Among the tricks Rastelli was performing included juggling nine rings with another

spinning around his leg. He also bounced a ball on his head while balancing a ball on a ball on a mouths tick while he jumped rope on one leg! Danville also said Rastelli flashed 12 balls. Rastelli practiced four hours a day, and when he came off stage at the end of his daily performance, he was so excited that he had to sit in a chair and relax for 15 minutes before he could talk to anyone.

 

Danville said the two became pretty good friends in that time, and spent time socializing at cafes and Tivoli Gardens. "He was a very personable, friendly man," Danville said. The respect was apparently mutual. When word made it through the European circus grapevine that Danville was performing a running flip-flop somersault to the top of a three-high shoulder stand, Rastelli made a special trip from his engagement elsewhere in Germany to Essen to see him perform it.

 

As always, unscheduled and unannounced demonstrations of skill by some of the top jugglers broke out in the hall occasionally and attracted huge crowds. Jian Hua Qian showed astounding balance tricks with a wine bottle on a mouthstick. Gregory Popovich started with four balls in each hand and one ball between his legs, flashed nine and finished with a neck catch. Anthony Gatto showed he can still flash 11.  Vladik and his father Anatoli Miagkostoupov did takeaways with five clubs, and Anatoli showed off a six club multiplex.

 

Many jugglers trekked off to other hotels to see jugglers perform in their shows. Steve Ragatz, Pat McGuire and Jean Besnard were performing their Michael Moschen-choreographed "ball and dorito" manipulation piece with Cirque du Soleil.

 

Gregory Popovich and Dick Franco were among the acts at Circus-Circus, Anthony Gatto performed his act nightly at the Lady Luck, the Qian Brothers at the Tropicana and Michael Goudeau right there in the Hacienda.

 

Various juggling interest groups put together their own meetings within the festival. On-line members who subscribe to the rec.juggling newsgroup met to put faces together with .sig files during an afternoon party, women conducted a forum on their common concerns, and the Christian Juggling Association met as well.

 

The festival culminated with the Thursday evening "Cascade of Stars" public show at the beautiful Artemus Ham Concert Hall at the University of Nevada - Las Vegas. And, as usual, jugglers left the hall swearing it was the best ever. Hollywood screenwriter and comedian Pat Hazell served as emcee, entertaining the crowd with clever jokes on everything, including green Army men! The Raspyni Brothers made two appearances, appropriately kicking off the whole show as "The Juggling Elvises" and opening act two as "The Funky Ninjas." Dan Holzman, half of that Raspyni team, produced the show and put together its strong variety show lineup.

 

Sean McKinney, the 1992 Juniors champion, brought up the energy level with his frenzied hard-rock ball juggling. Former national twirling champion Jill Westover threw several batons impossibly high, and Jon Held directed a dozen of his friends in a beautifully choreographed ensemble piece that represented the universal struggle of juggling. Tyler Linkin did silly tricks with a hair drier and ping pong balls, and champion unicyclist John Foss showed off moves on both one wheel and an artistic bicycle.