He still follows a strict physical regimen, starting every day with a half-hour of push-ups, situps, chin­ups and rope skipping. In warm weather he's out on his mountain bike as well. "I don't believe in fading back," he said. "I want to be in shape when I'm 85."

 

"Ballini, The Great Fake Juggling Clown" is the stage name he adopted soon after his life turned permanently toward the entertainment field in 1977. While visiting a friend in Florida that year who was teaching performers at the Ringling Brothers Clown College, Bell met a lot of people who taught him juggling, hand balancing, unicycling and trapeze.

 

He returned from that experience as a changed man, maintaining his commercial and fine arts careers, but performing his juggling skills as well. He performed on the streets in Creston, B.C., from 1981-1987, and was selected as a performer at Expo '86 in Vancouver. He moved to Ottawa in 1987, continued to work where he could there and began teaching juggling in the schools.

 

He was learning to go it on his own all along. He formed Csiszar Studio in 1976 so that he wouldn't have to work someone else's hours, and got work doing magazine layouts, book covers, calendars and greeting cards for corporate clients. The name of the business was his mother's Hungarian maiden name, and reflects his heritage.

 

His greatest success as a free-lance artist came in painting a half-dozen commissioned outdoor murals throughout the country. Most reflect the business or natural resources of the region, while one is about hockey players. Bell likes the idea of creating "public art" on buildings, rather than private art for collections, and the size of the projects and their complexity excites him. "I like being out there in the fresh air where people can stop by and talk about it with me every day during the weeks or months I'm working," he said.

 

Every project, though, has an unusual clause in the contract, he said. "It's written there somewhere that I can put a juggling element into the painting! It's become my trademark."

 

There in Moosejaw is a diabolo, and one in British Columbia includes a small self-portrait with juggling equipment.

 

His involvement with juggling also includes regular Friday workouts with the Albuquerque juggling group, usually followed by visits to the Patz family. Bell has played a part in coaching young Brian Patz, who finished second in last summer's Juniors Championships. Bell put himself on the IJA stage in St. Louis, and won the Journeyman division of the Baltimore Three Ball Open. Now he says he wants to try a major competition. "I'd like to compete in the Seniors in two or three years. If Bob Nickerson can do it, why can't I?!" he asked. "I'd just like to have that experience of participating, to feel what it's like to be on that stage, to see what it's all about."

 

 

That idea makes sense for a man whose life is so thoroughly involved with juggling in every other way.