by Tonja Hutter

If a tall, lender guy with a long ginger-colored ponytail shouts at you, -"(SIR / MA'AM)  Have you seen the trick I do with the watch?" you might want to proceed carefully. Those who don't usually find themselves to be part of Bills Choice... but that's not a bad thing! 

Bill Ferguson is now embarking on his 16th year of "not juggling" professionally for people in Canada, the USA and Australia. Walking home from his landscaping job in 1980, Bill saw a fellow juggling on his front lawn and asked him if he could teach him how to juggle. He fell in love with it instantly. 

Shortly thereafter he quit his job and gave up his placement in horticultural school to concentrate on juggling full-time. That's not to say it was an easy transition. Even though Bill practiced juggling every day and watched as many juggling street shows as he could, when it came time for his debut (juggling fire in front of a liquor store for three hours), he walked may with only $5 in his hat. "It was very discouraging, reminisced Bill. "I didn't know how to do a show."

As his juggling skills improved, Bill also learned how to do shows with degrees of flexibility with a partner and solo. His shows are geared towards the street, festivals and performances at corporate engagements in Vancouver, where he currently resides. As far as props go, you name it, he s juggled it: socks, wallets, bag lunches, umbrellas, hats, staple guns, helmets, etc. 

When he was starting out, his shows featured juggling until he learned how to use his mouth - an absolute must for anyone wanting to earn a living from street performing. It was during this period of perseverance that "Bills Choice" evolved. Self- described as an "aggressive son-of-a-bitch" he's learned to control that side of his nature to be more playfully aggressive. 

One obstacle he can't seem to overcome, though. is political correctness. Street performers generally acknowledge that men and women are not equal in the eyes of an audience. What is acceptable behavior toward a man in public is not acceptable behavior towards a woman. It is still the opinion of both sexes that it is okay to be aggressive with a male volunteer, but the same behavior toward a female volunteer is abusive. Remembering that difference has also shaped Hill's show. 

"Bill's Choice" isn't actually about Bills choice  but rather the choices of his audience and his volunteers. And now, although Bill's prop case is equipped with traditional props like machetes, clubs and torches, he doesn't actually use them in his show. Bill's show, from beginning to end, is about making a connection with his audience and the challenges he puts to them. 

His challenge begins similarly to the challenge other jugglers use. Bill asks his audience to choose any three items and he will then be allowed three attempts to juggle them ten times in a row without dropping. If he can't do it, a young volunteer he has selected from the audience will smush a shaving cream pie into Bill's face. 

At this point, "Bill's Challenge" diverges from the traditional, because if Bill is successful, the kid gets the pie in the face! But the choices don't end there. The father of the volunteer gets a chance to spare the child by taking his or her place, or to offer their child the choice between Bill or their dad as the recipient of the pie! The variety of possible outcomes is always humorous and unpredictable as the audience watches the volunteer weigh the pres and cons of pie-ing Dad while Bill reminds them of punishments Dad has subjected them to in the past and suggests "...wouldn't it be nice to get even?" 

Bill recalls one show that was like no other. Working at the Pacific National Exhibition in Vancouver, B.C., he had just successfully juggled a baby stroller, a purse and a book, when he asked his volunteer's father to come forward. The father refused, hanging at the very back of the crowd. Despite several urgings, the man would not come forward in defense of his son. That that never happened to Bill before in five years of performing. 

As is the way of the street, he improvised. "Someone had to take the place of the boy so I asked the mother to come up instead," recalled Bill. "She did and as I was putting the towel around her to protect her clothing, a man stepped forward from the audience - a complete stranger to the woman, and offered to take her place in a simple act of chivalry." 

Bill accepted the stranger's offer and sent the mother back to her seat. As the stranger knelt there awaiting his fate, some people in the crowd were so moved by the stranger's kind deed that they began to collect money. First $5, then $3 and so on until $25 was accumulated and placed in a pile on the ground in front of Bill and the stranger. The crowd wanted Bill to take the pie in the face. He did, and gave the $25 to the boy and spared the kind stranger!  

Whereas usually the choice in Bill's show fell to his young volunteers, that particular show stands out in memory as the day Bill and the audience witnessed a father forsake his son, a mother who didn't, and a stranger who had the courage to take part in a good laugh. 

It all perfectly supported the premise behind "Bill's Choice." As Bill explains it, "Life is full of choices. But don't let me as a performer pressure you into making the choice I want, make your own instead."