Back in the '60s, when most American teenagers were watching “;The Ed Sullivan Show”; to see the Beatles, the Rolling Stones or the Dave Clark Five and fidgeting impatiently through the interminably long segments with the Italian mouse and Ed's other guests, Robert Post was enthralled by the jugglers and acrobats and other old-style “;specialty”; acts.

“;A lot of people in my family weren't impressed—'Oh, there's the guy with the spinning plates'—and I would just be like five inches from the screen thinking, 'How does anybody learn how to do that?'

“;It was mesmerizing, and the whole sense of old-school physical comedy, too. I was blown out by the detail in their acts,”; Post recalled, looking at “;about a foot of snow”; outside his home in Ohio as he spoke with the Star-Bulletin last weekend.

With a forecast of temperatures dropping to “;5 below (zero),”; he was eager to catch a plane to Hawaii for a show tonight at Paliku Theatre. Being able to bring his wife, Jackie, with him as his technician for the show made the prospect that much sweeter.

“;What I do (in my show) is different, and every piece has gotten years and years of tender loving care in front of audiences, so I'm always thrilled when I get to do the show but I'm triply thrilled I'll be doing it out there,”; he said.

And yes, Post has mastered the technique of spinning a plate atop a long stick, but that's only one of the many things he'll be doing tonight. He juggles a variety of objects, mimes (”;Pantomime has a bad rep only because usually it's performed very poorly,”; he said), uses sight gags and illusions, resuscitates a talking fish, contorts his body to create characters reminiscent of the Pilobolus Dance Theatre and employs a variety of props.

Performing in character as Pasquale, he hosts “;Pasquale's Kitchen,”; a zany cooking show. In “;Beyond the Wall (A Mystery),”; he plays six different characters and switches from one to another in split-second transitions. In “;Tango”; he uses a pair of red “;long johns”; to create a visual impression of two people dancing.

“;There is a lot of give and take with the audience ... a lot of me talking with the audience and telling stories,”; Post explained, adding there are times when a bit works even though some particularly difficult bit of stagecraft doesn't go off as intended. “;We'll have this relationship that kind of goes and goes and goes, and by the time something goes wrong, people love it.

“;They think it was all set—'The way you kept dropping that pan was the best part!'”;