On Saturday, comedienne Ellen Steigman '91 and juggler extraordinaire Mark Nizer performed in Spingold at an event sponsored by the FallFest Committee. The crowd was a respectable size, filling about two-thirds of the auditorium with a mix of parents, friends and students.The show began with Steigman's stand up comedy. Steigman works at a Jewish community center in New Orleans in addition to performing. She began with jokes about Brandeis and its Jewish community. Then she related some of her funnier experiences with Judaism in New Orleans, like the Synagogue cook -out - on a Saturday afternoon - with crawfish, a very non-kosher dish.

Although many of her jokes were funny, the applause was weak for the most part, due to her mediocre delivery. Also, the jokes were very audience specific, geared towards Jewish Brandeis students, and many of the non-Jews in the audience were unable to understand jokes about obscure holidays such as Shemini Atzeret.

Her jokes about Israeli names were the best received part of her act. Steigman's depictions of Israelis named Osnot, Moran and Dudu had the audience chuckling in amusement.

Following her act, the house lights went down and a video featuring Nizer introduced the next act. In the video, Nizer was hang gliding while juggling; when he accidentally dropped one of the balls, he quickly landed to catch up with it. Creatively integrating his entrance with the video, Nizer ran on the stage and caught a ball dropped from the theater ceiling. He then showed off his juggling skills, throwing three balls around his body and bouncing them off his forehead as if it was a commonplace activity.

In addition to his juggling, Nizer continuously cracked jokes, often making fun of himself. He frequently interacted with the audience, making sure to keep their interest. One of his impressions parodied someone stoned at a tennis match, which he demonstrated as a glazed, fixed expression as he juggled the balls back and forth. The crowd was constantly impressed by his Jim Carrey-like personality, roaring with approval. His impressive feats, such as balancing eight cigar boxes and a glass on one hand, received many "oohs" and "ahhhs."

As if juggling on the ground wasn't impressive enough, Nizer moved onto bigger and better acts. While on a unicycle, he successfully juggled two machetes and an apple. He even managed to take a few bites out of the apple in between throws. In an effort to outdo himself, Nizer spun three balls on his body while completing a backward summersault. Many "wows" could be heard in the audience after both remarkable tricks.

Nizer then moved onto a different type of juggling with a special spool-like object on a string called a diablo. The crowd was again treated to theatrics when the lights went off and the diablo, glowing in the dark, appeared to dance to the techno music in the background. His final act consisted of pushing the art of juggling by throwing and catching ping-pong balls with his mouth. Nizer finished the show by posing to the 2001 Space Odyssey theme while fans blew toilet paper around him.

Despite the show's weak beginning, Comedy Fest succeeded in entertaining the audience with the original and hilarious combination of juggling and comedy, complements of Mark Nizer.