What did you do for your part in Sugar Babies?

I did my act, and Mickey Rooney would stand in the wings and scream at me and tap his watch, like I was going way over time. He was very supportive. He couldn't stand to hear anybody else on stage doing well. There was another specialty act spot, which was generally a ventriloquist. Ronn Lucas had done it, then when I did it it was Jeff Dunham. But periodically I would do both spots, which would make Mickey Rooney even crazier. It was a great spot. It was the only contemporary thing in the whole show. It was just ideal. It was a real fun show.

How long did you do the Ice Capades?

One very long 10-month season. It was horrible. It was really good experience, performing in those big places, and I really learned how to project. That's what makes you be really good is having to perform under horrible circumstances, whether you're sick or tired or sore, or angry. But, it was freezing all the time. We went up into Canada during mid-winter, Nova Scotia in January. It was just brutal. And they paid us lousy, and most of the skaters made such bad money that they had to sleep four or five to a room. I would keep my food in a wastebasket with layers of ice and towels, and pour the water out every few hours, like Albert Lucas' father AI Morrera taught me. It was really a pathetic life. All the skaters had such bad morale because of the way they were treated that they would trip each other during production numbers. It was very odd. It was a really good experience though. I used to fall a lot too. I rode a unicycle with spikes in the tire, and I fell off it all the time. And anytime I'd drop something on ice, the clubs or whatever would slide all the way to the far ends of the rink, and I'd spend most of the time skating around trying to pick them up.

What did you do in your Ice Capades act?

They would announce this juggler, and there was a lovely assistant standing there, and the music and lights would come up, but there was no juggler, and the assistant would stand there looking confused, then make a motion to cut the lights and music. Then you'd hear the music rewind, and the announcement would go again, and still no juggler. Then I would come out of the audience, I was a popcorn vendor. And I would save the show, because I just happened to be wearing a microphone and skates. I'd say 'Hey, I can juggle' and I'd start juggling Cokes. Then I'd get down on the ice and I'd do popcorn boxes like cigar boxes. The reason I put those at the beginning of my act was not because I was great at them, or that I thought they were that entertaining, but it was so freezing that moving around that much would get my hands warm. Then I would ride the unicycle with the spikes in the tire, and be all out of control grabbing the curtain and the assistant. Then she'd say 'Wait, I know you, I've seen you backstage,' and she'd pull my coveralls off, and I had on the flashy, rhinestone, spandex, see-everything suit. It was so tight it looked like I was trying to smuggle grapes into the country. It was pretty hideous. Then I would juggle three, four, and five clubs, then, I think six rings, then three and five torches. With the five torches, I had the double wicks and they put out such a huge flame that I had to keep skating backwards so I wouldn't get all burnt. And I still would never have any hair on my hands or my arms. Once my suit caught on fire, which was actually kind of neat. The spandex burns a funny color, it was like blueish-green. I let it burn for a minute because I was so bored.

How did you get the job with the Ice Capades, and why did you want it?

Bobby May really inspired me, because he had done skating shows, and I really wanted to do it. I started taking ice skat­ing lessons, because I had a feeling that Albert Lucas was going to leave the show, since he'd been with them for so many years. And I learned how to skate from Donna Atwood, who had been in the Olympics and had also worked with Trixie Larue. So she helped me put together my act. But the rink wouldn't let me do my act when other people were skating, because of insurance, and I couldn't afford to rent the rink. So I made friends with the night manager, and I would come in at like two in the morning and get him real drunk and he'd pass out. Then I'd do all of his night work, like zamboni the ice, put all the hockey equipment away and sweep up. Then I'd get to practice from about 2:30 to 4 or 5 a.m. every night. That was when I really put together my act. At first I put together a real serious act, that had no comedy at all, it was all to music. I had torch swinging, and a lot of other really technical stuff. I'm glad I didn't end up doing it, because I couldn't have been consistent on the road with it. But, they had an audition for me, I don't know why, at 8 a.m. one day, and I had been up until 4 a.m. that morning practicing. And they hired someone to write different music for me, didn't know the music, and I ended up dropping everything and falling. I thought I had lost the job. I had also lied them, by saying I was working all over the place, when really I was just street performing. And that weekend I was in Venice, and I was setting up to do a show a saw the producer from the Ice Capades walking by. So i hid behind a tree. After about a half and hour I figured he was gone, so I set up and did my show. And when I got on my unicycle at the end, I looked out and there he was. So I thought I' d definitely lost my chance then. But he really liked the comedy I was doing. So he had me come into the Ice Capades offices and do my show, and they liked it and decided to do something really experimental and give me a microphone and have me do comedy in the show. They had never had anything like that, so it was pretty neat to do something really different. Originally, they wanted to give me Albert Lucas' music, his old costume, I mean it was really creepy. I didn't want to be Albert Lucas. One Albert Lucas is enough.