Tunes created by juggling are only one form of music's careful presentation in the two-hour show. "The Kamikaze Ground Crew," a five-person band, begins the show with an overture before the curtain rises. Though their juggling skill is mixed, their musical ability is superb.

 

The band is led by Douglas Wieselman, who has written most of the music for the show and created its unique, brassy blend of circus, jazz and klezmer sounds. Other members are Gina Leishman, Bud Chase, Steve Bernstein and Danny Frankel. Magid and Patterson enlarge the quintet to seven during several numbers.

 

As classically as the band opens the show, it closes the evening with civility and grace. After the curtain falls, the lights come up and the audience starts out the door, band members walk silently back onto the stage to take up their instruments and playa soft goodnight to their departing supporters.

 

Patterson asserts that they've only just begun to "push the envelope" of musical juggling. The high point of their current capabilities, drums and marimba together, has only been a part of the show since 1982. By the fall of 1986, Patterson envisioned the addition of electronic enhancements to the juggling sound.

 

"Making music this way is a very difficult thing to do," Patterson said. "But now that we know the basic moves and have an understanding of the challenge, it should be easier to do more."

 

Williams wants to expand his back drums with floor drums in front of him he can either hit with a club or beat with a foot pedal, and hang top hat cymbal above.

 

The studded gloves might be wired to a sound machine that created different notes for each participant in the club juggling piece. Tap shoes and a few dance steps could form an even more complex presentation. Likewise, Patterson hopes to investigate the possibility of striking a "Simmons drum," a surface that creates electronic music with standard drum technology. "It makes your striking surface the equivalent of a keyboard. We could play more melodic tunes," Patterson said.

 

In the works are a jump suit covered with noise makers and a portable drum set worn on the back so that the Brothers can become, in fact, a marching juggling band.

 

Now that you've read the story, see the movie!

 

The 20th Century Fox film, "Jewel of the Nile," which features the Karamazov Brothers and Avner Eisenberg, was scheduled for release December 10. During ten weeks of filming in Morocco, the FKB worked some musical juggling into the filming but it was not certain at press time what would make the final cut of the movie.

 

In keeping with their roles as Arabic tribesmen, they used Berber drums instead of back drums for a rhythmic piece, and bounced balls off a bottle-necked Arabic "dunbek." In another scene, Patterson "played" a set of brass dishes and plates with three knives he juggled.

 

Two notable non-musical juggling scenes were filmed as well. The entire group juggled torches around villain Danny De Vito as they forced him to walk over hot coals. Then there was the scene in which the FKBs and featured performer Avner Eisenberg juggled swords in a howling sandstorm. "It took a lot of takes, but we finally managed it," Patterson reported.

 

Other challenges encountered on location were summer temperatures that reached toward 130 degrees and movie producers who didn't seem to understand that jugglers need time to practice new material before performing it. "We did a lot of off-the-cuff juggling," Patterson said.