JW: Tell us about your act. It seems to have changed over the years and gotten a lot quicker and more fluid.

AG: My act has always been fast, and I think it's exciting: I think that's what Las Vegas wants. It's gotten to where it is today after years of work, and it's still not done.

 

Every time I see something that's fast it's exciting to me and I try to put it in the act. Sometimes when I'm out there I try to do things faster because speed is exciting. Nick has had a lot of influence on that, too, be­cause his acrobatic act was very fast. They did a million different tricks.

 

We have a lot of new material since St. Louis - the Olympic trick, new tricks with the seven rings, and even five ring tricks that weren't in the video. And we're always com­ing up with new tricks for seven balls.

 

JW: Do you ever see yourself changing styles, or are you always going to be a stage-type numbers juggler?

 

AG: I think numbers is more entertaining. A lot of people say "Why do you do so many objects, the audience doesn't know what you're doing." But they do know what you're doing. They can see if you have nine rings in your hands and know that's hard. They come up to me and say, "Geez, I can't juggle two!" I've never considered dropping the numbers. To do just a more entertaining five ball act or something has never crossed my mind. I'll be doing numbers as long as I can.

 

JW: How many can you do these days?

AG: I'm working on six rings in one hand, and have come close to a juggle with 11. We were working on 12 a year ago and I caught 11 of the 12. But in the racquetball court there's not enough height for the 12. If we go back out to practice in the main gym I'm sure in a month or so I'll be flash­ing 12. I'm working on 11 balls, but have only caught 8 or so so far. We're working on nine in the hands with a holster that holds the other two.

 

I'm also juggling eight clubs, and am work­ing on flashing nine. If I do that I think it'll be harder than 11 balls. The trick is holding them all. You have to learn special angles so they come out right. And catching them is the worst part. Also with the nine I can't tell how many turns they should be doing. I'll figure it out, though. It was the same with the seven clubs at first, but now I can do it for two minutes, even though I still don't know how many turns they're doing. I just throw them and try to make sure they all come out right.

 

The BBC recently filmed me breaking my nine ball record for its "Record Breakers" show, and I've done over 200 throws with it in practice.

 

JW: What numbers do you think you can attain?

AG: I see me doing the 12 rings and 11 balls at least in practice. I don't know about on stage. I might do the 12 rings on stage once or something to say I've done it there. The 9 clubs seems like it's going to be the hardest one to get. I'm throwing out 10 now because it'll make nine seem like less. But you never know, one day I might flash 10 clubs. It would be nice!

 

JW: Do you feel pressure to keep getting better?

AG: I know the jugglers would like to see me do more and more. And I want to do more, I don't want to stay status quo. I can understand they'd like to see how far I can go. But I don't feel pressured by it.

 

JW: Do you ever think that if you worked harder you could do better?

AG: All the high numbers are hard. I thought maybe I was getting close to my limit, but I listen to Nick and he says I'm not even close to what I can do. If I keep that in

mind I'll be able to go farther.                              .

 

JW: Has your attitude toward juggling changed through the years?

AG: I think it has. When I was younger it wasn't as much fun as it is now. Now I want to perfect the act and make it great. I want to work all the time and I don't want any va­cation time. I look forward to going to work. When we have time off it's very boring to me, doing nothing at nighttime. I look for­ward to going to work because I have a good time there.

 

JW: So you're more driven by it now than you used to be? .

 AG: Yes, exactly.