Truly Remarkable Loon: Treating ‘Kids in the Rotunda’ families to last performance before retirement
Shari Gasper
Be kind to everyone you meet, for we are all spinning a lot of plates.
Dressed in purple from his jacket to his tennis shoes and everything in between and underneath, even a purple face mask, Truly Remarkable Loon likes to make people laugh. A professional juggler who has traveled the world entertaining crowds at festivals, schools, libraries, college campuses and public gatherings, including Overture’s Kids in the Rotunda, Loon has made a living doing his favorite hobby for 47 years.
“Compared to some world record-holding Madisonian jugglers, I’m a terrible juggler,” jokes Loon. “But I am a good performer.”
Back in the early 1970s, Loon saw the tennis racquet-juggling Wimbledon Brothers perform at the Dane County Farmer’s Market. Later in the day, they performed another show on State Street.
“Within 30 minutes, they had 500 people watching,” said Loon. “I thought, ‘I could do this.’ Then when I realized they made more money in two 30-minute shows than I made in a whole week in my roofing job, I thought, ‘I definitely can do this.’”
Loon took a few lessons in 1975 and began juggling recreationally. A year later, Loon taught what he knew to his friend Martin Jelenc, a former classmate from Madison Memorial High School. The two started traveling the country doing street shows together.
Loon and Martin performed in Key West over the winter and then in the spring, on their way home to Wisconsin, they stopped at every city with a university and performed a noon show on campus.
For years, they lived in their vans and traveled the country, putting on juggling shows from San Francisco Bay to New York City and wintering (while juggling) in Hawaii.
“We did a lot of shows, sometimes 7-8 shows a day,” said Loon.
Back in Madison, they continued to perform at the Farmer’s Market and on State Street, and they started doing contracted shows, including Kids at the Crossroads at the Madison Civic Center.
Martin and Loon remained partners until 1986, then Truly Remarkable Loon continued the juggling circuit solo.
“Juggling has opened so many doors for me,” he said. “I’ve been a lot of places and met a lot of people.”
Loon has juggled across the country and into Canada, performing at state fairs and Milwaukee’s Summerfest as well as Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and he once opened for John Cougar Mellencamp.
Late in the 1980s, he met his wife, Tracie, who worked as a special education assistant for the Madison Metropolitan School District for 30 years.
“I wouldn’t be who I am or do what I’m doing without Tracie,” said Loon. “She helped turn my negative jokes into positive ones and coached me in turning my bawdy college-oriented show into a family show.”
Loon added school and library programs to his repertoire, and he moved from late-night festival crowds to the kid’s stage. The change was a good one and kept Loon closer to home where he and Tracie raised two daughters, Ansley and Ariel, while maintaining a busy juggling schedule—some years totaling 180-200 shows.
Truly Remarkable Loon performed at Overture’s grand opening and pretty much every Kids in the Rotunda season since then as well as the 10-year anniversary celebration and Duck Soup Cinema shows in Capitol Theater.
“People who saw me as a child now introduce me to their grandchildren at the show,” he said.
At Kids in the Rotunda performances, Loon starts the show by juggling clubs, hitting himself on the head to show it’s not dangerous. He continues his juggling routine, moving from clubs to bean bags chairs—to his favorite part of the show: 10 spinning plates and a bunch of sling-shot-style flying monkeys. He has even attempted to juggle a mongoose.
“Overture has been a great place to perform,” he said. “Everyone from the program coordinators to the tech crew are very friendly and helpful.”
Juggling has been Loon’s calling for more than four decades. Now other dreams are calling.
“I have a long Bucket List to get through, including skiing in the Alps, viewing the disappearing river in Minnesota, visiting New Zealand again and taking my oldest grandson to visit my relatives in Germany like I took my youngest,” he said, a proud grandpa to Five and Anders.
Loon is grateful for the opportunities he’s had to share the art of juggling, especially in his hometown, and to bring people closer together through his antics and humor.
“I’m hanging up my juggling clubs, putting out my torches and setting the flying monkeys free,” he said. “It’s been a fulfilling career, very rewarding.”
Catch Truly Remarkable Loon’s last performances at special Black Friday Kids in the Rotunda shows on Friday, Nov. 25 at 9:30 a.m., 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.