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Who's
Faster Than Me?
Wally
Eastwood asks with confidence born and bred in a circus tent
Three
clubs spun with frightening speed very close to Wally
Eastwood's face as he spoke. "I want to end this nonsense
of everyone calling themselves the fastest juggler," he
said. "I'm the fastest. Have you ever seen anyone
faster?"
The
claim may be impossible to document, but it reveals a lot
about this 20-yearold center ring circus juggler. He is very
good, confident, a little brash and optimistic about his
future in a competitive business. Eastwood's shows for the
past two years with Circus Vargas in the American West and
more recently throughout the country with the Hanneford Circus
on Shrine dates are marvels of showmanship. In a lifetime of
exposure to circus skills, he has learned to mix juggling and
gymnastics beautifully.
Eastwood,
a small, athletic descendant of a five-generation family of
circus performers, combines speed with showmanship in a
high-energy seven minute act. Viewers will recognize in his
movement around the ring the influence of his juggling idol,
Francis Brunn. There is a flurry of pirouettes, somersaults
and back flips, posturing, dancing and strutting around the
ring. Blended with the choreography, Eastwood juggles up to
five clubs, catches balls in a billiard pocket belt and does
up to five ping pong balls.
There
is a high toss of a single club followed by a somersault over
his wife and prop assistant, Connie Cotrell, to make the
catch. Feeding five ping pong balls into his mouth with his
hands, he drops to his knees in the ring, then leans backward
to lie flat on the ground, still spouting and collecting the
balls like a ceaseless fountain.
Between
shows, he practices hard to get better. "I want to do
seven ping pong balls," he said. "It would be good
to be doing the five way down onto my back, then put in two
more so all of a sudden the fountain seemed to explode
bigger."
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He
states confidently, "With five clubs, I can do almost anything
that's been done. Five clubs is nothing." Included in his
repertoire of tricks is a five club shower using quintuple spins. He
also easily begins tossing five with double spins, then changes to
triple, then quadruple and finally quintuple spins without a stop or
drop. When he heard of Albert Lucas' Guinness five club endurance
record of 37 min. 10 sec., he decided to see what he could do.
In
three successive tries, he claims to have hit 5, 20 and 23 minutes.
To demonstrate his firm control of five clubs, he ran across the circus
ring juggling them. "If the IJA ever has five club joggling
competitions, I'd like to enter," he joked.
Eastwood
mainly loves to throw clubs fast. The claim "fastest" is hard
to document, but he's willing to take on all comers in a side-by-side
competition. Rejean St. Jules admits Eastwood won just such an informal
competition the two held in Las Vegas while practicing together this
summer. In timed trials recently, Eastwood
averaged 4.6 seconds for 20 throws of three clubs using triple spins.
For a better grip, he rubs his hands with magnesium before each show and
has wound adhesive tape around the handles of his customdecorated Dube
European clubs.
Born
in Alexandria, Va., to Consuelo Padilla and Howard Eastwood on
Dec. 8, 1964, Wally learned a variety of circus skills early in life.
Five generations of his family performed in circuses before him, and the
family name of Padilla is as well known in Mexico as Ringling in
America.
At
age 8, he wore a gorilla costume in a family comedy act. He rode a
unicycle from age 12 to 14 as the family toured with the Holiday
Hippodrome and the Carson and Barnes Circus. Rejean St. Jules was with
Carson and Barnes also, and interested Eastwood in juggling. The two
worked out together, and by the end of the tour, Eastwood had a bit part
in St. Jules' juggling routine.
A
fall from a unicycle that broke his arm convinced Eastwood to
concentrate on juggling. It didn't take him long to work up to learn
five clubs, and he also juggled top hats and plates. At age 15, he had
his first solo juggling act.
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