`GAMBLER' SPICES UP STEAMBOAT CRUISE

Bodine Jackson Balasco

His persona is as colorful, compelling and mythical as a paddlewheel steamboat churning a wide path down the Mississippi River on a lazy Fourth of July weekend.

He cuts cards and deftly works the English language with the speed and precision of a veteran stage performer. He spices it all with just a tincture or two of Southern charm and wit. Little wonder, then, that Bodine Jackson Balasco bills himself as the last of the Riverboat gamblers.

"I'm presenting a romantic character who lives by his wits and is flirting with danger at all times," Balasco said while the Mississippi Queen was temporarily moored in Cape Girardeau Monday.

The Delta Queen was also temporarily in Cape to allow locals and tourists to catch a glimpse of a bygone era and to witness the winner of the banner contest, which went to the Delta Queen by the narrowest of margins, 113-111.

Some lucky onlookers could also spy the new American Queen steamboat, which passed Cape Girardeau and its two moored sister boats around noon on Monday.

The Mississippi Queen and Delta Queen boats departed Cape around 2:30 p.m. to head toward St. Louis for the recreation of the Great Steamboat Race of 1870 between the Natchez and Robert E. Lee. The race took place on Tuesday, beginning just six miles south of St. Louis.

The race on Monday, however, involved an artistic contest between passengers of the Delta Queen and Mississippi Queen. The prize? The Commodore Cup. Competition between passengers leading up to the banner contest included a floozie contest, steamboat Olympics, Riverboat Rigamarole and a Cap'n Foghorn battle. With the Mississippi Queen holding a slight lead, the boat winning the banner contest would take the top prize.

Balasco was one of the judges of the banner contest. "They had to pick me," he quipped. "I'm the only honest man on the boat."

The 45-year-old card sharp and motivational speaker was hired to entertain audiences when the Mississippi Queen made its first excursion in 1976. He has gained considerable fame and fortune ever since.

He has appeared on the Johnny Carson, Phil Donahue, Regis Philbin and Arsenio Hall television shows. "I just barely made the Arsenio show before it was canceled," Balasco said with a poker face that seems to precede most humorous comments. "Seems like somebody quits or shows get canceled after I appear on them."

His audiences will claim the opposite effect, however, when they sample some of his best work. "This guy is something to see," said Frank Bovino, a passenger on the Mississippi Queen.

"I've seen him three times and each show I find more compelling than the last. There's something for everybody in Bodine Balasco's entertainment. He really knows how to get a group of people involved in the show."

Balasco was discovered by the owner of the Mississippi Queen while doing card tricks at the Magic Castle in Los Angeles, a haven for shows that demonstrate sleight of hand.

"I was training for the Olympics as a distance runner and then decided I would switch careers once I saw someone on Fisherman's Wharf doing what I'm doing," he said. "I spent two years on Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco learning how to work with audiences before I was discovered by the owner of the Mississippi Queen."

He said the timing of being at the right club when the Mississippi Queen owner was in the audience "was a blessing".

Balasco became enamored with the riverboat gambler persona when he read a book by George Devol titled "The King of Riverboat Gamblers."

"You've got to immerse yourself in the myth of the riverboat gambler rather than the stark truth," he said. "If I portrayed a riverboat gambler the way they really were, I'd be showing a sociopath who likes to cheat everybody and is hated rather than revered."

Balasco likens himself to the cartoon character Bugs Bunny. "What was Bugs' game but to be one step ahead of everybody; and he never got caught," he said, his neatly trimmed beard twitching slightly at the wonderment of it all.

"I'm always able to stay one step ahead of the audience. When I do the shell game I let the audience participate. But they never know where that pea is because I won't let them."

Balasco is one of several entertainers on the Mississippi Queen. "For the money you spend on this boat, you deserve to be entertained and wined and dined like never before," said one of the crew members on the boat.

An 11-day cruise from New Orleans to St. Louis can run as high as $6,470 or as low as $1,740.

"These people know what they're getting because they've done this several times," said Baggs Boudreaux, one of 211 crew members on the Mississippi Queen.

Said Pat Stanford, a passenger on the Delta Queen,"I used to ride a riverboat from Sacramento to San Francisco when I was about 4 years old. Once you experience it you always want to go back to relive the dream and the wonderful memory of it all."