"The place was dark, smoky, and filled with Monty Python's idea of a lumberjack. They all had plaid shirts, suspenders, logging boots on. The tables were covered with liter-sized beer bottles. It had a classic stripper stage, T­shaped, with a runway that stuck out into the audience, lights all along the stage, perfect for jugglers! They said, 'You're the last act on tonight.' OK, no problem."

 

"First act. The most obscene fire eating act I have ever seen, performed by a 5'2" 350 lb. Jamaican woman, completely naked. The next act is a guy dancer dancing to a Michael Jackson song, with a white cowboy outfit on which he peels off. The third act comes out. It's a really beautiful blonde woman, with a great body, great dancer, strips off all her clothes except this boa. She does a really great job of keeping this boa in front of her until the very last part of the act, when she whips the boa off - and she is a he!"

 

"And now: the jugglers! Martin and I were dumbfounded. . . just 'HUH?!' About five minutes into our act this guy stands up and bellows out "They're not even speaking in French!" It took them five minutes to figure that out! We finished our act with torches, standing on either side of the runway and passing over the stage. We got this light round of applause, went off, and we heard this yelling going on, in French, people saying, 'They can't be finished, they still have clothes on!'"

 

Martin and Loon continued juggling until 1986, when they decided to part ways. Although he is now doing fine solo, Loon is quick to point out the benefits of starting out with a partner. "With a partner you bounce schtick off each other all the time. In the first couple of years we used to try all kinds of wild crazy stuff that we never performed, or just tested out jokes on each other. I miss that aspect of it."

 

To take arms against a sea of troubles.. .Bayfest, Green Bay's summer celebration, had enjoyed Truly Remarkable's off-beat humor for several years. His press releases announced things like "Loon will attempt a world record for underwater juggling. Wetsuits or umbrellas are recommended for the first three rows." Of course, anyone who asked about it was told that it had happened in the previous show, they missed it, it was fantastic, or sorry, it's happening in the show after this, sorry you'll miss it. But during a SCUBA class, Loon had discovered that lacrosse balls juggled quite well underwater. He decided that he'd give it a try for real. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

 

UW-Greenbay would provide the pool and the diving equipment. Wisconsin Public Television would do the video. A diver was in the water with a buddy­breathing device so Loon could appear to be dressed normally, juggling underwater. Loon would provide the peculiar attitude necessary to try this, with weights velcroed to his ankles to keep him down. It seemed like a good idea at the time.. .

 

Loon goes down. Loon takes a breath and the diver swims out of the video frame, Loon starts to juggle. Loon drops a ball. Loon discovers that without a mask, he can't see where the ball has gone. Loon motions to the diver for air, and the diver hands him the regulator. Loon, who can't see, presses the purge valve and places the regulator in his mouth upside down. Loon takes a deep breath of fresh, chlorinated water. Loon decides at this point that his life is a bit more important than a world record, and drops the weights, the regulator, and shoots to the surface, coughing, sputtering, and wondering if his network debut will be on Rescue 911, instead of WPTV.

 

After his split with Martin, Loon began to metamorphose from street juggler to a new venue - the stage. "The first couple of years that I did theatre shows I found to be really, really tough. On the street you get an immediate feedback from your audience. On a stage in a theatre you have these blinding lights on and you can't see the audience at all. You could be performing for a wall. You're eight or ten feet above the audience, and you can't even hear if they're laughing at the jokes or not. I found that really tough - at first. I prefer the theatre now. I know how to do it, and I've gotten better at a lot of things, using the theatre rather than being over­whelmed by the fact that I can't see them."

 

The audiences respond well to Loon's friendly patter, and his stage presence has a friendly intensity that keeps the people spellbound whether he's scaring a kid with his Mongoose or performing intricate diabolocu­tions. His show is filled with topical humor, perhaps due to another of his juggling acquaintances - the Flying Karamazov Brothers. "The first year I juggled I met them at the Minnesota Renaissance Fair. I liked their style of back-and-forth with the audience, their political commentary they have in their show, the look that they have. The Flying Karamazovs are high on my list."

 

The types of audiences he performs for have changed, too. Martin and Loon began as street performers in a college town, and went on tour for the likes of the Lac St. Jean crowd, and their act reflected it, with blue humor and what Loon termed a "lascivious" attitude. Though he still does things like the National Association of Campus Activities' Showcase, he has moved mostly into the convention and state fair venues. "I do a lot of corporate events, and those can be really tough sometimes. It's people from all over the state coming together, and they don't want to be entertained. They want to talk to their colleagues that they see twice a year at the convention. You just have to go out and do the show as best you can."