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Jack Swersie juggled to open a concert for Southside Johnny and the Asbury Dukes in early September in Hampton Beach, N.H. Swersie has also opened shows recently for the likes of Neil Sedaka, Sergio Franchi, Laura Branigan and Harry Blackstone Jr.

Albert Lucas hoped to break his marathon joggling record in Moscow in mid-August, but ran into a case of bad water instead. Lucas and about half the field were slowed or stopped completely by tainted water served along the route of the 26-mile route. Lucas did finish the race, but not with a time he could write Guinness about. More proudly, he gave a demonstration performance of his stage act for officials of the Moscow Academy of Art, who have invited him back next year to perform at a regular public appearance of the Moscow Circus.

Bill Fry and David Levesque, The Oddballs, spent two months recently appearing in the Orchid Room of the Manza Beach Hotel in Okinawa. It was a reunion of sorts for the pair, who have spent many years apart after meeting and juggling together in 1976 as Coast Guard Academy classmates. Their comedy routine included a scarf ballet, cigar boxes and a synchronized tap dance and ball juggle finale.

Aerobics for the Funny Bone

By David Levesque

Body builders have their exercises and dancers have rehearsals. And its easy to get coaching on skills like juggling, dance, mime, acrobatics and unicycling. But what if we want to be funnier?

Just as our juggling gets better with practice, so does our sense of humor. If you practice being funny, you will hone your sense of humor to a fine edge. You will find new and better ideas to work with. You will better understand what makes you laugh. And your audiences will find you becoming funnier all the time!

Here are some exercises to help you shape up your funny bone.

1) Read. Read a lot. It sparks creativity. It also gives us a solid feel for our craft. Read books by great humorists like Twain, Benchley, Thurber and Groucho. Read cartoon and joke books. Read newspaper editorials. Read autobiographies and biographies of comedians. If you're really daring, even read a book or two about humor (especially if written by funny people). Pay special attention to the things that make you laugh.

2) Observe. Observe other comedy performances, and not just jugglers. Observe anything comedic: sitcoms and variety shows on television, old radio shows, plays, stand-up comedians, comic musicians, clowns. Don't miss a funny movie, especially classic oldies. Try to figure out what you do and / or don't like about a performance. Analyze why you reacted to it the way you did.

3) Write. Write a lot. Set aside some part of each day to create your own jokes and routines. Make yourself write something every day, even if you end up thinking it's no good. Give yourself exercises to do when you have no project in development. Write 30 jokes on a random topic, for example. Of the 30, you may get two or three you like, and that's two or three more than you had before. The more you write, the better your writing will become!