By Bill Giduz, Editor

 

The man many consider the greatest juggler in the world thinks a lot more these days about his life off stage than on. Anthony Gatto, 22-years-old, holder of several Guinness World Records for juggling and a regular performer at the Lady Luck Casino in Las Vegas, is primarily concerned now with a landscaping / lawn maintenance business.

 

Anthony and his father/assistant, Nick Gatto, spent each morning during the IJA festival coaching a dozen festival participants on their juggling technique. One morning their private workshop evolved into an open juggling demonstration by Anthony, and about 250 people clustered around to watch. Though he was trying tricks he said he hasn't worked on in a long time, he wowed the crowd with his technique. He flashed 11 rings after just a few tries, did several rounds of 10 rings, flashed 10 while spinning a ring around his leg, and flashed 10 to a pulldown over his neck.

 

He did three under the leg throws while cascading five clubs, a five club shower, and pirouetted after five club backcrosses to re­sume his cascade. He balanced one club on his chin while juggling six, then let it fall down into a seven club cascade, and began a seven club cascade with a kickup. He pirouetted under five thrown high out of the seven club juggle, then pirouetted under all seven. He did an eight club flash.

 

The list of amazing tricks goes on and on. He did a six club shower, which turned into a six club multiplex pattern. He switched to balls and got nine going pretty well on the first try. Nick said to him after a few instants, "OK, bring it in," to which Anthony replied, "Heck no! I'm going to keep it going, I haven't done it this long in years!" He did at least 100 throws before he dropped.

 

Anthony's reply to his father was telling, confirming that he doesn't practice numbers any more. But he enjoyed demonstrating the hard stuff for jugglers who realized the difficulty of what he was doing, and wanted to show them his full repertoire. Even though he didn't have his regular head bouncing ball, he found a badly underinflated small basketball and bounced it on his head for another series of tricks - such as bouncing it while he juggled seven rings and spun another around one foot. And eight rings with the ball bounce. And a nine ring flash with the ball bounce.

 

But despite his tremendous juggling ability, and its significance to those who stand in awe of it, it's clear from talking to Anthony that juggling is just his profession now, and not his calling. He said, "On a good day there's not much difficult for me. If I wanted to practice and go at it hard, I feel I could do 13 rings or 9 clubs. When I caught 12 rings the first time in Germany two years ago it didn't seem too hard, and we started working on 13. But right now I don't feel there's any reason to do it. I'm not working at improving much. I have a nice act and just want to maybe improve it some, rather than working on some crazy trick I can't do yet. It's not what you do in practice, it's what you do on stage. Juggling for me now is my profession, it's what I do. But I'm getting into other things just in case. I don't think I'll be juggling into my 40s or anything."

 

He admitted that his attitude toward the art has changed, "I used to think I would break all the records. There were things I had to get because others were doing it, but now I don't feel that pressure. I'm glad there are people coming up as good technical jugglers, but I'm not pressured to do these astronomical things anymore. I'm not interested in going for the ultimate."

 

Instead, Anthony and a friend have incorporated as Green Meadow Lawn Service in Las Vegas, and he enjoys spending many days under the hot sun mowing lawns. He has transformed the yard at his own home into a beautiful desert garden, and sees tremendous potential in doing the same thing for others in that booming city.