Even in the elegant setting of a spectacle on Ice, Daniel Rosen manages to get in his comedy licks.

 

He says the Ice Capades tried to cast him in a straight act when he joined the production this season; tried to sequin and spangle him beneath the spotlights like the rest of the 60 performers. But the version of the 7-minute act which spectators around the country are seeing now begins with a comedy no-show and Rosen disguised as a popcorn vendor emerging from the crowd!

 

Doubts as to his true vocation are quickly dispelled, however, as the 19-year-old IJA member takes to the ice to manipulate his popcorn boxes in cigar box style. The comedy continues as his beautiful assistant coerces him into riding a unicycle with spiked tires. But then she rips off the fake garb to reveal a flashy costume, in which Rosen juggles three clubs, four clubs, five rings and five torches.

 

Rosen said he personally put together the act as an attempt to present a seldom-seen mixture of comedy and technical juggling in front of coliseum-sized audiences. He says he's the first of an honorable line of Ice Capades jugglers to try comedy, as he follows in the skate tracks of Trixie, Albert Lucas and Lucas' younger brother David Lee. The response of the crowd to his act and curtain call indicates to him the idea is working.

 

Acceptance to the nine-month Ice Capades tour last September represented achievement of a major goal in Rosen's career. A street-bound juggler in southern California since he learned to juggle at age 10, three years ago he envisioned ice juggling as a shortcut to the big time. "I saw more and more jugglers around me on the street, but very few on ice," Rosen said. "I was worried about the competition, and looked at the ice for job .security."

 

He visited a nearby Ice Capades-operated rink and said he wanted skating lessons so he could juggle with the show. The management was skeptical, but he arranged instruction with Donna Atwood, one-time U.S. Pairs Skating Champion and former Ice Capades star.

 

That was the first of several "right people" connections he says have been valuable in his success.

 

Rosen is using his Ice Capades career to build credibility toward an entertainment career. He hopes to broaden his base of aud­ience appeal with experience in acting and exposure of his non-juggling comic talents and mean banjo-picking. (Have you heard the music Edward Jackman uses in his lightning three ball routine? That's Danny Rosen playing!)

 

Whatever he becomes in the future. Rosen has built his reputation to this point through hard work in the streets.

 

In 1971, he plunked down the requisite dollar at a Renaissance Festival in Los Angeles so that Martin Gray, former IJA president, would teach him to juggle. "It's the best dollar I ever spent!" Rosen claims.

 

He had the drive, but says the talent was slow to develop. A month later, he could control only about 15 cascade tosses. But with three years of steady practice, Rosen was performing street shows of juggling, unicycle riding and banjo playing. He attended the 1976 IJA convention in Los Angeles. and made 3-1/2 hour bus rides to work out at the UCLA gymnasium with Peter Davison, Ed Jackman, John Luker and Jim Ridgeley.

 

Those five formed the brief-lived Los An­geles Juggling Company, which folded in part because the principals found that the money they earned didn't go far when split into fifths!

 

He and Jackman then formed a two-man team to amuse and astound crowds on the streets of Venice Beach and Westwood. They worked eventually up to passing nine clubs between them. The two worked the streets of New York for two weeks in 1979. and pulled enough out of their hats to finance their entire trip to the Amherst, Massachusetts, IJA convention.

 

Rosen toured California schools with the Juggling Institute program, toured Canada in 1980 with a brewery-sponsored trick ski demonstration team, and shared the stage with wild animals at Lion Country Safari Park. In the summer of 1981, he performed with John Davidson's Salt Water Circus Comedy Review on Catalina Island off the California coast. Davidson helped Rosen get a manager for his career, and the Ice Capades tour followed.

 

He practices every day still outside the show, but says new tricks come much slower as he works with increasingly large numbers of objects, such as eight rings and five clubs.

 

Three years practice of five club, triple-spin back crosses has yielded a maximum of 42 throws. But he has learned enough other five club variations to contemplate a complete five club routine.

 

Juggling on ice is not easy to master, he warns. "First, it's cold! Your hands get cold, they get wet if you drop the props, and it's like juggling in the wind all the time. You can't do kickups, either. It took a lot of time to get my arms and legs to cooperate, but the practice has been good for my juggling all-round, " he said.

 

For feedback, he works with videotape.

 

Beaming and confident in the spotlight, Rosen is friendly and mild off stage. If ten year's practice isn't self-evident proof, he states, "I juggle because I really like it. That's what's driven me to continue."

 

He is eager to get together with other jugglers in towns on the Ice Capades tour, to pass clubs and escape the shop-talk of the skaters' dressing room. IJA members can pass him a note once they're in the arena and he'll be glad to meet them backstage.