Former IJA President prevails over Kremo, Schweitzer

 

Franco wins circus championships

 

By Lindsay Leslie Newport-on-Tay, Scotland

 

The video tape of the 1979 Circus World Championships, taped on November 30, was shown on British TV on January 10. It was a big night for circus fans throughout the country, and captured the largest TV audience of the day. The one­hour show covered 10 circus acts and all finalists in the jug­gling, trick riding, trampoline and trapeze categories.

Two celebrities and three European circus directors judged the competition, awarding a maximum of 10 points for presentation and 10 points for content, making a maximum score of 100 for each act.

The juggling results were: First place - Dick Franco (USA), 95 points. Second place - Kris Kremo (Switzerland), 91 points Third place - Rudi Schweitzer (Germany), 89 points.

 

The TV show was spectacular, entertaining and very, very exciting. One could feel the atmosphere and pressure on the artistes, who could only hope to be in top form for this very special performance. It was noticeable that only the juggling competition featured solo artistes. This pronounced the fact, I'm sure, that juggling was the most artistic and

individual circus act of the night.

 

Here is a brief outline of each juggler's performance. Kris Kremo was on first, with a clever routine using only

one Bowler hat, showing off his personality and stage craft to the full since there was only one prop to distract the audi­ence from the performer. Then followed his very fast three­lacrosse ball routine, which I feel was too fast for the judges to appreciate. He finished with his excellent cigar box routine and incredible pirouettes--two pirouettes leaving three boxes and three pirouettes leaving one. Judging from the audience's applause, the latter trick was the more difficult one.

 

Rudi Schweitzer started off with a comical spot using two lacrosse balls, a cigar and a Bowler hat, juggling three objects at a time. He kept swapping the cigar and Bowler hat with the two balls. The cigar was lit, for he actually smoked it when it was in his mouth. Then he did his top hat routine using double and triple brim bounces and finished with a very fast shower to the head. He completed his act with a short cigar box routine, ending with one double pirouette and many single pirouettes, leaving one box suspended as he moved across the circus ring.

 

Dick Franco started with a three and four ball routine using large white balls which were very easy to see and follow.

Dick holds his neat flight paths long enough for the audience to appreciate the formations he is doing, and the larger balls enhanced this ability. He then ran through a set of stands to start his clean crisp five-ring routine which features a half­shower and more than a flash of pancakes or butterflies. Next followed several neat color changes with five rings.

 

Then, changing to another set of rings he juggled seven and brought them down over his head. His three, and kick-up to four club routine were constrating and controlled. Although he did not do five clubs here, when there is nothing at stake he often does a four to five club kickup, then moves from a five-club cascade into back crosses to finish his act. Franco completed his first-place effort with one, two and three-ball mouth juggling, leaving one ball for two pirouettes and two balls for one pirouette.

 

It was clear that the audience agreed with the judges as Franco's score was announced. They certainly witnessed an outstanding display of dexterity from all three jugglers, however.