He said, "When I first started practicing there I saw someone juggling four balls and it totally blew me away, but by the time I left for San Francisco to street perform I was pretty jaded."

 

Still, he was not prepared for the competitive atmosphere he encountered in some parts of the juggling community. He recalled, "I expected to find more camaraderie among the performers, but too often they put each other down. I had a pretty high skill level but was new to performing, and after my first show they told me I was untalented and would never make it. I tried not to listen, but I still remember it and it didn't help my confidence at the time."

 

One of the professionals who did offer encouragement was Will Shaw, who met Duncan in New York and introduced him to the No Elephant Circus. Duncan became the main juggler in the troupe, performing some solo routines, some with passing, and doing a bit of clowning. "That was where I learned the basics of being a performer," he remembered. "Before that I didn't really have a style of presentation."

 

His next major experience came about as a result of his work with Steve Bernard, a talented juggler and ventriloquist. While doing street shows in Copenhagen, the two were spotted by the director of the Benneweis Circus, who invited them to audition. Once hired, they caused some controversy because "in Denmark the circus is a seen as a national institution, and we were not from a circus family, we were street performers. They had never worked with anyone like us before."

 

They performed daily for five months, and Duncan remembers it for the consistent practice it afforded and for the chance to work with a good lighting designer and original band music. "After a month of ignoring us, a guy from the cradle act came over and said, 'You're O.K. You practice, you're professional.' Finally, we felt accepted!"

 

Their work with the circus eventually led to an engagement at the renowned Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen.  After his return, it took Duncan a while to find his niche in the American entertainment industry. He noticed that many jugglers had a tendency to give up their skills and become comics.

 

Would there be room for a juggler whose intense practice sessions used to be followed by attempts to peel raw eggs without breaking the skin to improve his concentration? Duncan observed, "There is a great deal of pressure among agents to fit acts   into a stand-up comedy mold. That's why Michael Moschen's work is so important - he made a new category in the profession."

 

Duncan credits Moschen with inspiring him to pursue his ball rolling skills to a higher level of technique and artistry. "Before I met Moschen I was working on some similar moves with subtle differences, but my style was not as crisp and defined. I might never have developed a few skills to this extent if I had not seen the kind of effect that could eventually be achieved. "

 

Although he was not at the IJA Montreal festival, Duncan agrees with the gist of Moschen's workshop. "Sometimes I am reluctant to share what I do because lot of jugglers are opportunists - they just take this and that without really giving themselves. It hurts creativity to take other people's ideas, but we also need each other's ideas to inspire us to pursue our own."

 

Duncan estimates that he has spent more time perfecting his rolling technique, in which up to five balls circle around his hands in numerous patterns with occasional detours up to his elbow, than he has in any other area, despite the fact that he finds its commercial possibilities limited. "It's worse than juggling seven balls because it's not as impressive to the untrained eye. But I've worked ten years to get this far, and I still get a rush out of balancing a ball on my nose. My goal is still to learn as much as possible for it's own sake."

 

While his global travels have kept him away from IJA festivals in recent years, Duncan has fond memories of the ones he did attend. "I never really made it to the Cleveland Convention because I got a lift with someone who turned back and left me stranded in Boulder when he found out Barrett Felker wasn't going to be there."

 

He did make it to Santa Barbara, where he won the seven ball competition, a feat he repeated the following year at Purchase (a disappointed Gatto finished third). "The new format for numbers doesn't make sense," he commented.  "They should have a different standard for each number to encourage better patterns and longer runs."

 

 

Watching Tony juggle seven changes your perception of the skill. Instead of a fleeting image tending towards collapse, it reveals itself as a tenacious force, as half-showers and reverses.  Foot and neck catches come into play. He has also been known to juggle seven balls while balancing on a slack-rope. But the road is not always smooth even at this level - there are still good days and days when it just doesn't work. "Seven is a lot of disappointments and a lot of surprises," he once said. "You have to decide whether the surprises are worth the disappointments."