JW: You're saying the European market and American market are different?

DF: Definitely, and in several ways, Besides preferring the technical act, the European entertainment directors really know juggling. You'll walk into their offices and see pictures of all the great jugglers plastered on the wall. They hire you because they want you, and are usually willing to pay whatever it takes to get you.

 

Entertainment directors in the states want comedy. You break your neck with technical juggling and they say, "that's nice, but do you eat the apple?" So, to work here you have to adapt.

 

It's impossible to impress an American audience with technical juggling, but in Europe the more technique you demonstrate the more they like it. Here in the states you have to erase the barrier between the performer and the audience. The straight act is dead in America.

 

What that means now is that if I want to work in Europe again, I have to sell myself to those people all over again. They came to know me as a picture act and are very wary when they hear that Dick Franco is doing comedy now.

 

Europe is nice, but I'd rather live in America. So, I've got to make the transition to the type of juggling that sells here. I want to do comedy, but keep the quality in the act. If I keep all my technical juggling and add comedy, my 8-minute act is now 25 minutes. But that's OK. It's a challenge and will help prolong my career. I'm in it for the long run. I don't want to be 50 years old pretending I'm 30.

 

Other people are doing it. Dieter Tasso made a beautiful transition from a circus act to comedy. And look at Kris Kremo, he's doing a lot more comedy.

 

JW: Were you nervous at the 1979 Cir­cus W orId Championships in England against Schweitzer and Kremo? What was it about your act that the judges saw and liked so that they picked you to win it?

DF: I decided to do the performance because I felt it could only help my reputation to be on the same stage as Kris Kremo and Rudy Schweitzer. I wouldn't have even done it otherwise. On the night of the event, we drew lots for our slots in the show. Kris ended up first, Rudy second, and me third. Kris did boxes, hat and balls, then Rudy used the same props.

 

I came out with totally different props and finished with ping pong balls, which no one in England had ever seen. The luck of the draw, going last, and the reaction of the judges to the different props worked together to help me win.

 

None of us went there to win or lose. But I figured I couldn't lose by just being in the same forum as these other two great names. Competitively it was totally inconclusive, but it was a good paycheck and a good way to sell myself. It couldn't have helped Kremo or Schweitzer at all, but I was new in Europe .

 

So I got to ride on Kremo's reputation for one day and ended up earning years of work out of it. After I won, people were asking, "Who is this guy who can beat Kremo?" It got everyone's attention and got me an invitation to the Monte Carlo Circus Festival. Those two appearances opened the continent of Europe for me. I got TV offers and did three shows a day sometimes. I'd hire a taxi for the whole day to shuttle between performances. I had enough engagements to make $10,000 a week sometimes.

 

So it was luck, but you have to be prepared when these opportunities come up. Bobby May had told me that to succeed, first you have to be good, then you have to be lucky!