38-4,p17

At 28, Smith is no ingenue to the streets. Born on Chicago's South Side, he was orphaned, at 7 when both parents and two brothers died in a fire. Until the age of 13 "Auntie Pearl" was able to make a place in her home. But times were tough.

He was sent to Salem, Oregon, and placed in a foster home that already had 10 other kids. "Sister Clark was a good woman, very religious, always tellin' me I would be something. But it takes a lot noticed with such a bunch always clamoring for attention."

So at 15 he split back to Chicago and another foster family, the Benjamins, opened their doors to him.

Sweeping floors and washing dishes were about the only straight ways of making a living open to a boy his age. It was a poor neighborhood. It sure wasn't what he wanted to do. On a street comer one day he watched a magician perform. Fascinated, he started hanging out at the Magic Center, under the EI tracks, at Wabash and Randolph. Screwing up his nerve, he approached Lee Wade, the owner, offering to sweep floors, wipe counters, whatever, in return for lessons. Wade gave him a job. For six months Smith observed closely and practiced. "Boy did I practice, 4 to 5 hours a day until I could perform smoothly, naturally. After a while I got good enough to try and sell tricks to kids, Hell, here I was just a kid myself.

"I'd put on a show, get 'em real excited l'd then say, 'If you wanna learn this trick you gotta pay for it first. Then I'll show you how it's done.' They'd usually come back moanin' the next day. 'Hey, that trick won't work, gimme my money back.' 'Now,' I'd say, 'here's the real trick. You gotta practice. It's gonna take time and it's not gonna be easy."

And life mimicking art, things have been pretty much the same for Smith. With determination, he stayed in high school while friends dropped out. He graduated - quite an accomplishment in lis neighborhood. Not only that, but he moved back to Salem to enroll in Chemeketa Community College. For two years he worked hard to break free from he world he'd grown up in. He wore a suit and tie to classes and paid expenses by performing magic. He studied hard and in 1982 received an associate arts degree in criminal justice.

During all that solid career planning; performing remained his greatest pleasure. He wanted to test that part of himself to lee if he had the skill to make it in show business. Besides, the button-down shirt and tie were beginning to chafe his neck.

San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf had often been mentioned often as a place where street performers had the best chance. So he packed up and moved to the City Beside the Bay. Jefferson Street, in front of the Anchorage, became the theatre for his magic and balloon act. He'd survived the first step.

One Sunday while exploring Golden Gate Park, he happened upon a little meadow with a lot of jugglers. Robert Nelson, the incorrigible "Butterfly Man," was performing hat tricks and ball routines. "Can you teach me that?" Nelson sent him home with a primitive 3 ball cascade. He practiced. Next Sunday he returned doing 5. Within 3 months he was doing 7. The bug had bit.

In 1983, at 24-years-old and juggling less than a year, this ghetto kid entered the Juniors competition at the IJA convention in Purchase, N. Y. From street directly to stage he went. Five clubs and seven balls he gave them. He stood splay-footed on a basketball, juggled three machetes and balanced a basketball on a cylinder on his head at the same time. Then, with the rudimentary beginnings of what was to become his trademark, he tossed up three 16-pound lead shotputs into the air (that's 48 - feel 'em - 48 pounds!) and juggled them for ten throws.

The audience ate it up. The judges gave him 6th place. Stardom was obviously going to be coy. The act was not going to make it on raw talent alone. It needed a bit of polish if he was going to be able to take it off the streets. If he was going to become the first black man to win the U.S. Nationals.

So... what could he do to make himself unique, to make himself stand way far out from a whole lot of very slick performers.