The Fantastic Jack Fratelli has taken hold of his entertainment career at just 9 years old. In just two years, Jack has become an expert in balloon twisting, magic tricks, and has even begun learning how to handle fire batons. “My favorite skill is juggling,” Fratelli said, “but magic is OK too.”
Fantastic Jack started off as an audience plant for his father—The Amazing Arthur Fratelli—who has been in Omaha’s entertainment scene for over 25 years.
Unbeknownst to the audience that he was fantastic, Jack would be invited on stage to learn juggling from Amazing Arthur. “I’d go up and I could do one ball, but I couldn’t do two balls,” Fratelli said. Amazing Arthur would then turn to the audience and explain different juggling tricks as Fantastic Jack performed them perfectly behind him.
“All the kids would be going, ‘But he’s doing it! He’s doing it!’ and as I turn to look at him, he’s just standing there,” Amazing Arthur said. Their father-son relationship was revealed shortly after with a quip about how good-looking the father of such a handsome young man must be.
The duo has been performing for Vala’s, Bellevue Berry Farm, the Papillion Fire Department, and many other places for the last year and a half. As the show begins, they have a ritual to ensure the success of each act. From the wings of the stage, “we do a head nod, then we walk out and we have the same number of steps. We stop in front of the audience, look at each other, and we walk around the suitcases, left, and then right three times,” Amazing Arthur said.
Recently, though, Fantastic Jack has been performing solo. Last year, he did a show in front of his second-grade class. Juggling and homework go hand in hand for him. He has entertained at a few day care centers and a 5-year-old’s birthday party, but said adult audiences are who he prefers. “They’re more mature and not shouting out,” Fratelli explained. Instead of trying to prove his magic tricks are flawed like some kids do, “the adults just laugh.”
Fratelli also discussed how they draw crowds of all ages into the show with different tactics. “We have glow-in-the-dark clubs, and if we juggle those, people come forward to see it. It’s like you can’t look away from neon,” he said.
Fantastic Jack is not the only family member to follow in Amazing Arthur’s footsteps. His older brother Joey juggles twice per week with the MIT Juggling Club in Boston; he is also ranked in combat juggling. “People are running into each other, hitting clubs, it’s very violent and dangerous,” Amazing Arthur explained. The youngest Fratelli said he is definitely not interested in that kind of juggling for now.
Outside of entertainment, Fantastic Jack wants to be as fantastic at other things as he is at entertaining. “I do balloon twisting, baseball, basketball, boxing, and BMX. Ballet too,” he said. These activities certainly keep him balanced and busy, but Fantastic Jack is always drawn back to entertaining.
Penn and Teller, the comedy duo that will celebrate their 50th anniversary of performing together this year, are Fantastic Jack’s entertainment idols. “The Rio in Las Vegas with Penn and Teller” is his dream performance gig, Fratelli said.
Before he gets to the Rio, Amazing Arthur and Fantastic Jack are planning to perform in the Old Market this summer. Street performances are how Amazing Arthur got his own career started in high school, expressing in a 2014 publication of HerFamily that his act slowly gained steam with the clientele as people would ask for his card. Fantastic Jack has a business card of his very own to pass out, with links to his webpage and YouTube channel.
In exploring his YouTube videos, viewers can see all sorts of juggling and magic tricks. But Fantastic Jack has been working on a new skill: juggling with fire. At first, “when I twisted it, I felt like I was going to catch on fire when I caught it,” Fratelli said, “and then I did a few spins. I tried two, and then got the hang of it, and then I did three, and it took be a bit to get used to it, but then I got it.”
“And you look totally fearless,” his dad expressed. Amazing Arthur is in admiration of the growth Fantastic Jack has had as a performer, both in using his learned skills and in engaging an audience. “Jack’s timing is getting funny. He knows to pause and slow down, and have vocal variety when talking.” Fantastic Jack is ready to keep making magic wherever he goes.
For more information, visit theamazingarthur.com.
This article originally appeared in the 2025 issue of Family Guide. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
