What is your favorite place where you've performed?

The Tonight Show. That was the best audience ever. But, this year I've hit a lot of goals for myself. I'd always wanted to be at Radio City Music Hall, and I got to be there. I wanted to be at Caesar's Palace, and I worked there with Julio Iglesia. Sugar Babies, though, every night was incredible. Every night it was like a standing ovation.

 

How did you come up with the Swiss Army Cat?

I was really really mad because James Marcell had been on That's Incredible, I think, and did chainsaws. And for a while, everywhere I worked, I'd be doing five clubs, and other hard stuff, and people would say 'Do chain saws.' I kept gelling so angry, because I didn't see what the big deal was. It didn't seem that difficult. The difficult part is owning chain­saws. So I wanted to do something to kind of make fun of guys doing dangerous things.

 

Like a lot of other jugglers who hit it big, you are starting to get away from juggling and more into strictly comedy and acting. Why are you going this direction?

Because I don't know where else I can go with juggling. I've achieved all the goals I had, and I want to keep moving forward. I don't want to keep doing the same thing, I want to keep growing. I really enjoy my act, but you get burnt out after a while and want to do different things. I don't think I'll ever totally stop doing the juggling, but I want to grow. I've done a lot of television stuff, I've had that recurring role on Head of the Class, and other stuff, and I hope some­day to have my own series. And a major reason I have that as a goal is that then I can have a big show that I can do live, and I can headline places like Caesar's Palace instead of opening for people there. I could have Julio Iglesia opening for me! I'd be able to sell tickets based on name recognition, which I would never be able to do from just juggling. Plus, it's fun doing comedy and doing other sorts of things. I real­ly admire people who do amazing juggling stuff, but I think if it's just juggling, people don't know that doing 11 rings is any harder than doing three chainsaws, or doing one chainsaw and two guavas.

 

How did you develop the goofy character you used to use, and why are you not using it anymore?

It was kind of a caricature of me, because I was working all these big places and I had to do myself a lot bigger. It ended up being kind of a cartoon thing. Then, after I'd been working on it quite a while, Pee Wee Herman hit and I started gelling compared to him a lot, and that bothered me, because I don't want to be compared to anyone. Then, when I was doing the Late Show it didn't really work for other people to interact with me, because I was not like a regular person that you could communicate with. So I've slowly gone back to being more just myself on stage. But I'm still kind of like that, because it was all based on my real personality. One of my idols has always been Gomer Pyle, and I'm just that kind of personality, I guess. And I think the audience wants to get an idea of who the performer is, which, by the way, is something you don't get at all with somebody who's just juggling. They're just doing tricks.

 

What do you do when you are not performing?

I do a lot of writing. And I take acting classes. And I collect lunch boxes. If anyone knows where to get any old metal or vinyl lunch boxes, I'll buy them, especially a Beatles Yellow Submarine or a Soupy Sales. I build weird inventions, and I mess around with my computer a lot also. I play the guitar, and the banjo. Anything but practice juggling.

 

What advice do you have for people interested in performing?

I would say work anywhere you can, anytime you can. I worked in so many lousy places. I did shows in a hardware store once during a big sale. They had me do my act in the aisles, but I had to keep stopping my act because the sale was so good that people wanted to get through. I did shows dressed as a giant beer can another time. Work anywhere you can, and try to keep everything original. And try to get as much of yourself into the act as you can. I think that's the most important thing. And remember that what you want to do more than anything else is be entertaining.