Juggling, comedy and morale

Photo By Staff Sgt. Robert Ponder | Team Rootberry entertains Joint Task Force Guantanamo Troopers and Naval Station residents at the Tiki Bar Oct. 3, 2014, as part of the NEX/MWR 13th Annual Customer Appreciation Weekend.  

GUANTANAMO BAY , CUBA

10.10.2014

Story by Staff Sgt. Robert Ponder 

Joint Task Force Guantanamo Public Affairs

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba - Balloons, juggling clubs, swords and mustache-shaped machetes were just some of the things that stood out on stage Friday night at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay’s Tiki Bar.

Then out walked two gentlemen. One tall, slender and bald. The other, medium build, with a ridiculously-awesome mustache. The two men make up the dynamic duo, Team Rootberry.

Jonathan Root and Bill Berry put on a variety show that encompasses sword swallowing, juggling objects past their audience members’ heads, popping balloons out of one another’s mouths with a whip and some witty play-on-words comedy.

Root started off in San Diego, entertaining small parties. “That’s how I met Bill,” he said. “We started juggling together, and I convinced him that this was a good way to make a living.”

Since then, they have been traveling and performing together for the last 17 years.

Root and Berry have traveled the world performing their shows for the Troops. This is their second trip down to Guantanamo Bay, but “This is our seventh or eighth military tour,” said Root, “and it is the most rewarding tour that we do.”

“We’ve been to places we would never get to go, and meet some amazing people,” said Berry, who has a personal connection to the military.

Berry’s grandfather was in the Navy during World War II; his father, in the Air Force during Vietnam; and his two older brothers served in Desert Storm with the Army. Unfortunately for Berry, a heart condition left him unable to enlist in the military. So, he uses the show as his opportunity to give back to the troops.

Team Rootberry loves performing for the troops and said that they are willing to go and perform anywhere the troops are.

“Our job is spent trying to make people laugh and make people happy. The troops’ jobs are making it so that is possible for us, and we cannot say thanks enough,” said Root. “The tours that we go on… when I make it home, my wife asks, ‘so how was it?’ and I say to her, ‘it was so exhausting, but it was the greatest trip ever.”

• Date Taken: 10.10.2014
• Date Posted: 10.10.2014 10:17
• Story ID: 144849
• Location: GUANTANAMO BAY , CU