Out and about with the Scouts of Victoria

The circus has been in Melbourne for the past four weeks doing a series of shows with Vic Scout groups in halls and school auditoriums. I just thought I'd do a quick update post with the latest newspaper clippings and a few pics from the most recent scout hall performance.

This was an article from the Melbourne Leader:
http://diamond-valley-leader.whereilive.com.au/lifestyle/story/great-australian-bite-sized-circus-perform-tonight/

A little mention for the school hols in Woodend
http://www.woodendnh.org.au/component/content/article/37-frontpage-content/127-september-school-holiday-program


We also had a great little article in the Melbourne Weekly, and I have a couple of clippings from the paper in woodend, but I will have to post them as photos later as I can't find them online.

Here are a couple of photos from the fun we had with the Blackburn Scouts.

Winter Warmth

So the frosts have started, the wind is cold and the winter well and truly has it's hold. Here at the circus we have packed up the tent and moved indoors awaiting the spring. We don't stop performing though - instead of tent shows our troupe has been hard at work doing firey spectacle shows at the National Celtic Festival, The National Museum of Australia, Geelong and even Gunning in NSW. We have been filming our work and have a little video teaser to share..

Youtube video of the fire show

Vimeo Video page link:

Please note that if you are in the USA, Youtube puts a ban on the video automatically as we only have permission to use the show music in some parts of the world - so check it out here instead!

 

Three wheels, three acrobats.. it makes sense, doesn't it?

We have had a trying few days, venue issues and a whole lot of nonsense with weird Victorian By-laws. But we have come through it all, and found a way.. The show must go on!

Tonight, we introduce two new acts, of which I will not give too much away.. I will however say that it does involve a miniature tricycle and a mishievious Tin Soldier!

Shows are at 6:30pm tonight at the Sale Scout Hall, 2pm tomorrow and 6:30pm Tomorrow night.

Poster day in Orbost

One of the first things that the circus has to do when we come into town, is get the word out that we are here. This is one of my favourite parts of tour as it means *shock horror* we have to find somewhere nice to sit down, write on our posters, sort our fliers and work out the best route of distribution.. That is right folks, it is coffee and muffin time!

It wasn't hard to find a friendly wee bakery in the heart of Orbost, and within a few minutes, we were scribbling away on shiny, bright posters and enthusiastically devising a plan to get them out and about.

I don't know if I have ever yet encountered a town where people are so eager to receive us. As a result, we are all itching to get the tent up - we can't wait to do a show!

With the council being a little difficult, and our grounds now being a swamp - we have made a back up plan to do our show at the North Orbost Primary school if need be.. stay tuned!

Our first day in Victoria..

 

 We have just crossed the border into Victoria and will be setting up over the next week here in Orbost. So far it has been an exciting couple of days.. welcomed by hail, drowned in drizzle, and then nearly arrested as it seems that the council forgot to alert the rangers in the area that a circus was arriving! They turned up with the police and threatened us with $12,000 fines for 'camping' until we waved paperwork in their face. Hopefully things get a little better from here!

Our new show dates and times have been announced.. Wish us luck everyone, I think we need it!!

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Orbost, Vic

Forest Park

Friday 4th May - 6:30pm

Sat 5th May - 2pm

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Bairnsdale, Vic

Howitt Park

Friday 11th May - 6:30pm

Sat 12th - 2pm AND 6:30pm

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Sale, Vic

Scout Hall oval

Fri 18th May - 7pm

Sat 19th - 2pm and 7pm

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Traralgon: Venue TBA

Morwell: Venue TBA

 

Show day in Cooma

The warm sunlight was streaming in through the caravan windows as I stumbled into consciousness. the distant sound of tractors and the piercing squark of the local birds told me that it was probably time to get up and get ready for the show.

I opened my eyes slowly. Less than a meter from me, and directly above my head was the soft fury familiar face of a huntsman spider almost the size of my hand.. goooooood.

I mumbled to luke and gently peeled myself out of the caravan pod. Luke edged away in the other direction while i found a mug to catch our new friend and return him to the trees outside. He was quite well behaved for a spider and was easily caught and removed - now on with the 'normal' things like hand stands, tutus and of course, a cup of coffee!

A happy hoopy Eve - Photos from my hula hoop routine

I love my circus boys but can someone please donate a sense of direction or maybe a GPS?!

It was a fine evening at the Cooma showground. I had been left to mind the first load of circus stuff - the caravan, the circus toys and the food.. really, it is all of the good things :)
I was just sitting down to drink some peppermint tea when I received a phone call  form the two boys with the tent trailer..

It seemed that instead of following the MAP in the guys ipod, (or ya know, consulting their memory from the previous two trips down the same road) they thought it would be a better idea to just tootle on down the same long road for ever and ever into the darkness.. past all the street lights.. out of the city.. down long windey roads to the farms of yonder. Only when they arrived at a tiny one lane bridge did they think that maybe.. just maybe they ought to re-evaluate their route.
hmm

boys!
I say all of this with love, but I have never come across two people so able to get lost! They are fine if it is just one of them, but put them together and it is one big magic mess of wrong direction!

I might just add that two hours later I heard from them again.. the car was on on empty and they still had 15km to go.. oops.

Generating Coffee

We arrived at our site just as the sun was setting. It had been a long day so far with packing down the big-top, loading the trailers and all of us dealing with mild heat stroke. Luke had gone ahead with the first trailer and by the time I arrived, he'd magically laid out the entire tent on the grass, hammered in the peg line and preset everything for us to lift the tent in the morning. He was exhausted.

We pulled up by the lake and detached the seating trailer. I wandered over to Luke with an offering of an ice cold ginger beer - this has become one our tour treats on super hard working days. With the sun fast disappearing behind the hills, we figured it was time to get our new generator running - this entire stand was going to have to be powered by our tiny little motor as there was no power anywhere near this site.

Luke was pouring over the manuals and poking things on the generator - none of us had ever had to use one before so this was a bit of a new adventure.

Unfortunately for us we failed at making it work, and by the time that night had fully set in, we had long given up and an early night was had by all.



Dawn peaked over the lake and three over-tired, slightly damp and sleep deprived circus performers muddled over to the breakfast table. Only one thing would make today happen, and that was a very strong cup of coffee.

We all looked at each other.. the kettle needed the generator.

The boys once again took up residence beside our little unstartable motor and I prepared a coffee plunger in the vain hope that somehow we would be able to get the electricity happening..
Alas. We did not.

But our efforts did manage to attract the attention of a very tame black swan, which decided that it understood our generator far better than we, and set about chasing us one by one away from our electricity maker!

Eventually, we gave in and that's right, it was Dad to the rescue! Jerry stopped off on the way to work and somehow with mystical knowledge of gadgets managed to make the generator go.

We plugged the kettle in and waited with baited breath…

The generator died.
Then we realised the kettle required nearly twice the current that our little machine could make, and it was back to the drawing board for morning coffee.

*sigh*

Thank goodness for the back up gas stove we had tucked! Coffee was finally achieved!

The high life..

An evening off at the circus.. fireworks over head and the best seat in the house..

The Canberra Times Today!

Our cast were out and about promoting the show this morning, when a lady from a near-by shop bustled out, newspaper in hand and held it up to us - Would you look at that, a huge 2 page spread about our little circus!

Sold out tickets!

The circus is back at home base for a few days collecting ourselves after the huge week in Braidwood NSW. We were hosting a show as a fundraiser for the Braidwood Central school P&C and at the same time doing a preview performance of the show that we are touring.

I can not explain my amazement when, after loaning an extra 100 seats from the school - we heard the news that the show had fully booked out with standing room only by 2pm on the show day.

By the time we opened the doors, we had a queue of people waiting on stand-by tickets and the tent packed to the rafters!

The show was intense, it was the first time we had run it with an audience, and to do so with such a huge turn out was a massive treat. I was told the following morning that the applause and the roar of the kids cheer was heard several blocks away.

Thanks to the school for having us - now it is time to set up in Canberra!

Local fame for the little circus..

We have had an epic couple of weeks, with our international artists flying in, our first tent-up as a group and the final development session for the show. Over the week we had numerous interviews with press and now some of those have gone to print.. just thought I'd share

BMA Magazine This is a local arts mag, gig guide and local news magazine - free around Canberra

The Canberra Times - 17th Feb 2012
The Canberra times will be following us a bit over the next month, so check out what has been written so far, and stay tuned for updates.

The Canberra times have made us a little photo gallery :)

Konrad Lens, dropped by and took a few photos..

Imagin-eering at the house of circus

It is Saturday morning and things are heating up in the house of the circus. Luke is visiting family across the ditch for a bit, so Sharon, Jerry and I are rushing around trying to complete the last few tasks before he gets back. We have less than two weeks now until the rest of our cast fly in from New Zealand and the final rehearsal stage begins. 

There is still so much to do, Sharon is designing a new and better web site, I am working on the sound track, and Jerry Is busy 'Imagin-eering' the ultimate tent-tetris trailer of glory.. Here is his challenge.. Fit one big top circus tent, King poles, side poles, pegs and all as well as foam matting, a ladder or two, 30 hula hoops, 3 pairs of stilts, a unicycle, 18m of carpet ring mat, 14 small ring boxes and our fence on ONE 6x4.. 

And I think he has done it folks! Photos coming soon!

 

Waltzing with sledgehammers

 

It is a delicate form of dance that one invents when a sledgehammer meets the gentle flesh of fingers.. It involves a complex series of steps, leaps, aggressive marching, and grabbing at ones hand.. It also has an expressive facial distortion and sometimes  even a vocal element. This, my friends, is the Sledgehammer waltz.

 

Jerry helps with laying out and lacing up the big top

 

Luke battles the rock hard ground to beat in our peg-line

I must admit, that like most of the gender stereotypes might suggest - I am somewhat more familiar with the stardust of the show than the sledgehammers. In the last two circus jobs, I was assigned to marketing and performance for the majority of the time, and although enjoyed pulling the big top down after the show, had done a very limited number of put-ups.
Needless to say, although it was super exciting to be putting up our own circus tent - I think my talents are a little more suited to sewing on fringing and sequins!

 

Lacing the top of the tent together

 

Jerry tensioning the ropes

 

 

Heaving tent skins into position

 

The day was highly successful, despite the brief 'sledgehammer dance' interludes. The big top went up ok, and it was a great feeling to see it standing. We only had the field for a day, and a storm was threatening overhead - so we didn't put up the blue and white striped walls which will really finish off the look of the tent, but you can imagine what it will look like from some of the photos here.

Five weeks until we launch!

Six weeks out!

The count down has really started now with only six weeks until we put up the tent for the development and preview show in Braidwood NSW.

Luke has been beavering away with the business plan, and I have been up to my elbows in thread and fabric, making our costumes.

This has been the busiest Christmas and New year period ever, but things are starting to come together.

Here is a sneak peak of the colours, stripes and laces that will be making our performers pretty this season :) I will be spending the next couple of weeks making a music box ballerina costume, a tin soldier costume and a Jack in the box - that's right folks, a circus toybox!