* Bloomington, Ind., juggler Steve Ragatz was named as the Indiana University Club Sports Federation's Student Male Athlete of the Year. He was one of a half-dozen nominees from the 50 student groups that comprise the federation. Ragatz has been performing in the area for about 10 years, most recently with his wife, Lisa Byers and Fritz Grobe as The Experimental Theater Circus (ETC. for short). Their 90 minute variety show is heavy on comedy, and contains about 15 minutes of juggling. Ragatz and his wife recently bought a house and built a 24x20 juggling studio in the back, with a 17-foot ceiling! It includes every juggling convenience - video, sound system, trapeze, web, tons o' props and big windows. They invite other jugglers to come try it out.

 

* Noelle Franco, last issue's cover juggler, has had her contract at Circus-Circus in Reno extended through the end of November. However, during the month of August she will be performing at the Tempozan Performing Arts Festival in Osaka, Japan.

 

* IJA 100-meter joggling champion Rev. Mike Hout wrote about his favorite exercise to Bill Clinton and Al Gore. Clinton didn't respond, but Hout did get a nice, personally signed reply from the vice president. Gore wrote, "I congratulate you for excelling as a joggler and for your influence on young people. As you know, I am a great believer in exercise, and I try to jog every morning when possible. I will consider trying joggling, although I doubt that I will achieve the results that you have managed."

 

* Russian language readers might want to see a copy of a new book, "Paradoxes of Juggling," written by Mikhail Staroseletsky of Kazakhstan. Staroseletsky, a dentist, met many jugglers from western countries at the 1991 Tbilisi convention, and was featured on the cover of the Winter 1991-92 issue of Juggler's World. His paperback book is 54 pages on newsprint-type paper, and includes several photographs. Contact him at: Kazakhstan.

 

* Some short notes... Winners of the fabulous Flem Awards at the Talahassee April Fool's Fest were Eric Guglielmo, Dave Altman and Drew Bob (Andy Ford)... Don Ganz of Marblehead, Mass., performed magic and juggling at the White House Easter Egg Roll this year, and appeared at the Boston Baby Faire in early May along with Alan Belanger... Karen Quest is working through September with the 20th season of Make-A-Circus in San Francisco, following her third engagement in Japan and last summer's tour with Ben and Jerry's traveling show. She also performed a comedy whip act during the banquet show at the Wild West Arts Convention... T.J. Howell is again juggling in Baraboo, Wisc., for the summer at the Circus World Museum's show... Mark Nizer has been nominated for 1993 Campus Entertainer of the Year in competition sponsored by the National Association for Campus Activities... Scotty and Joan Houghton, the duo known as "Disorderly Conduct," appeared on The Statler Brothers Show in early March. Mark Farneth of Cambridge, Mass., juggled five months in Japan last winter, then was replaced by Russian slackwire wizard Olaf. Karl Saliter was featured in color on the front cover of the Sunday "Orlando Sentinel" on March 7 while performing torches on a 10­foot unicycle at the Church Street Arts Festival. Bounce and Ooh La La worked at the Florida State Fair, then set out for a 10-month east coast tour. Their three-year-old son, Danny, is learning to ride a unicycle.

 

* Houston Chronicle columnist Thorn Marshall wrote a nice piece in the May 5 edition on a street act he saw performed by Jim Mackenzie. Marshall thanked Mackenzie for not choosing him as one of two supporters of a bamboo pole on which Mackenzie stands on one foot to juggle torches. But he approached Mackenzie after the show, and related Mackenzie's tale of an earlier show made memorable by a young fan whose antics became ideal fodder for innovation and ad lib.

 

* Dale Jones performed for the US Presidential Committee in St. Louis in May, and is scheduled to appear at state fairs in Missouri, Michigan, Tennessee and Arkansas this fall. Jones reports that he has added a six ball bounce multiplex to his one-armed act. He says the bounce multiplex allows him to perform numbers juggling under a very low ceiling, with even the six ball pattern staying below his five-foot, ten-inch head level.

 

* Alan Wright, a senior at Memphis Uni­versity School in Memphis, Tenn., was selected as "Most Entertaining" at the annual school talent show. An amateur juggler, Wright's act prompted several rounds of ap­plause from the audience.

 

* Cindy Marvell appeared with Wendy Osserman in a Dance Theatre Workshop production called "Bouncing Back," at the Bessie Schonberg Theatre in New York City in late May. On August 7 she is scheduled to perform with Kezia Tenenbaum and Rachel Hennelly in "Ladyfingers," a juggling show at the Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Festival.

 

* The Ben &: Jerry's Traveling Show sends three troupes of vaudevillians out across the country this year to present variety arts, promote ecological living and hand out free samples of the Vermont ice cream makers' product. Jeannie Wall, Robert "The Flying Robertini" Carroll and Karl "The Master Juggler" Saliter toured New England this spring, finishing at Ben &: Jerry's One World / One Heart Festival on June 27. The show that trio presented was directed by Tom "Murph" Murphy. Jody Scalise, who has been a performer and director for Ben &: Jerry's for all three years of vaudeville bus touring, directs an all-women's group through New York, Boston, Chicago and the Midwest, ending in Houston in late September. The performers are jugglers Sara Felder and Jennifer Miller and gymnast/acrobat Diane Wasnak. Robert Nelson has assembled stiltwalker / comedian Michael Frith, comedian Ngaio Bealum and variety artist Soozee Shireman to perform from the end of September through December, heading west from Texas toward an extensive schedule of engagements in the Los Angeles area. For a complete schedule, call Ben & Jerry's.