Life & Work with Reid Belstock

Today we’d like to introduce you to Reid Belstock.

Hi Reid, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I began Juggling at the end of my 9th grade year of High School. Luckily the International Juggling Convention happened to be in Denver that year at DU, and I was able to attend for a day or two, and really see how vast the world of Juggling was. The next year I was 16 and needed a job. Elitch Gardens was auditioning for Jugglers. It seemed like a great fit. I got my first exposure to performing and I loved it. I was pretty bad in the beginning (as most are), but I loved both performing, and juggling, and continued to do both. My guidance counselor gave me a brochure for Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Clown College. He had me pegged all too well. Over the next two years, I auditioned 3 times. I was lucky enough to get a very nice letter of endorsement from my cousin the Honorable Chief Judge Sherman Finesilver, and the third audition (my other two happened to be before I graduated High School which is a requirement) I was off to study the fine art of slapstick and sawdust.

After Ringling, the Director of Clown College sent my name to Walt Disney World, as they were looking for young performers to take part in a collegiate performing program. That is where I met my long-time friend, and director Lloyd Brant. he helped craft and direct me through what has become my trademark performance character, and from that over the last 30 years.

Since 1992 at the Walt Disney Entertainment Arts Festival I have had the privilege of performing in Theaters, Theme parks, Cabaret, Cruise Lines, the Circus, and most any private corporate function you can imagine.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
There have been a few difficulties along the way that have made my career very difficult. The first being September 11 2001. With those events came international financial change, and I lost numerous contracts. The largest being Epcot Center. The entire pavilion I was going to be performing in wound up getting shut down.

That is what sent me out to sea on Cruise Lines. At the time the cruise industry was booming. I couldn’t keep up with all the work that was coming my way. But that came to an abrupt halt with the recession in 2008. All the lines started cutting back on the work and I found myself essentially unemployed again. As I had committed to being out to sea for years, all my land connections had dried up, and I was out of work for a second time. Once again…..I had to start over. I began to start teaching Juggling in schools. I also began juggling with a partner. We created a show that began touring Performing Arts Centers until 2020.

Our last show happened two weeks before the Covid lockdown happened (We were performing at Texas A&M). That is the third time I have had to begin again. I am still at the beginning trying to put the pieces back together getting performing back to what it was before the pandemic. It is always a slow road getting back into a new track of performing.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am a Juggler and Physical Comedian. The work varies in many ways. Sometimes I am booked to perform my entire 45-1 hour show in a theater, and sometimes I am needed as an atmosphere for a corporate event to stroll amongst patrons for an hour or two. I have also been hired to perform in other Jugglers shows (as a sub in). I have a large skill set and have been able to sub in for many of my friends and colleagues in their touring shows. It’s a great change up to partake in a show that is very different from my own.

What I am known for is my slapstick comedy and cartoonish movement and character. I wear very bright costumes and they are very baggy and give my movement a very loose and animated look on stage.

Some of the things I am most proud of are my championship medals from the World Juggling Championships. I have medals from three different teams I have competed with over the last 28 years.

Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
I have had some great mentors who have helped me over the years. Some were teachers and mentors. Some were teammates.

Lloyd Brant was my first big person in my corner. He was my director from Disney (and was also my director from my two-man show 16 years later) who put round glasses on my face and helped me craft my persona and help me learn to create from a place of vulnerability.

Allan Jacobs who has one of my greatest champions. He started out teaching me tons of techniques for building a strong juggling foundation, but over the years I learned so much about being a strong performing partner, and more and more about just being a better person.

My three Juggling partners were all a great help in learning new techniques. With all three of them, I always learned new skills and raised my own levels with either new props or new ideas I wasn’t able to do on my own.

Dextre Tripp
Aaron Schetter
Warren Hammond

Contact Info:

• Website: www.reidbelstock.com
• Other: https://vimeo.com/user89051197

Image Credits
Eric Weber