Flashback - 

Sarasota celebrates Dieter Tasso

MASTER OF CUPS AND SAUCERS

by Bill Giduz 

Dieter Tasso began his juggling career in Germany the same year the IJA was founded - 1947. And, like the IJA, he's still at it! 

In honor of his half-century of performing, Tasso was named as Sarasota's "1997 Circus Celebrity" by the Ringling Museum of Art in ceremonies at the museum in Sarasota, Fla., on February 7. His name is therefore the latest added to an all-star list of circus celebrities who the program has honored since 1970. However, he is the first juggler on the list, joining circus greats such as clowns Lou Jacobs and Emmett Kelly, high wire artist Karl Wallenda, showman Allan Hill, animal trainers The Rosaire Family, William and Barbara Woodcock, and Tarzan Zerbini. 

Tasso was born in Berlin in 1934. His mother and father juggled as an act known as The Krakows, and he remembers growing up in an active household with rings, balls and clubs flying through the living room. 

Both his parents died during World War II, and he went to live with an uncle, a well-known comedy juggler named "Little Knox." As he was watching over the cows on the family farm, young Dieter began amusing himself for the first time with juggling. 

In 1947 Little Knox began teaching 13-year-old Dieter the art of juggling, and they began performing together as The Two Krakows. As Dieter would learn a new trick, he would add it to the act and Knox would take out one of his own to keep the time constant. 

When the youngster learned the cup and saucer trick that eventually made him famous, Knox saw it as the opportunity to give Dieter a stage name. Knox told him he should call himself "Tasso" because that word for "cup" sounds the same in just about every European language. 

Though the trick was not original with him, it did turn out to be his ticket to fame and America. Catching an ever-growing stack of cups and saucers on the head is not an easy trick to learn. It was a process of trial and error, and took Dieter a full year to develop the skill and confidence he needed to do the trick right every time. He eventually reached a 14-cup stack record while standing on the ground in rehearsal, and did as many as 10 in actual performance. He also did eight while balancing on the slack wire. 

In 1952 Henry Ringling North saw his act at the Palace in Berlin and signed him to perform, center ring, with his circus in America. Tasso stayed with the Ringling circus for three years. He subsequent appeared on many national television shows in the 1950s and 1960s, worked in Shrine Circuses and in Las Vegas, and spent many years entertaining people at the Crazy Horse in Paris. 

He was in Europe last winter, and this summer will be in Michigan for the Bavarian festival in Frankenmoot.