Las Vegas Report:

 

REJEAN ST. JULES

 

Rejean St. Jules is presenting his act in the "Nudes on Ice" show at the Las Vegas Union Plaza Hotel through September. He begins on the small stage manipulating a top hat. He next works with a hat, cigar and two balls. He juggles three of the objects while alternately putting the hat on his head or cigar in his mouth. The constantly changing position of the objects makes this a very effective routine. He then does three cigar boxes to can-can music, finishing with a pirouette behind all three. He does six rings, then a beautiful, very low five ball bounce of lime green silicone balls under a single blue light. He finishes the act with a three club routine, including some accomplished kickups.

 

The act is interspersed with some comic asides, including placement of small and large trophies on top of his prop case depending on whether he did a good trick, or suffered a drop.

 

Now in his sixth year of working the Las Vegas / Reno / Tahoe circuit, St. Jules says he is always trying to make his act more enjoyable for the audience. "If you make people laugh and show them a little personality they like you," he said.

He used to practice with five clubs and even tried seven for a while, but decided "I didn't want to practice the rest of my life." His act now includes more comic bits, and he is working on a trade­mark gimmick that he hopes will give his act a solid identity in the crowded entertainment world.

 

St. Jules spends most of his time cultivating other personal talents -- painting, sculpture and woodworking. Growing up in a French Canadian circus family, he started his career in their hand balancing act. Besides circus skills, he learned handyman skills that have served him well in renovating a now-beautiful Las Vegas home. "I'm a typical gypsy," he said. "I love to work with my hands and can do any of those things you have to do fo keep you going on the road."

 

He is married to Terry Cavarretas, the only woman in the world who performs a triple somersault on the flying trapeze.  She and her brothers perform regularly at Circus-Circus in town.

 

WALLY EASTWOOD

 

Wally Eastwood is presenting his high-energy, acrobatic juggling act on the big stage at Bally's Grand Hotel at least through September. His 10 are filled with rapidly spinning clubs and gymnastic feats that lead him to bill himself as "The Fastest Juggler on Earth."

He begins his 10-minute act with three clubs, juggling them very low with fast triple spins. He throws one high and catches it after a forward roll, then catches another high toss after a back handspring. He does four clubs with splits, and pirouettes with two in the air before doing a low four club shower. He does a five club half shower with a single spin self throw and five spin high toss. He finishes the five clubs by catching one behind his knee.

 

He puts on a billiard pocket belt and bounce juggles five balls very low before beginning a sequence of tosses in the air that he catches in the billiard pockets.

 

Next he puts on a red, white and blue jacket and juggles three similarly decorated top hats to patriotic music. His hat juggling includes bouncing them in the air by hitting the brim with his forehead to bounce it back up in the air.

 

He does ping pong balls next. With two he does a front roll and pirouette. He then does three without hands and up to five using his hands to feed them back to his mouth. 

 

As he works the audience during the act, Eastwood gets them several times to ecxclaim his new trademark word, "Wow!" for his best tricks. "I'm always trying new stuff," he said. "This is a tough town to work. With Anthony doing seven clubs and Kremo being unbelievable, I had to do something to make myself known!"

 

Coming to stage shows from a circus background, Eastwood worked for 18 months for Bally's in Reno and has been at the Las Vegas Bally's for a year now. He has recently appeared on several television shows, including the Smothers Brothers, Late Night with David Letterman and Incredible Sunday. On the latter show, he demonstrated seven ping pong balls with a hand feed for the first time. He says he has done four without his hands in practice.