Then I was working in 1968 with Blood, Sweat & Tears at Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen. It had an open top and was very windy. One guy threw a drop back to me, I caught it around my neck and my most famous trick was born. Now it's the highlight of my act, and I get a lot of comedy out of it. I'm not a comic, but there's a lot of comedy in the audience participation that goes with it.

 

I give rings to four people and ask them to throw them back so I can catch them on my neck. On good nights when it builds up and I'm running all over the stage to catch them the people are screaming so loud it's like a football stadium. I always dive on the last ring, whereas I just get to the others. If I get guys who throw them too well I miss on purpose. My diving catch is the end of the act. I toss them away, take a bow, and as I run off I bang into the wall. It's an old slapstick circus trick but the people love it.

 

JW: The name "Frediani" is big in circus, is it not?

 

NF: Yes. The Fredianis became famous in the 18th century in Italy and Spain. They were the first and last to do a three-man high column standing on a running horse with no rigging. My father was on top. They're still in the Guinness Book under Human Achievements for that trick.

 

JW: Then you grew up in the circus?

 

NF: I was actually born in the dressing room of a Portuguese Circus in 1940. My mom was working with my dad in the ring when she felt the first pain and I was born in the dressing room. The war didn't affect us much because we were artists and didn't mess with politics. We came and went pretty much as we wanted. My dad spoke nine languages, and obviously everyone wanted someone who could speak like that.

 

But after the war when I was a kid things were not going too well with us. I remember working as a street juggler in Italy, Spain and France, going around in pubs and passing the hat. I grew up wherever I was with no permanent home. I appreciate now the places I worked then - places like Turkey, Iraq, Egypt, Russia and Bulgaria.

 

By the time I was eight years old I was doing five acts.  I worked on the trapeze, I did a free-stand­ing ladder act with my sister, I did a rola bola act, an acrobatic act, I rode elephants and worked horses with the Bouglione Circus. But the two things I did most were acrobatics and juggling.

 

My dad made all the decisions. It was like, "OK, the flier's hurt, so get in there on the trapeze." Jogging's the only thing I do now that he didn't teach me!

 

JW: How did you decide on juggling?

 

NF: I picked up juggling at age four or five along with everything else. But when I decided I wanted to be a juggler it was forced on me. When I was 18 we took our acrobatic act to the 1956 World Exposition in Brussels and I juggled underwater! Jacques Cousteau had a big exposition with a team of divers and a very big water tank where they worked and everyone could watch. As a joke one of those divers asked me if I could juggle underwater. They gave me a suit, I got some heavy, steel petanque balls and I did it. They thought it was funny and talked to the manager about having me in the show. I was working with my family in the Palladium, then I'd go across to the exposition and do a routine in the water tank. I did rings, also, and they actually bought some clubs for me and filled them with lead so I could juggle those, too!

 

My dad got sick after the Exposition. My sister went to Italy to double for Gina LoIlabrigida in a movie and I was pretty much on my own. I began to realize that juggling was the only thing I could do by myself, and that it was going to be my bread and butter.

 

The juggling started off as a handicap, though. The Frediani family was one of the top circus families in Europe, and is a very heavy name to carry. I felt obligated to do a great job with the juggling to uphold the family name. But the Fredianis were always known as great acrobats and horses riders. When I started juggling I felt like people expected me to be a star like my father and my uncles, but juggling is very competitive.

 

JW: Looking back, you were obviously capable of carrying the load on your own.

 

NF: Once the family act broke up I went to nightclubs when I was 18 or 19. I wanted to develop a fast act that would go well in small places with low ceilings.   Then I did variety in England and toured with people like Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey, Matt Monroe and Sammy Davis Jr. After that it was a mixture of high-class night clubs and variety theatres. I toured 5-1/2 years with the Black & White Minstrel Show, a very popular show in England. I did two Royal Command Performances at the London Palladium, a lot of TV shows, and worked in some East bloc countries like Hungary and Romania. I worked in China, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, Thailand and New Zealand. I entertained the American forces in Saigon in 1967 with Bob Hope, Trini Lopez and Brenda Lee, then did 11 months in Australia. I was in Tel Aviv during the Six Day War that same year. I was in my room one night when it got shot up and I got covered by plaster. We stopped working for four days. 

 

JW: You're just 5'4" and about 130 pounds. Is your small body an asset or a problem for your juggling?

 

NF: It's an asset for what I'm doing now, because it's so built for speed. I always thought strength hurt juggling because of the bulk of the muscle, but I did six years of amateur boxing and it developed my reflexes and built my body. Now I do pushups and pull-ups regularly.