Funny man Alex Zerbe used his feet to make a career out of being funny.

About 12 years ago, Hacky Sack champion Zerbe was asked to perform at school assemblies up and down the East and West coasts. Pretty soon he found himself in the thick of a career as a performer, or a “professional zaniac,” as he likes to call it.

“I was a hyper child,” Zerbe said, recalling the youthful trait that serves him well as a physical comedian.

After winning five world championships for Hacky Sack, also known as footbag, Zerbe parlayed his talent into a broader range of skills with which to entertain youths and adults, including becoming one of the Northwest’s most popular prop comics.

Zerbe comes to Whidbey for three shows on Thursday, June 23 to help kick off the summer reading program of the Sno-Isle Libraries. He’ll perform his one-hour show at the Langley Library, the Freeland Library and Clinton Community Hall throughout the day.

A two-time Guinness World Record holder who was also voted Seattle’s Funniest Prop Comic, Zerbe uses his hilarious skill-set to expose audiences to different cultures and phenomena from around the world in a show he calls “Going Global.” He raps about libraries, juggles an egg and a bowling ball, spears an apple out of a contraption from a fork he holds in his mouth and shows off his Chinese yo-yo skills, among other feats.

“I do the most amazing version of ‘Mary Had A Little Lamb’ ever,” Zerbe said.

“And I’ll even record a song onstage with an audience member.”

Basically, Zerbe’s show combines comedy for kids and parents with a dynamic array of amazing stunts, physical comedy and audience participation. The show also spotlights a variety of “mind-blowing maneuvers” such as mouth juggling two pingpong balls and harpooning vegetables launched from a giant slingshot.

Zerbe’s ability as a footbagger allowed him to transition to a gifted “human cartoon,” and provides the best in family friendly entertainment. It was a footbag trick called the Eclipse which he performed 26 times in a row that won him his first Guinness World Record.

He traveled around the world with another comic in a duo comedy team called “Brothers from Different Mothers,” and it was a leap-frogging juggling trick the duo did that garnered the second world record. (The “Brothers” performed the trick eight times in one minute.)

Zerbe has appeared on prime-time television in three countries, including appearances on the hit NBC television shows, “America’s Got Talent!” and “Last Comic Standing,” and he also carries the honorable distinction of having been named Seattle’s third best air guitarist.

Footbag competitions were the start of everything for the Seattle performer, including how he happened to meet his wife, Jane Zerbe, a 2009 Footbag Hall of Fame inductee.

“I decided that if I had to learn to juggle to make a career out of playing Hacky, then I’d do that,” Zerbe said.

After the first school assembly tours on the coasts, Zerbe did a number of odd jobs around Seattle while working as a street performer on the Seattle waterfront, at Pike Place Market, the Seattle Center and at various festivals such as Bumbershoot.

“I started realizing the value of comedy,” Zerbe said, and started mixing physical comedy with the skills and tricks.

Although he enjoys performing for both adults and children, he said kids come to the show free of pre-meditated notions about what’s funny.

They come to check it out, he said, and don’t have any expectations.

“I like performing for kids because they’re not judgmental,” Zerbe said. “It’s just, ‘Here’s this guy doing this stuff. Cool!’”

One parent made his day when she told him that her 5-year-old son said, “He was the best thing that happened in my entire life!”

“That feels good,” Zerbe said.

But Zerbe designs his children’s shows with parents in mind, too, and there are certain jokes that sometimes go over kids’ heads that get a laugh from the adults.

“It’s a good show for a general audience,” he added.

“Going Global” will be performed at 10 a.m. at the South Whidbey Elementary School gym, 2:30 p.m. at the Freeland Library and 7 p.m. at Clinton Community Hall on Thursday, June 23. Admission is free.