For some, balancing work and family is a challenge. But for others, like Michael Rosman, AS '88, life is truly a juggling act, and he loves it.

The comedian not only juggles his family responsibilities and his work schedule, but also manages to toss a few bowling pins, bananas and knives into the mix.

His comedy act, which has taken him from Singapore to Ohio, features physical comedy along with some innovative ways of making people laugh.

In one skit, Rosman, who used to be the president of UD's Juggling Club, asks an audience member to hold some spaghetti. He then pulls out a bullwhip and tells the "volunteer" that he is going to cut it with the whip. But, then he begins reading the directions on how to use the whip.

Though he works mostly nights and travels frequently, Rosman tries to maintain a normal home life with his wife, Hedy Berkson, AS '89, and his young daughter and son.

A giant wall calendar hangs in their kitchen to keep their lives in order, but planning ahead is often difficult. "It's hard when someone asks us what we are doing on, say, June 6. It's a Thursday and everyone else is going to work, but I don't know what I am doing that day. I may be flying some place," Rosman says. " My wife can't make plans for us, or even for herself, without looking at the master wall calendar.

"Many of my friends who are in the entertainment business are really in the entertainment business," he says. "They go to bed at 3:30 a.m. and sleep until noon. I have to live like that some of the time, but at other times, we are just like everyone else."

When Rosman and Hedy, a physical therapist, began dating, he says, she did not know about his juggling. "We started seeing each other in September of my senior year, but it was months before she saw me perform."

While at the University, Rosman majored in finance, not performing arts, which in retrospect, he says he regrets. "I began juggling when I was a freshman, over the summer. I took one theatre class, and I really enjoyed it. I wish I had taken a lot more."

After graduation, he traveled with a friend in Europe. Rosman ended up street performing in Germany, Amsterdam and Yugoslavia.

"We didn't have any plans. We just wandered and did street shows here and there. The shows weren't even the main purpose of the trip. The main purpose was to go and get lost in Europe for the summer."

While in Europe, Rosman found out that he had been accepted into the clown college of Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Even though he was not interested in becoming a clown, he attended the college and then traveled with the Clyde Beatty Cole Bros. Circus, a three-ring tent show, for two years.

"I didn't go to clown college because I thought clowns were cool," he says. "I didn't attend a circus from age 7 until I was 20. But, it was all of the circus skills that I was drawn toward."

After his tour with the circus, Rosman moved back to Baltimore to get a "real" job working in the accounting department of a manufacturing company, but he continued to juggle on weekends. After two years at the company, Rosman was laid off. He could not have been happier.

"On April 10, I was laid off," he says. "So, every year on April 10, I send the company a thank-you note from wherever I am in the world. So far, they've gotten them from the Caribbean, the Mexican Riviera and Japan."

Rosman has performed all over the globe to audiences as large as 4,000 people. Some of his shows have been featured on cruise ships, at corporate events and casinos. In March, he traveled to Singapore.

"I traveled 23 hours each way," he says, "and was there for a 40-minute show."

Despite the large number of people watching and listening to his every move and word on stage, Rosman says he does not get nervous about performing.

"I get more concerned about particular moments in my show or decisions that I have to make. I worry about the technical stuff, not the actual performing itself," he says.

Always trying to make his shows funnier and more special, he gears his performances to the ages of his audience. "I mainly enjoy adult shows," he says, "but, because of my background in the circus, I can do children's shows, too. I also enjoy family shows, where it's 70 percent adults and 30 percent kids.

"There is a great feeling when the audience is hanging on every word and you are about to say something that they are going to think is really funny. And, then you say it, and they do think it's funny. When you are in the middle of a good show like that, there is no other feeling like it."

-Laura Overturf, AS '99