"Every once in a while an individual performance comes so near perfection as to elevate the human spirit beyond mere enjoyment.

Think Secretariat’s astonishing 31-length margin of victory at the 1973 Belmont Stakes to win the Triple Crown. Or Janis Joplin belting out “Ball and Chain” at the Monterey International Pop Music Festival in 1967.

More recently Chris Bliss added his own for-the-ages performance to the omnibus of goose-bump moments of excellence. The standup comic did it by juggling three balls in mesmerizing synchronization to the Beatles “Golden Slumbers” medley that closes out their 1969 “Abbey Road” album. At last count more than 40 million viewers worldwide have seen the “Big Finale” via the Internet.

Bliss nailed the memorable performance during a comedy festival in Montreal, Canada, in 2002. He received a thunderous standing ovation at the end of the flawless routine, but that was just a hint of what was to come.

In January 2006 the D.C. native posted the video clip on his Web site. Almost before he could say “what the…?” a virtual tsunami of e-mails began flooding his computer system.

When Bliss received an e-mail from King Carl Gustav XVI of Sweden inviting him to perform there, he began to fathom that something quite out of the ordinary was taking place. With that realization soon came an awareness that the performance was moving people in a deep and emotional way.

Bliss will be in Charlottesville on Sunday to help the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression celebrate its namesake’s 265th birthday. The man whom “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno called “one of the brightest comedians around” will team up with Terri Allard for an evening of music, comedy and juggling at Live Arts in Charlottesville.

Tickets for the 7:30 p.m. show are $25. A pre-show wine and hors d’oeuvre reception with Bliss and Allard will be held from 6 to 7:15 p.m. at Les Yeux du Monde gallery and tickets for that are also $25.

Proceeds from the events will benefit the Thomas Jefferson Center, as well as Bliss’ My Bill of Rights project. The project has the ambitious goal of placing a monument celebrating the Bill of Rights on the grounds of every state capitol in the nation.

Positive channels

Bliss has used the incredible amount of media attention that has come his way because of the video clip to generate interest and support for the project that has become a calling for him. He came up with the idea when he was thinking of ways to use the outpouring of attention in a positive way.

“I was getting thousands of e-mails, but only about 10 percent of them had anything to do with juggling,” Bliss said during a recent telephone interview from his home in Phoenix. “Most of them were comments about how the performance lifted their spirits.

“I got e-mails from humanitarian aid workers in African refugee camps that made me weep. Of course for them the lyrics, ‘Once there was a way to get back home,’ had incredible meaning.

“They’re dealing with these children and families who don’t know if they’ll ever have anything they can call home again. What I was reading from people was all the same thing — they had been looking for something to lift them up and this performance had done that.

“I turned down a lot of shows that just wanted me to come on and juggle,” said Bliss, who in 1984 laid claim to the title of world’s most famous juggler by being the opening act for Michael Jackson during his Victory tour.

“My aim was to take this attention and bend it around so people could learn about this Bill of Rights project. We’re not asking for public money and we don’t take corporate money either; it’s all individual contributions.

“Each of these monuments will be site specific and different for each state. My only mandate to the designers is that it has to be a design where every single word of every amendment is readable.

“And I want them located at state capitols so that the people who walk into the building can at some point remember that this is what they have sworn to uphold. This is their oath of office. This is what it’s all about.”

Bedrock ideals

The Bill of Rights consists of 492 words that embody the fundamental liberties of the American people. Considered one of the greatest documents ever penned, it advances the belief that man is born with certain ennobling rights that neither kings nor governments can take from them.

Jefferson, James Madison and Thomas Paine were instrumental in the establishment of our Bill of Rights, which in 10 amendments establishes the foundation from which our liberties flow. The document encompasses bedrock beliefs, some of which were first brought forth in the Bible and later expounded upon by great thinkers such as John Locke, John Milton and John Stuart Mill.

Although Bliss’ project is just two years old, legislative resolutions have been passed to place Bill of Rights monuments in the capitols of Texas and Arizona.

“Austin has one of the most beautiful capitol grounds in the country, and the proposal the designers there came up with absolutely knocked me out,” Bliss said. “It’s a $2 million design that I think will become a national destination.

“It’s a plaza design with all 10 amendments free standing individually so that you can absorb the words of each of them. I think the best thing we can do is get this built, because then we will have our poster child.

“We also recently started what we call the Town Square Project. This is for smaller cities and towns that want to put up a Bill of Rights plaque. This is the project that makes me feel a little like Johnny Appleseed. Our hope is to put these plaques, that will cost less than $10,000 each, up all over the country.”

Meant to be

Bliss feels his entire career as an entertainer has led him unerringly to the task at hand. The man whom Willie Nelson once called “the best damn juggler I ever saw” is using his fame and a sensational juggling performance to remind Americans of a document that’s vital to their personal freedoms.

“I think what Chris is doing is wonderful,” said Josh Wheeler, associate director of the Thomas Jefferson Center. “I think he’s absolutely right that we give too little thought to what the Bill of Rights actually says.

“Anything that we can do to generate discussion and debate about our civil liberties is a good thing. It’s one of the primary reasons why we built the First Amendment Monument here in Charlottesville.

“Since the Community Chalkboard and Podium was dedicated, we have held numerous educational programs there. The money we raise at the benefit will go in part to continuing these programs at the monument.”

Although the money gleaned from the fundraiser will go to promote some of the most serious thoughts humans have ever come up with, the event itself should be great fun.

“This is not going to be a drab fundraiser,” Bliss promised. “I’ll be doing the famous juggling act, as well as my standup show.

“We’ll also be talking about the Thomas Jefferson Center and my project. I grew up in D.C. surrounded by these symbols of the dream of America.

“So it’s not surprising to me that I’ve come back around on this very long way home, and that I’m now using the communication skills I gained being an entertainer to promote these great ideals.”

It all comes back to juggling

Bliss used his prowess as a juggler to break into the entertainment profession in the early 1970s. As he developed as a standup comic he cut his juggling back, but continued to use it to end his shows.

Bliss’ show-stopping salute to the Beatles opened the way to something he hopes will elevate the human spirit in an even more profound and wondrous way.

“My country has asked very little from me in this life,” the 55-year-old comedian said. “I have really not been called on.

“But I can feel my country calling me now. I think a lot of people sense at an internal level that this country is in danger, and is calling out for help. We’re not asked to help our country very often.

“I think this is one of those times in history when we’re being asked to step forward, and take the title ‘citizen’ seriously. America is not free because we’re powerful; we are powerful because we have been freed.

“And this comes from the powerful ideals in the Bill of Rights. And if these ideals are to survive we must fight for them on our own soil against the powers of fear. We must stand up and declare, ‘No, you do not cross these lines.’”" (David A. Maurer, The Daily Progress, April 7, 2008)