Other innovative acts they introduced included a five ball behind the back start from Olivier, Jeff Daymont's work with four cigar boxes and mandolin playing while juggling from the High Street Circus (Wheeler Cole and Andrew Potter). Kit Summers did hoop rolling while seven clubs were passed over him and Donna Meltzer, wife of emcee Scott, sang an aria about "The Juggler of My Dreams." Michael Menes drew the evening's only standing ovation with his highly refined body movement and expert control of three balls.

Francois Chotard from France spun six balls at once on a hand contraption, the Duo High Fidelity from West Germany demonstrated diabolo juggling, and Sem Abraham mounted a giraffe unicycle from a regular one and then made the climb back down to the smaller model. Dale Jones proved quite a punster in his poetic juggling interview with President Reagan. The master of comic understatement, Arsene, simply shaved his goatee for the crowd.

The finale convention event, the "Juggling and Other Delights" public show, attracted jugglers on a half-mile walk down cool San Carlos Boulevard to the cavernous and comfortable San Jose Center for the Performing Arts. As the 2,700 seats filled near capacity, the audience entertained itself by punching a tremendous beach ball repeatedly into the air to watch its gentle flight up and down again.

Robert Nelson introduced 17 major acts and filled time between with repartee and tricks. The show opened with a production number choreographed by Shireman and Barnes that included more than 40 conventioneers. The next act was ball juggling by Robbie Weinstein, the 1986 Juniors Champion. The Cabangahan Jugglers, a Phillipine troupe in national dress, followed with club passing patterns.

Other first act performers included Michael James, Vaudeville Nouveau, Dan Bennett, Too Skinny Guys, Michael Menes with an innovative ring routine, Variety in Motion and Chinese guest artist Dai Shucheng's delicate and beautiful "flying boards" act.

Cliff and Mary Spenger opened the second act with some daring slack wire walking and Cliffs breath-taking walk up a rope stretched over the audience. Bob Whitcomb appeared for a short com­bination trick, then Pat Hazell and a deft assistant totally confused a hapless volunteer with disappearing coins of increasing size. Airjazz presented their artistic beach ball routine and Dale Jones showed his extraordinary balancing of a cane. Championship skateboarder Ken Martin and the Jet Set Jugglers, 1986 Teams Champions, set the stage for Anthony Gatto's finale routine.

Nelson introduced Gatto as "a hero to each and everyone of us," and Gatto responded with an astounding variety of difficult tricks.

The convention received tremendous national media coverage, primarily because of Gatto. When he wasn't on stage winning an event, he was in a photo session with Sports Illustrated or telling another reporter how he got started in the business. Gatto did learn how to ride a giraffe unicycle during the week and held his own in late-night rounds of combat.

One of the most popular of more than 30 convention workshops was "Jazz for Jugglers," hosted by Airjazz. These three performers - Peter Davison, Kezia Tenenbaum and Jon Held - taught two full classes of jugglers how to integrate body movement into their acts.

Other workshops covered disciplines from balloon blowing to organizing your own juggling club.

With all the great shows at the convention, it was easy to overlook the Benefit Show. However, it did occur Thursday morning at San Jose Hospital. It was a homecoming of sorts for performer Dan Menendez, who was born "right on this outdoor patio where we're having this show, " as he quipped. Quite a homecoming! Dan used three ball juggling, ping­pong ball spitting and theatrical posing to delight the audience.

Last year's U.S. Nationals champion, Andrew Head, opened the show with his marvelous hat routine, then added a ball for more variations. He also did stylish three and four club juggling. Next came the perpetual motion of "Variety in Motion," Ricky Schnikter and Mardine Rubio. A juggling love story in their own right, they gave a high energy, aerobic team juggling performance. Mark Bakalor, third place finisher in the Juniors Championship, was his usual adorable, fanny­shaking self after being introduced as a juggler from the age of Vaudeville with 50 years experience.

The real 50 year juggler and showman extraordinaire, Hamilton Floyd, topped off the show with his rope spinning, juggling rola-bola ride.