JW: There seems to be some rivalry and hostile feelings between professional stage jugglers today. Is that so?

DF: I think it's just general show business. There's a lot of trials and tribulations involved with becoming a good entertainer. The jealousies arise when someone comes along and copies your stuff. It's not fair. The way to avoid problems is to get inspiration from others rather than verbatim routines.

 

You derive the inspiration from someone, but inject your own personality into it. Then if you're real lucky, you'll come up with something totally original.

 

There are honorable exceptions, of course. My three and four ball routines, virtually unchanged for years, were given to me intact by Picasso. He gave me those tricks because he didn't have room for them in his act. I watched tapes of Ignatov and May when I was learning, but I was always trying to find a different way of doing things. I got my inspiration for rings from Ignatov, but I think I took his idea and bettered it.

 

Barrett Felker and I had the same inspirations and originally juggled a lot alike. But over the years he did things his way and I did them my way to the point where we're not even close now.

 

But it irks you when you construct something over a period of years, then some guy in the audience decides it looks good and starts doing it too. Next thing you know you go in for an audition and a producer says "Oh yeah, what's-his-name showed me that trick," and it's become his trick. You've got to respect other people.

 

JW: What advice do you have for jugglers contemplating professional careers?

DF: Study and perfect your skills. If you're going to do it professionally, you ought to put together something of quality. Too many people get the impression that jugglers are bad because they see one locally who is. If you can't juggle well, don't juggle in front of people. That ought to be a law!