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Thursday, Aug. 30, 2007 | 10 p.m.

Comedian Chris Bliss started his career almost three decades ago as a juggler, long before YouTube and blogs.

Although he majored in comparative literature at Northwestern University and the University of Oregon, entertainment was his calling.

He became a juggler.

His was a simple act: juggle three balls to a variety of music. It was a beautifully choreographed routine, but after about 10 years of opening for the likes of Michael Jackson and the rock group Asia, Bliss became a stand-up comedian.

A sample of his humor: “Ten years ago they said the lottery would save our schools, and it's done a great job. Johnny still can't read, but now he can Pick Six.”

Although Bliss stayed busy, working as many as 200 nights a year in comedy clubs, he wasn't well known.

The Internet changed all that.

During the 20th Montreal Just for Laughs Festival in 2002 a video was made of Bliss doing a four-minute juggling routine to the Beatles' tunes “Golden Slumbers,” “Carry That Weight” and “The End.”

Bliss put a copy of the video on his Web site, where it sat for several years until someone found it and put it on YouTube and other sites.

In the past 18 months there have been an estimated 40 million downloads, and Bliss is no longer an unknown comic.

He will perform his stand-up act, including a bit of juggling, Friday through Sunday at the Suncoast.

He spoke with the Sun from his home in Arizona.

On Montreal

At the festival there are two stages -- a French side and an English side. Because of some work I did there once, the French side asked me to just juggle. On the English side I did my stand-up act. After all those years juggling I never had a great piece of tape, so the Just for Laughs people taped it and gave me a copy. I don't own the rights to it or to the Beatles music, so I can't sell it. I can do it in my act, but I can't sell the tape. I love it when people say, “What if you had a dollar for every download?” I can't think that way.

On the video

It's one of the most widespread things ever. Its success is not repeatable. It happened just because of the power of the music, the simplicity of the performance and the method of discovery, which was so personal to everybody. It just impacted people. Everyone's always being sold things and no one's just being given something. This video has been sitting on my Web site for four years. Then (in 2006) somebody discovered the URL and started sending it to people, who sent it to people they knew, and then it snowballed. I think it caught on because people are tired of darkness and cynicism.

Revisiting the video

My wife, Daisy, and I took a look at it after it caught on. It was made five years ago. We had not seen it in a long time. We just looked at each other and started laughing. It was just one of those things. A perfect moment kind of thing. It was a great moment in a great theater in Montreal. It was in a perfect place, and so was the audience. Most of the messages I have received have not been about the cool juggling but about how it lifted spirits, even though not a word was spoken.

On his career

I have a whole new audience. I've enjoyed that aspect of it. It's been wonderful. It's just expanded awareness of me. I'm very good at two different things: juggling, and I'm a “Tonight Show” comic. I've headlined all the comedy clubs; I've just never had a sitcom. The formula is basically blue collar, and I don't happen to be blue collar guy. I like doing point of view stand-up comedy and there's about three people who do it best -- Jon Stewart, Bill Maher and Lewis Black. That's about it. It's not a very popular field, but stand-up stage is the last place for completely free expression.

Bill of Rights project

There's not a single monument to the Bill of Rights in the entire nation. That's stunning to me. So two years ago I started a nonprofit Bill of Rights Monument Project (MyBillofRights.org) to have monuments built to it in every state. Our mission is to promote awareness and respect for the Bill of Rights, its freedoms and its principles, primarily through the design and installation of Bill of Rights monuments on public lands throughout America.

Jerry Fink can be reached at 259-4058 or at jerry@lasvegassun.com.