COMEDY AERIAL BARS #2

DIVE
This is Bruce finishing a routine with a dive over the last bar, catching with a reverse grip.

FORTOONIE
Now there is one for you historians to look up, where did the name for this routine come from? I'm not even sure if I'm spelling it right. In our case Blondie would do a routine of tricks & end up sitting on the last bar, I would then go to the middle bar, drop to the net & rebound up grabbing him by one foot & at the same time swinging my foot up for him to grab, we would then lock arms & legs and revolve around the bar with him winding up on top. After a couple sweeps &swats with a broom full of shredded paper, we would revolve again putting me on top, I would then hit him on the kiester with the slapstick and he woukld fall to the net.

FORTOONIE SLAPSTICK
The prop used by the second comedian varied from an old fashioned double board slapstick to an imitation mallet, in our case it was a baseball bat, all of which were loaded with a 38 caliber blank cartridge. The only problem here would be if the guy on the top turned the prop the wrong side down, & it was known to happen.

GIANT SWING
Bruce is just getting ready to do a "fly-over", as he swings under this bar he will let go, and fly feet first over the next bar, doing a half twist catching the bar as he goes past it.
What may appear to some as bad form,(the bent legs) was a must for Bruce, he was so tall he had to avoid hitting the bar in front of & behind him with his feet by bending his knees. When he first started practicing in Bloomington as a youngster, all the old timers said he would never be a "bar actor", because he was too tall