R.J. Lewis has found a happy home, plenty of work and a new daughter in Atlantic City , N.J. Rayna is the addition created with help from his wife, Sandra. Lewis is happy to report Rayna is covered by the employee benefit plan at Trumps Castle , where he has worked full-time as a walk-around entertainer for more than a year. Lewis says the casino hotels are realizing that entertainers doing shows in the lobby are a successful way to deal with customers.

 

When he's not doing a show, he walks around the premises playing one of several characters - a royal beefeater, His Highness (on stilts,. of course!) or a magical sorcerer's apprentice. More of this type of work is available as the casinos in Atlantic City expand their facilities.

 

One highlight of Lewis's routine is juggling three battleaxes while dressed in a full suit of armor. He gets a lot of mileage out of the comedy start for that routine. He asks an audience member to hand him the third ax as he balances one on his chin and holds another. Since he can't look down to take the ax from the volunteer, he gropes wildly for the handoff while the balanced ax teeters ominously above. In another bit, he passes clubs around a volunteer with fellow entertainers Carl Ash, Duane Leeds and Mark Goldstein.

 

Before settling in Atlantic City, Lewis worked in the Broadway production of "Barnum." He also worked two previous years in Atlantic City at Resorts International Casino Hotel. Watch for him this spring appearing as a stilt-walking juggler in a Canon Camera television commercial!

 

Todd Strong taught diabolo and devil stick classes at Fooltime workshops in England after last September's convention in Saintes. He recognizes a dramatic increase in the popularity of the diabolo and decided to investigate its history. He reports, "It seems like it enjoyed a faddish popularity in late 1907 that was comparable to our recent Rubik's Cube craze."

 

Robert and Linda Peck, Philadelphia 's "Foolsproof Follies," are performing a theatrical comedy juggling routine based on the trials of married life. With a motto, "We aim to tease," the couple laces their juggling feats with heavy doses of Peck puns. Playing "Peck" and "Hen­peck," they perform a runaround with fruit. Robert's three ball solo routine revolves around the idea that "A Man's Home Is His Hassle." In a role reversal, Linda walks a tight wire while her lovely assistant, Robert, wears a tutu.

 

Other juggling includes Robert's three cigar box routine, Linda's slow descent into an impressive split while balancing a nine box herringbone stack, dueling derbies and their torch juggling finale. They have performed recently at the American Music Theatre Festival in Philadelphia , the New York Cafe Theatre and Boston 's First Night New Year's Eve celebration.

 

Other jugglers at First Night in Boston were Murph (Tom Murphy), Marvel and Dexter Dexterity (Jonathan Briskin and Barry Rosenberg), Bartleby Lawrence in Remote Control (Bart Landenberger), Alexander King of Jesters (Alex Feldman), and Dario Pittore and Company.

 

Ed Allen and the Fantasy Theatre Factory of S. Miami, Fla., enjoyed a six  week residency in Tokyo last fall. At the "Dream Machine" computer expo, they performed four 15-minute shows daily. "After the first week of adjusting to the Japanese culture the shows went exceptionally well," Allen said. "The Japanese people try not to show their emotions so we had to pull them directly into the shows quickly at the beginning."

 

FTF also organized a large-stage New Vaudeville show with other performers, received a lot of television coverage and "actually made some money at a time when a cup of coffee in Tokyo cost $3.50 with the deflated dollar!" Allen invites performers to inquire about work opportunities with FTF. Contact him at S. Miami , FL .

 

Mark Nizer has set up house in Manhattan . He will be working clubs in New York and appearing at the Showboat Hotel in Atlantic City in April.

 

Joey Jordan will be performing at the new Fujiya Resort in Atami City , Japan , in 1988. He reports that his manipulation of eight frisbees is coming along well.

 

The Movement Theatre International will teach you how to shape your material and skills to create a complete, well rounded performance. Courses of particular interest to jugglers include: James Calder's socio-political buffonery; Peter Hoff's street performance; and Hovey Burgess's circus skills. There's a 20 percent discount for IJA members who register for the summer institute by April 29.

 

Three juggling acts competed in the Festival du Cirque de Monte Carlo in February, but none won prizes. The Soviet juggler Gregori Popovitch added some comedy material to his spectacular ring juggling on an unsupported ladder. Manuel Alvarez demonstrated foot juggling and Los Rados, a troup of three Spanish jugglers, performed a Vegas-style fast routine centering around club juggling and passing.

 

According to Gene Jones, his Juggler's Network service has gotten work for several juggling performers recently. Andrew Head, the 1985 IJA U.S. Nationals champion, is off to Japan April 12 - May 5 to perform in Nagasaki 's Holland Village theme park.

 

R.J. Lewis can be seen in a Canon cameras television commercial as a stilt-walking juggler. And Jones himself helped produce a Bold detergent commercial in which he also stands off-camera throwing detergent boxes to Sophie Hayden, a baton twirler who appeared in the Broadway production of "Barnum."

 

Rhett Farber (alias Fang) plans to lead a gang of educators. and entertainers on a Year of the Dragon summer performance tour of the four Chinas - Taiwan , mainland China , Hong Kong and Macau . The goal of the entertainment is "to live in a more harmonious and understanding environment." Farber has been performing as a clown and juggler in Taiwan since 1982. He also works at the National Palace Museum in Taipei . Those wishing to make tax-deductible contributions toward support of the tour should contact him through mid-June at: Atlantic Beach, Fla.