After two years, Brown took a break from college and hiked the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. Approaching the end, he received a notice notifying him of his acceptance to Ringling Brothers Clown College. "Since I left the University, I have no back-up, and that compels me to succeed in show business," Brown claims. "Either that, or go backpacking."

 

Brown did graduate from Clown College, however, and toured with Ringling for two years. It was during this time that he began to develop his bicycle hoop act, which has since won him international renown. "When I was in clown college, John Fox came over and put a set of hoops in my hands that had once belonged to Kit Summers. Soon after I met Homer Stack, who sold me my first set."

 

While on tour Brown snatched all the practice time he could between shows, arriving early in the arena and staying late. Passing through Miami, he met Dick Franco, who gave him some lasting advice. "I was working on all kinds of props, but Dick told me to drop everything but the hoops. He predicted there would be a big market for it now that hoop jugglers have become so rare, and that I would find my niche if I stuck to it."

 

After two years at Ringling, Brown settled in Boulder for a time, practicing with Airjazz and working the streets on weekends. During the week, he practiced the hoop act for 12 hours a day. The incessant practice paid off, and Brown started receiving offers to perform his solo act indoors. He toured with Carden International Circus for four years, while also performing solo in South America, Canada and Japan.

 

While working at Carden, he became interested in the technical aspects of the show and was hired to run sound in addition to his performing duties. When the light man left the show, Brown took over that job as well ­experience that would prove essential when it came to directing Lazer Vaudeville.

 

Brown may be unique among jugglers in the Western Hemisphere in that he has never in his life attended a juggling convention, not even a tiny one. A planned excursion to Burlington was unfortunately usurped by business concerns. "I'm really curious as to what it's like and why people do it," he wonders, "but hopefully some day I'll find out."

 

In 1992, Brown was invited to perform his hoop act at the prestigious Monte Carlo Festival, one of the high points of his solo ca­reer. "It was an honor to be invited, but I was a bit disappointed by the set-up," Brown re­calls. "The juggling was perfect - no drops ­ but the floor was not ideal for rolling."

 

Though the quest for the perfect hoop rolling surface is part of what motivates Brown to pursue a theatrical career, he also delights in giving audiences a well-rounded theater experience.

 

"Over a two-hour show you really get to know the audience and they get to know you. People come to the theater to respond to a performer's ideas, not just to see a Vegas act." As if in tribute to his clowning days, Brown takes a pie in the face at the end of his "Dueling Straitjackets" routine. "Once or twice a year I get to pie the volunteer - if they're really asking for it," he says with a devilish grin. Brown and Johnson also perform an acrobatic routine, complete with table slides and all the slapstick trimmings, reminiscent of their Ringling days.

 

As a 14-year-old, Johnson watched Brown practicing by the side of the ring in Chicago, and this encounter inspired him to continue his pursuit of the circus arts. Already a veteran of the Windy City Circus, which he joined at age 10, Johnson went on to study acting as a teenager at the. Chicago Academy of the Arts. Now in his second year with Lazer Vaudeville, Johnson brings his inimitable comedic flair to the show, and his long arms and dependable hands help to hold the ensemble pieces together. With extensive set design credits in the Chicago television industry, he is also master prop builder, creating many of the unique props, tables, and road cases essential to the show.

 

One of the most impressive things about Lazer Vaudeville is the sheer amount of mileage covered between shows. "The way the tour is set up," Johnson quips, "the agents throw darts at a map, then call up Carter to see if he'll do it." The group goes through several coffee grinders a year, a large amount considering Marvell hardly ever drinks coffee. An old Jugglers World article quotes Brown as saying, "It's great to wake up and see the countryside rolling by," and the troupe often drives overnight after a show to make the next date. The 1994-5 season has seen shows from up­state New York to Port Angeles, Wash. Last year the company played to sold-out houses and rave reviews at the Bermuda Festival, and is hoping for more international dates in the future. In May the company will spend a week performing at a theater festival in British Columbia, in August a week in Hong Kong. "We're hoping to tie in some bookings in Hawaii or the Philippines on our way back," Brown explains between phone calls.

 

In order to keep the logistics in order and the show booked for nine months of the year, Brown maintains a business office at his house in Ocala, Fla., near Orlando. The 100­year-old house is in the process of renovation, and Brown and Johnson have done much of the rewiring and drywalling themselves. Even Marvell has been known to pitch in with a staple gun or mop. In addition to prop and costume shops, the ground floor includes the all­important rehearsal studio. "If only the ceiling were six inches higher," Marvell laments, "it would be perfect."

 

In conjunction with the theater tour, Lazer Vaudeville produces an Arts and Education Outreach Program designed to bring live performances to the schools. Johnson always begins the presentation with a short lecture on the history of vaudeville in America, a new concept to most television-addicted students. "When we're on the road, the school shows give us a chance to stay in practice and try out new material in a more informal setting. And many of the students bring their parents to the local theater show, so ultimately we benefit from it as much as the schools we serve," Brown comments.

 

Unlike most "New Vaudeville" shows, which have proven the antithesis of television and commercialism by employing a minimalistic approach to theater, Lazer Vaudeville weans audiences away from the set by out­doing television on a technological as well as an artistic scale.