Toss Boss: Frediani juggling his way to the top

Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2004 | 8:11 a.m.

Not 30-year-old Romano Frediani, son of Nino Frediani, once billed as the fastest juggler in the world.

The Fredianis trace their juggling to Francesco Frediani, a troubadour born in Florence in 1650.

Nino once told a reporter that his is the longest-running family of circus performers in the world.

And so Romano Frediani's destiny was sealed long before he was even born. "Dad started me juggling when I was 3," Frediani, a native of London, said. "I made my stage debut at the age of 5 in the Copacabana nightclub on the Isle of Rhodes, Greece."

Frediani performed a brief comedy juggling routine with his father.

Today he is the specialty act in "Crazy Girls," the topless revue at the Riviera. Frediani says that working with half-naked women isn't a distraction.

"I've been doing it for so long I grew up in the environment," Frediani said. "I've grown kind of blase."

What he isn't accustomed to is the heckling.

"I've never been heckled so much in my life," Frediani said. 'It is predominantly a male crowd who is there to see scantily clothed women. There is no prior announcement about a juggler. So I get a few boos, but for the most part it's all in good fun."

Frediani's first solo gig in Vegas was at age 17 at the Westward Ho, known for modest promotional productions that are part of the casino's buffet specials.

"It was 1990," he recalled. "There was a tent on top of the building with 1,000 seats. I was in 'Grubstake Jamboree' -- 1,000 people eating ribs while we performed."

Frediani was with the Westward Ho for two months.

"Then I got my first real gig, one that people purposefully bought a ticket for as opposed to buying a meal ticket that came with a show," he said.

It was at the Frenchman's Reef Hotel on St. Thomas Island in the Caribbean.

"I was with the Calypso Carnival for three or four months," Frediani said. "Seventeen years old and I had my own apartment on the beach in the Virgin Islands."

It was a pretty heady experience for the teenager.

"This has been a privileged lifestyle," Frediani said. "By the time I was 16 I had been around the world four times. I get to experience so many different cultures. I absorb all these different cultures. I work nights, so my days are free to go out and explore.

"I don't look at a map, I just turn up."

That's the upside of a performance career.

"The downside is that you don't get to put down any roots," Frediani said.

In 1980 Nino came to Las Vegas to perform in "City Lights" at the Flamingo, a gig that lasted 14 years. When "The Great Radio City Spectacular" (featuring the Rockettes) replaced "City Lights" in 1995, Nino stayed with the show.

"I lived in Vegas from age 7 to 11," he said. "I was always training. Other kids would come home from school, do their homework and then play or watch television. Me, I had to practice juggling for three hours. My dad was preparing me for a career."

In 1985 he moved to London to be with his mother, Wendy, an English singer, dancer and actress who eventually became manager of the Comedy Store in London.

"She insisted that I attend high school in England," Frediani said.

While there, he spent countless hours behind the stage at the comedy club, watching and learning from the performers.

Eventually, Frediani returned to Vegas to be with his father, from time to time substituting for him in various shows when Nino was unavailable.

The two performers differ in their styles.

Nino was known for his speed.

"Speed was his hook," Frediani said. "It was great to see him going manic with the balls. When Dad was in his prime you couldn't even see them touch his hands."

Romano is known for more complex routines. He does a routine with cigar boxes, and another where he bounces balls off of drums to create music.

"The juggling is different," he said. "Dad can't do the boxes and the drums, which is not to say he couldn't do it with enough practice. But he tried a couple of times and decided it wasn't for him."

Frediani says what he does is technically more difficult, but that is a testament to his father, who gained fame as a speed juggler throughout the world.

"It's not what he did," Frediani said, "but the way he did it."

Both include comedy in their acts.

"Most will talk while they are juggling," he said. "If you're working hard at it, you don't have time to talk.

"There aren't many purist jugglers out there. Most just do the comedy juggling, which I am generally loathe to watch. Usually they aren't good comedians and they are good jugglers -- and they try to put both together and it doesn't work."

Frediani said his father taught him to keep the juggling and the comedy separate.

"You are always going to be labeled as a juggler, so you must prove you are who you say you are," he said. "And when you are doing that, you're too busy to talk and crack jokes.

"Dad said, 'Do your best to impress the audience with your skill, and then after you have shown them you can do it, then you can do the comedy.' "