Wee graduated in 1988 from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, and Morse finished University of California-Irvine a year later. Morse had some solo performing experience,  and Wee had worked for six years with other jugglers at the Minnesota Renaissance Faire. That summer of 1988, their first together as The Passing Zone, they booked four solid months of work before they did their first show together! Wee had arranged for two months work at the Minnesota Renaissance Faire and Morse got them a two month contract at the Sawdust Arts Festival in Laguna Beach. They put together a show in three days, and decided they were onto a good thing when early audiences assumed they had been working together for years!

 

Since then they have cultivated an international show business career, including NBA halftime shows, two appearances on The Tonight Show and a Royal Command Performance in Britain. They have appeared on TV's "Comic Strip Live," "Mad TV" and "Evening at the lmprov," and did the juggling in the "Addams Family" movie. They have juggled at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas and the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, and appeared with Bob Hope, Tony Bennett and Sheena Easton.

 

This year they hope to do another Royal Command Performance, as well as performing at colleges, comedy clubs, corporate special events and industry trade shows.

 

The key to their success is both luck and hard work. Nature has endowed them as juggling's "pretty boys." Both men are blonde, handsome and athletically all-American looking. But they enhance their natural attributes with a clean-cut show, engaging personalities, and the willingness to work hard at developing technical expertise with a wide variety of props.

 

They pass 11 clubs in practice, and have achieved 17 or 18 catches, passing quadruple spins with just right hand throws.

 

Their technical expertise has made them outstanding performers at IJA festivals. They finished second in the 1988 teams championship, and won the title the following year in Baltimore. They have also competed in numbers and joggling events. They held the IJA record for club passing (10 for 48 catches) until Doubble Troubble broke it this year, and both ran with Team Exerball in setting the mile relay joggling record (3:57.4 in 1990). Morse also holds the IJA joggling records for 100 meters (11.92 sec. in 1988) and 400 meters (57.4 in 1990).

 

They've got more than enough technical ability for an effective act, and find a bigger payoff now in spending most of their time in marketing and writing new comedy routines. Wee said, "We get all energized working on technique at IJA conventions, but then realize there aren't a lot of people in the world who care that you can pass 11. What excites me most is practicing something that has a direct application to the show. If we come up with some sort of comedy routine for the devil stick I'll work like mad on it. I'm glad now that I put in eight hours a day practicing when I was 13 or 15 years old, because I sure don't have the patience for it now. "

 

He continued, "It's amazingly satisfying to look into an audience and see people holding their sides, wiping their eyes and busting up, and remembering having sat down at a computer sometime and written the joke they're enjoying. "

 

Some jokes win and others flop, but the audience sees the losers more than one time. The ones that win grt exposure over and over. One of their top jokes involves costuming. Wee wears a shirt with large polka dots in the show. Toward the end he drops a prop on purpose, prompting Morse to chastise him by saying, "Jon, how many times have I told you you'll have to stop dropping?!"

 

Morse acts disgusted, pulls a sheet of adhesive polka dots out of his pocket and sticks one on Wee's shirt, implying that all the rest are also the result of dropped props. "Now I'm stuck wearing a polka dot shirt for my whole life, because it's the only really funny joke we have!" Wee said.

 

The NBA has provided a steady source of income to The Passing Zone for the past four winters, with appearances as halftime entertainers as many as 20 times a season in arenas from Orlando to Seattle. At first they did their act in tennis shoes, then worked up an act on roller blades to more effectively fill the large space.

 

They began with a tricky three club leap frog takeaway, then turned on their mikes to welcome the crowd. Jon set the tone for the act by explaining that they would be combining two activities ­ juggling, which was boring by itself - and rollerblading ­ which was pointless - into a show that was both pointless and boring!

 

Then, as they skated around the floor, they did club drop backs and Wee skated between Morse's legs for a takeaway. To cap that with a comedy effect, the taller Morse acted like he would then skate between Wee's legs, but hoisted him onto his shoulders instead! They did synchronized moves and passed with six clubs, and did seven back to back as Morse skated backward and Wee forward. The act built to a comedic conclusion as an audience member was forced to lie down prone between two chairs as Morse leaped over him while skating and juggling three clubs.

 

Though the money was good, the work wasn't very rewarding otherwise. "Basketball is a weird market," Wee said. "It's not particularly artistically satisfying because it's just seven minutes long, the audience is a long way away and not everyone is paying attention. TV never features you, so the shows ended up being pretty isolated events that didn't lead to anything except other NBA gigs. Four or five years ago those shows were among our highest-paying work, but now they're among the lowest. I guess that's good news!"