JW: Describe for us the tricks you do in your current act.

DF: Well, I'll describe the technical part, but I'm not going to give away the comedy bits. They're too difficult to conceive and too easy to steal!

 

I do three and four balls, and sometimes five and seven. My ring routine includes five with a half-shower, a five-up pirou­ette, pancake tosses and color changes. Then I do seven rings down to three and back to seven, putting and taking them from under my arms and between my legs.

 

Then there's a picture trick with six hoops, a spinning ball on a mouthstick and hoop on my leg. I do eight rings several times around, starting with simultaneous tosses and breaking into alternate throws.

 

The first part of the act establishes me as a good juggler, then I stick in some goofy stuff - a nine ball gag and four connected cigar boxes. The gags that have nothing to do with juggling usually get the biggest reactions.

 

After the rings, I do a three and four club routine I've been doing for years. People applaud twice during it, then strongly at the end. I end it with a kickup from four to five clubs with a couple of under the leg throws and a pass-and-a-half of behind the back triples.

 

Now I end the show with chain saws. They've been a good selling point in American theatres, but wouldn't sell at all in Europe. I begin with one, tossing it around my body. I cut a piece of wood to show everyone it's real, then put it up into a chin balance. I purposely let it slip off my chin and the audience gasps. Then I do the three.

 

JW: What is your practice regimen?

DF: I really don't practice at all. Technically I get better just by performing every day. I have better control of 7, 6 and 5 rings now than ever before. I do spend 20 minutes warming up before each show, and every once in a while I work a while afterward to keep my hands in shape. I work on eight and nine some just to make my seven easier.

I've also got a pretty fair 10 ring juggle. It's taken a lot of work to get it to where it is, and I'd like to maintain that.

 

I still enjoy working out, but you've got to start worrying about your elbows and aches and pains. After all, how many old Russian jugglers do you see? They work so hard they get hurt and can't perform after a few years. Where did Petrovski and Kiss go? On the other hand, Bela Kremo juggled the year he died because he took care of himself.

 

I'm working out a little now because I want to return to Europe soon and will go back to my classic routine. I'll drop the comedy, use my oId props and do a technical act again. I want to show them I'm still the Dick Franco they knew when I was over there six years ago.

 

JW: Is the increased number of jugglers and exposure of the public to juggling helping open markets for jugglers or just in­creasing competition for established professionals like yourself?

DF: It has definitely opened up markets in advertising. But I think it's mostly incidental to the main point of those commercials. Instead of having someone jogging or break dancing, they're putting in jugglers. The problem is that there's no quality there. The people who see juggling in that forum don't know anything about good jugglers or the IJA, they just think it's a neat thing to do.

 

I reflect back on Art Jennings' article in the last issue, and agree that the more quantity you have, the lower the quality is. I think the American public is seeing less quality juggling now. And what's good for commercials is bad for nightclubs. There it creates more competition and brings the prices down. Suddenly you've got 100 jugglers to pick from and a lot of them are doing the same thing. The management hires the least expensive performer.