When New York grew too cold, they headed for more street performing in Miami, where Jack had grown up. They often passed the hat eight times a day at the Bayside Mall. After a good day they'd treat themselves to dinner at Denny's. They joked wistfully about not being able to afford the simplest luxury item - cheese from the supermarket.

 

In their shared one-room apartment ("it sucked"), they created their strongest comedy piece, "The Artist." It grew from their desire to do something unique while passing three clubs between them. They finally settled on the idea of drawing a picture. Though there was hardly enough room for passing, they tried it in the apartment right away. Rick stood on his mattress and threw clubs while Jack drew on some paper taped to their mini-fridge, and it worked!

 

They say they come up with their best ideas by doing exercises in problem solving, asking each other, "What would be the best way to..." For example, in Miami they had a page of ideas for stacking and tossing cylindrical objects. The problem: what would be the best object? After trying plastic cups, wicker baskets, and even aluminum trash cans, they finally discovered the perfect solution - plastic flowerpots.

 

Some ideas never had a chance to get going. Entries in their early notebook include abandoned ideas for a lean-shoe routine with skis, rippling a rope across the stage in a variety of wave patterns, and projecting amusing shadows onto a screen. However, when they went to see a performance of Momix, a movement theatre troupe, they were astounded to see these exact ideas carried out on the stage! This was one of those odd-but-true examples of two acts coming up with the same ideas at roughly the same time. Clockwork dropped the ideas, not wanting anyone to even think they were stealing material.

 

When the tourist season ended in Miami, they declared victory, crammed their belongings into Jack's car and drove off in the general direction of Boulder.

They stopped in St. Louis and decided to stick around there because the 1994 IJA festival was fast approaching.

Rick claims living in St. Louis, "was not such a good decision," and Jack calls it

"a mistake." On the other hand, it was a creative period in which they gave birth

to the much-acclaimed flowerpot and funky town (big white balls) routines.

 

The IJA championship deadline gave them incentive to finish these projects. Again, they placed a higher priority on originality than on winning when preparing their competition routine.

 

They decided to compete in order to show their fresh, innovative ideas to their fellow jugglers, while knowing they couldn't beat the technique of a team like Doubble Troubble. In the end they placed second ­which translated to another bronze medal

under the Kapell system. But they were delighted by the crowd's enthusiastic response. In fact, a clip from that night's show is still in their professional video.

 

Boosted by the warm reception at the festival, Clockwork packed off to Europe for two months. A highlight of the trip was the juggling convention in Verona, Italy, where they were amazed at the sheer number of European jugglers and inspired by their performances. They hit the road thereafter, developing the act into street shows to present in Bonn, Cologne, Bern and Amsterdam.

 

When they returned to the US, their friend Michael Rosman offered them some rooms to rent in his Baltimore home, so that's where they settled. They began performing at Baltimore Harborplace and local Baltimore events, and then moved up to cruise ships and college shows.

 

In 1994, they moved to Los Angeles, and their career really started taking off. However, they attribute this success to a new, improved videotape rather than to their "Hollywood" address.

 

Over the next six months, they got calls to perform in Atlantic City and Japan, plus TV shows in Chile, France and England. They still frequently fly out of L.A. for college shows. And they're picking up local gigs at corporate events, comedy clubs and state fairs. Indeed, the gears of Clockwork's career are turning faster all the time.

 

Commitment to Conventions

No matter how busy their career gets, juggling festivals are a priority for Jack and

Rick, because they love to perform for jugglers and to stay informed about what other jugglers are doing. They routinely tell their agents that they are unavailable during the dates of the annual IJA festival. This summer's Rapid City festival was be Rick's tenth and Jack's twelfth!

 

The last time they competed was at Burlington in 1994, where they collected their third bronze medal and the honorary title of "Bronze Gods."

 

Many of their highly creative, non-verbal routines were developed specifically for IJA competitions, but they didn't think to use these routines in their professional shows until cruise and college shows demanded more material. Now, though, they feel these non­verbal routines are as important as their verbal comedy routines in winning jobs. For example, last year they were flown to Paris just to do the flowerpots for a TV spot. And the Magic Castle in Los Angeles, which is very picky about jugglers and seldom hires them, invites Clockwork to perform on a regular basis because their routines are so creative. This seems to contradict the conventional wisdom among American jugglers that only verbal comedy routines will get you work.