The show must go on!

After a short tour with Eden bros circus, we have finished up our big top journey for 2011. There are lots of exciting plans for next year, but before I give away too many secrets, I thought I'd tie up the journal from North QLD.

Our last few shows with the circus were totally sold out. We had to pull in extra chairs from nearby venues, and lay down tarps at the side of stage for kids to sit on the cast were pumped, nervous, and excited -the energy from the audience was amazing. We stormed the ring and performed our acts beautifully. People clapped and cheered their way through the show and we were run off our feet setting props, making pop-corn and darting back and forth with odd jobs. Life at the circus is a whole lot more pleasant when we have good crowds to play to, makes all the hard work of putting up the tent and preparing the show worthwhile.

The last show came around, and once again, we were set with a full house. I stepped into the ring with Luke's juggling knives as he lightly made his way to the top of his 2.8m free standing ladder. I always get a little scared of this act - invariably the ground is uneven, or the board is on a weird wobbly angle or something else is happening to make the ladder more unstable than it should be, but Luke calmly reached out his hands to catch the knives. I threw them up, 1, 2 and 3, and stood back while he juggled and caught each one perfectly.
..Then as if out of nowhere, the ladder was down, he'd crashed backwards off the top rung and was lying in the ring with blood pouring down his face. Somehow we helped him to his feet and took him backstage where he collapsed on the grass in shock. It just so happened that there was a nurse in the audience. A moment later, she was back stage with us and looking at Luke's wounds. She shook her head and announced that the hospital was needed, so away they went, while we continued the show.

A little after half time, Luke was back on site, this time with 8 stitches, a large amount of injected painkiller and a dose of adrenaline. Everyone had been asking about him at interval but none of us had any idea how he was going. He sat down in the caravan for a few minutes while I went out to do fire hoop. To our amazement, he came out two acts before the end and announced that he would do his piece. We set his juggling equipment in the ring and watched as he waltzed back on stage as though nothing had happened. The show must, and did go on!
The crowd roared with applause all the way through, they were amazed to see him perform. The show finished and we packed the audience off home, it was decided that tent down could wait till morning.

The following day, poor Luke's painkillers had worn off and he couldn't even walk for the muscle tears in his legs. It took several days for him to be able to walk again ok, and a week or so later the smile finally returned to his face. By then we were on a bus back to Brisbane for the rest of summer. Tour done for 2011!

Now, I am happy to report he is fully recovered and back on his ladder. I am in rehearsal with a new aerial piece and both of us are madly applying for the next season of arts grants and residencies - I can't wait to tell you about what we have planned for next year, but that is a whole other blogpost..

Woop woop

"Woop woop - it sounds like a celebration.. It's not.. It is a cruel lament" Luke Forrester

Woop woop in Australian slang refers to that place that is in the middle of nowhere - so  far away from civilisation that the sight of a corner shop or another person is something to celebrate.. That is where we ended up for this stand..

We pulled up in Thangool with the assistance of a relative of a friend of a friend of Johns.. It seems that everything here at this circus relies on that sort of kindness, and owed favours. This town consists of one store - it is a fuel stop, a general store and a post office all in one. There is also a motel which doubles as a pub, and a second pub a little further down. The life of this town appears to rotate around these three venues. Lets hope the circus can pull a crowd from it..

We only moved about 11km down the road from Biloela, but out here seems just far enough to be totally out of phone and mobile internet range.. Oh no… Four. Whole. Days. Without. Internet.. *Ghasp*
In our horror of this discovery, a few things occurred - Luke went all analogue and started writing a journal in an actual notebook, The two boys ran screaming in terror to the nearest pub to drown their woes - and I resorted to eating honey sandwiches. Oh what is the world coming to..
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..actually I just walked a k down the road in the blazing heat hoisting my mobile phone high above my head in desperation of finding one bar of reception.. and have been rewarded for my efforts with this brief moment of interweb contact *breathes a sigh of relief* Hello world :)

Photos from the first two weeks at Eden Bros

Today we are opening in Thangool, QLD - I have a little time before the show so I thought I'd upload some photos from the last week or two..

What not to do..

We have just started with a touring circus called "Eden Bros Good Time Circus"
They tour all over Queensland in a traditional old tent, and still supports old fashioned circus acts with animals. I have never worked on a tent with animals before, so this has been a whole new experience.. Luke and the monkey have made friends.. and by friends I mean, the monkey cheekily tries to undo all the ratchets holding the tent together as fast as Luke hooks them up - it has also been known to take a swipe at him out of fun!
Me? I get to play with llamas - actually, I fib, they are alpacas but they get introduced as llamas for some unknown reason.. I have also had a few interesting moments with the goats..

For today, I have two tips of what not to do on your first week with a circus in hot northern QLD..

#1 : In the pre-show haste of hunger, spill the honey jar all over the self and the costume.. then stand backstage in a massive ant nest..

#2: Turn your back on a goat while in a conversation with someone - especially not when wearing a long tasty skirt!

The Last Stand - Ashburton

The tour had felt long, and yet all of a sudden it was almost over. The spirit of the circus had been lifted as all of the Ring Master's family had come down to join the circus over the school holidays. Our cast instantly doubled in size with our youngest performer being only 8 years old. The rain had cleared up and the sun was shining, and we had time to relax a little as Ashburton was a two week stand.

Luke and I were leaving a couple of weeks early as we had commitments over in Australia. The rest of the crew would be carrying on to Christchurch for their last stand.
It is a tradition in circus to make the last show as entertaining, and as difficult as possible for your cast mates - and most were already planning the cast pranks for the final show.. Apparently, it was decided that Luke and I truly deserved to get some last show prank action, even though we were not going to be there for the final show..

Just before the show, everyone was acting suspicious - I twigged that we were likely to be 'last showed' but had no idea what the cheeky scoundrels were up to. I was waylaid on my stilts out the front of the tent - just long enough it seems for the rigger to change the height of my trapeze by raising it 30cm - just high enough to make the routine hard!

I walked into the ring, and glanced over at the sound desk - the entire cast were standing there, giggling as I reached out to my uncomfortably high trapeze.
After my act, I watched as everyone raced back out to watch Luke.. the guys had taken his music and sped it up by about 20% so his juggling routine was in fast forward! It was hilarious to watch, and amazingly he carried the routine out to the end, scoring a round of applause from the cast and audience alike when he returned backstage.

All through the show they had set little glitches for us to 'enjoy', and as if that wasn't enough, when we returned to the car to drive away it seemed that they had hidden hundreds of grape drinks through ALL of our luggage, doubling it's weight and leaving us with the lovely experience of discovering grape drinks for days to come!

..little did they know, that they were not the only ones hiding grape drinks that day.. :-p

And a Grape day was had by all

I snuggled down into my comfortable circus bed.. It seemed unusually difficult to get my head  to rest on my pillow.. in fact, my pillow seemed a little solid. I poked it, slightly confused..it was hard, very hard, positively lumpy in fact. I traced the lump with my hand and in a moment worked out what it was.. some cheeky cast member had filled my pillow with grape drinks!

Instantly, I suspected Nick - he had been lurking around suspiciously - yup, it must be him.
I removed the grape drinks and snuck over to his bed, carefully placing them in his blankets and one in his gumboot for good measure. I smiled and returned to sleeping.

I was woken in the morning by an exclamation of confusion from Nick's side of the bus "What the?!" He had rolled over on to the plastic bottle.. "Briar! I am going to get her" he muttered, and quickly rolled out of bed, slipping on his gumboots "GAH! - Oh, that was a good one" he smiled and rolled on out the door.

When I came outside, he was over by the chuck wagon. Briar was at her caravan, throwing grape drinks at Nick out the window - He was dodging them, cracking up in fits of laughter.

I chose this as a good time to point out that it hadn't been Briar placing drinks in his bed. "YOU!?" he asked, astounded - "I blamed Briar!"
At this moment, Briar and Luke emerged from their various sleeping quarters and we stood around giggling. Briar had placed the drinks in what she thought was Luke's pillow after he had covered a grape drink in candy floss and given it to her as a joke.. She had filled my pillow by accident - I blamed Nick, Nick blamed Briar.. Sigh, what a grape day.

Hoop play