to release them one at a time in an even-paced sequence.

 

His small hands are a serious impediment to juggling large numbers at this point, but Nick feels it is best for Anthony to use full-sized props.

 

Nick tells all who ask that Anthony will be the greatest. He won't stop at being just another Dick Franco, Francis Brunn, Sergei Ignatov, Kris Kremo or Rudy Cardenas, Nick says. He wants Anthony to be the highest paid juggler in the world. "You have to earn a lot of money to get respect as an artiste, and the reason we can command more money than anyone is that he already does more than all the better jugglers around - seven rings, five clubs and the big finish trick. "

 

Nick points to Anthony's meeting with the late Bobby May after Anthony won the Juniors competition in Cleveland in 1981. May, whom many cite as the greatest American juggler of all time, autographed Anthony's first-place certificate with the prelude, "To the king."

 

But don't forget that this superstar is a little boy. He craves Snickers bars and pizza just like everyone else. He picks up polished stones for Christmas presents because he can get them at two for a quarter.

 

In he confines of his family and home, he aggravates his older brother Robbie and laughs with glee as he and Robbie tie their socks together and hop around chasing each other through the house. He kids sister Vicky's boyfriend, saying, "Last time you made apple dumplings they tasted worse than spinach!"

 

Neither he or Robbie have ever missed a day of school, he has a girlfriend and likes bike riding and swimming. He helps grandmother Florence crack and cut up pecans for cookies and falls asleep in the car when he's tired. Normal kid stuff.

 

Ask Anthony why he's become such a good juggler and he replies, "I don't know." Ask him what he wants to be when he grows up and he replies, "An animal doctor and a juggler." Only half right, one would suspect!