NORTH HOLLYWOOD : Choreographer Lassos a Couple of Wranglers

After two years of holding auditions in 30 cities across the country, Jeff Calhoun was beginning to wonder if there were any trick ropers left like the late, great Will Rogers.

So he was nearly knocked out of his seat Monday when he discovered two of the best darn rope wranglers he ever saw--in North Hollywood, no less.

“I’ve seen every roper 6 years old and up from here to Mexico,” said Calhoun, an associate choreographer seeking replacements for “The Will Rogers Follies,” the stage musical about the legendary performer’s life.

The Tony-award winning Follies, running on Broadway, is at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood for the summer. The stop allowed Calhoun to audition replacements for the show’s two trick rope twirlers as well as dancers for “The New Ziegfeld Girls” and “Will Rogers Wranglers.”

About 100 dancers and six ropers showed up at Debbie Reynolds Studios in North Hollywood. Attractive dancers are plentiful, Calhoun said, but discovering Tony Munoz and Felix Lopez as potential replacements for the ropers was like striking gold. The pair dazzled Calhoun with their tricks, gracefully spinning their maguey ropes into looping patterns nicknamed The Butterfly, Walking the Dog, The Mirrors and The Springs.

Both men learned the techniques from their fathers, who were charros, or Mexican cowboys.

“I started when I was 5,” said Munoz, 25, who came up from San Marcos for the audition. “Somone handed me a rope. I became hooked.”

But the opportunity to make a living at their craft is rare. Lopez, 23, practices his technique two days a week while working as a landscaper at Disneyland, hoping for a break.

“I’m always looking for opportunities to get into a Wild West show,” said Lopez, a Whittier resident.

Now the two have only to wait until a replacement is needed in either “Will Rogers” show.

To Munoz, who works part time training horses, it will be a dream come true.

“I relate a lot to Will Rogers,” he said. “He was a cowboy from Oklahoma who was probably poor.”