Fritz Grobe

It helped that I got opportunities like the workshops at Celebration Barn. The first person I met there was Steve Ragatz, and two years ago he asked me to move to Bloom­ington. It wasn't just, "OK I'm going to drop out of school," it was "I'm going to put math aside and work for a while with Steve."

 

It's nice to get this medal because it justifies the decision a bit and gives me the confidence to stick with my instincts about what I want to do. Now my parents are pleased. They can say, "He's not just doing birthday parties, he's actually a good juggler. He didn't just drop out of school and become a bum!"

 

JW: How did you get to Bloomington?

FG: I started studying at Celebration Barn, where I met Steve Ragatz. After a few years we both found ourselves not quite doing what we wanted performing-wise, and then he invited me to move to Bloomington to work with him. Along with his wife, Lisa, we formed the Experimental Theatre Circus and performed together for 18 months. Then all of a sudden this past summer Steve got an offer to work with Michael Moschen to choreograph a piece for Cirque du Soleil in Montreal. It was a very sudden change of plans. I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do when he left, so I went to a workshop with Avner Eisenberg at the Barn and decided there to try to write a one­person show this fall.                     .

 

JW: Was the IJA championship a part of that plan?

FG: I had been to four previous IJA festivals, and had been meaning to enter the championships for a while. I finally decided last year I'd do it this year. I've been working on .the tricks and combinations since then, but the theatrics were something totally new for me. It was very much an experiment.

 

With ETC I performed as an eccentric, geeky, dysfunctional person who paradoxically has these skills, an idiot-savant. It doesn't seem that I can catch a ball, let alone bounce seven. The competition routine was difficult because it was a completely different character. I wanted to try this once, even though I have the feeling I'll never do it again. You have to try things that are more extreme than you'd like to find how far you really want to go. It's only by going beyond the point of balance that you find where the point lies.

 

JW: What sort of show did you and Steve do as The Experimental Theatre Circus?

FG: We did a lot of things, but only about ten minutes of juggling out of maybe 45. Steve did clubs and devil sticks and I did diabolos and rola bola bouncing stuff. In the Juggler's World after the L.A. festival there's a photo of me doing 7 ball bouncing on a rola bola, wearing a bicycle helmet with a ball spinning on a plunger stuck to it. I did that trick. We did some juggling in leaning shoes, and I did my contortions. I have double­jointed shoulders so my arms go a little bit further around my head than it seems they should.

 

That's the kind of thing I've always done, these bits of weirdness. I got the "Golden Leash" award from the New York Jugglers at the 1989 Baltimore festival after I hung 12 spoons off my face. I definitely feel I've scored a victory for all the geeks out there with the Fargo win. Yeah, we can also do cool things, too.

 

JW: Who would you say has had the biggest influence on your juggling to this point?

FG: My juggling was helped a lot by Gus Lauppe from Brunswick. I unicycled to a neighboring town back in 1988 to watch a circus set up a tent, and when I got there this guy came up and asked me if I was Fritz. It was Gus. We had heard about each other through a mutual friend. He's 71 now, and when I first met him he could still do seven rings. He and his wife, Ursula, were at one time at the top of their profession. They toured with Laurel and Hardy, worked with Bing Crosby, played the London Palladium, and toured with the Globetrotters. Just to hear all the stories, all the people he's seen, is amazing.

 

Gus helped a lot with ideas, and pushed me technically to try things I wouldn't otherwise go for. He was principally a ring juggler and ball manipulator and got me working on rings some more. There aren't a lot of jugglers in Brunswick, and he's been "the other juggler" I hang out with.

 

My study with Fred Garbo at Celebration Barn, and most recently with Avner, most influenced the way I approach performance. My basic performance idea is that juggling is very boring to watch. Most people can't see specifically what you're doing. Only through the character work does it become interest­ing. If you have a good character it doesn't matter what you do, the audience will be with you and have a good time.