JW: Bela Kremo sounds like a firm taskmaster to make his children practice like that. Did he have an idea that one of you would make it?

KK: Ah yes! Send in 1,000 soldiers and one will return, right?! I don't know. I must say, at a young age you must force children to learn anything. Otherwise the majority won't do anything. They like to play and not practice.

 

JW: But your brother and sister didn't stick with it...

KK: No, but that was later on. My brother practiced until he was 18, and my sister practiced until she was 16. She had to quit because her wrists weren't strong enough and the doctor recommended she not juggle anymore.

 

JW: Did you eve~ all perform on stage together?

 KK: No, never.

 

JW: For four or five generations your family had done large acts. Do you think your father was ever afraid the family's show business tradition was in peril? Were there other Kremo performers during your father's reign, or was he the last of the line?

KK: He was the last of the line, same position I am in now. But I must say that he did not force me into it. It would have been much easier for him to take me out of school to practice all the time and maybe turn me into a wonder child, but he sent me to school. He wasn't trying to make money, he just wanted me to learn juggling the proper way.

 

When I was in school in Switzerland I did an apprenticeship in selling and buying merchandise. So I had the choice. I had my diploma and could have gone into a private job. I finished my school and my career was up to me. I decided I wanted to perform.

 

JW: When you were a young juggler, who were the famous jugglers you admired?

KK: Dad didn't take me to too many shows. I grew up in private and at boarding school, not like a circus child on tour. Father was out performing and he'd come by about two or three times a year. Then he didn't take me to shows, though he told me a lot about jugglers and what they would do.

 

JW: Then his style was your only influence?

KK: For the most part, yes.

 

JW: Most jugglers coming up these days see many jugglers...

KK: Which is bad. Everybody sees other jugglers in person or on video. The more you watch, the more you get mixed up. You don't think for yourself anymore, everything is getting fed like a computer. You don't get your own ideas. Everything is just coming, coming, coming at you. The main problem is that by watching videos for hours and hours you start copying moves in your subconscious whether you want to or not. What happens is that you take over certain personalities, certain bows, certain moves, whether you want to or not. You won't be able to ignore them. You program yourself, you become a machine.

 

JW: Well, didn't you do that same thing in the case of your father?

KK: Yes, but my father wasn't around that much. He showed me tricks when he came around, but that was only a few times a year. He didn't even show me most of them, he wrote them down <:>n a piece of paper! I would get mail on how to do tricks without ever seeing them done. I worked on them and showed them to my father when he visited. Then he would adjust my moves.