Because the audience was going wild at this point, Duncan said he barely heard the musical cue for the last section of his act, rolling a single white stage ball in expert fashion on pre-determined paths between multiple balance points on his arms, hands and head. It traveled from hand to hand behind his back, and made shorter trips between balance points all over his arms and head. His head rolls were spectacular. The hardest move for him was rolling it three times in a row around his face - forehead to left side to chin to right side to forehead. But the crowd went wild again when the ball rolled from his forehead to rest on the tip of his nose. The level of noise rose another notch when he dropped the ball to balance on his foot, then kicked it up to balance on his nose again.

 

Albert Lucas presented Duncan with the IJA Championship Trophy in the culmination of a thoroughly satisfying single evening of competitive entertainment. Competitions director Dan Holzman and preliminaries judges pared the field of 27 total competitors for Individuals, Teams and Juniors down to 13 whom they felt could legitimately compete for a medal. Emcee Sam Kilbourne wasted no time in introducing each act, so the proceedings went swiftly.

 

Duncan said his $1,000 prize money would come in handy. A month previously he lost a wallet with $750 inside, and just a week before the festival someone stole a bag containing all his props from outside of his New York City apartment. He has been juggling for 16 years and performing since 1981, mainly doing a 45-minute comedy routine on cruise ships and for corporate shows,

 

"It feels good to have pulled it off," he said. "I did the best I could do, and I didn't know beforehand that I could do that.

 

The champion got to hoist the trophy, but others enjoyed moments of glory equally as self-fulfilling. Several hundred jugglers paraded proudly downhill along Main Street for a mile behind a police escort, playing wooden kazoos donated by the Toycrafter, stopping traffic and entertaining shoppers in the busy tourist town to kick off Games Day on the pedestrian mall.