Tag: circus

Welcome to MeghanLand

Meghan AshleyLeave a comment

Good morning, and it is technically still morning for another 18 minutes here in sunny Los Angeles, CA.  Greetings and salutations to you all, I am Meghan.  Excuse me, let me try that again so that you can hear me better.  Ahem, ahem, cough <<clearing of throught>>  *HACK* …

STEP RIGHT UP! Step right up, that’s right Ladies and Gentlemen, right this way.  Why right behind this curtain I have sights your eyes have never seen before, sounds your ears have never heard before, feelings your tender young heart Miss have never even dreamed before.  Sir, yes Sir, you Sir. Have you Sir ever hear of the Tahitian Mirmaid? NO?! How about Zip the Pinhead?  Come now surely you know about The Hilton Sisters? Yes, the most beautiful Siamese Twins in all the world?  Well right inside this very tent is waiting for you the Human Pin Cushion, a woman who feels no pain, the Fire Eater, a man who is impervious to the flame.  But please do not go in there if you have a heart condition for I fear The Gauvage will seperate you from your senses . . .

And so the “Talker” would go on building the tip and turning them into the tent for the next show.  Welcome to my world, the world of the Circus Sideshow.  I perform with a troupe of amazingly talented and lovely women, all a little to the left of center, named The Ladies Society for the Subversive Arts and we perform a show called The Sideshow Sirens.  I am  Serenity in the show, and I play with fire in all its glorious forms.

Welcome to MeghanLand.

www.sideshowsirens.com

The Lost Circus Sideshow

Adam1 Comment

From midgets, wolfboys and human pin-cushions to Siamese twins, snake charmers and sword swallowers, the circus sideshow isn’t often seen alongside the main attraction any more.

But while the Sideshow element of circuses, carnivals and fairs may have dwindled, the Circus Sideshow, the Freakshow, and the Circus Freaks and Geeks themselves (see my previous post) are aliving and kicking. Continue reading “The Lost Circus Sideshow” →

The Technique IS the Character

Luke Wilson6 Comments

I was talking recently with someone who is working on creating a new juggling act, and they mentioned that they wanted said new act to contain more “character”, and that they wanted to include more stops and pauses: for the purpose of showing that “character”.

Almost as recently, upon introducing myself to a fellow circus performer they asked me what “theme” my juggling act had. My reply of “juggling” left them nonplussed.

Having had to pick my jaw up from the floor on each of these occasions, I realised I could perhaps usefully try (for myself if no-one else) to form my thoughts into some kind of clarity on this matter.

The year is 2011. It was over 30 years ago that nouveau cirque made a clear and, surely at that time, necessary statement about the break they were making from non-nouveau cirque. But I sincerely hope that we are far enough now with the circus arts and their development to understand that we don’t have to justify our time on stage by claiming it to be circus “with theatre”, or “with dance”, or “without horses”. Or “with value added character”. Circus is circus, and it’s practitioners are circus artists.

If we are using the circus arts (circus techniques, as in skills and tricks) to express ourselves, then we owe it to them, and to ourselves, to show them some respect and to create and show work where that technique set is needed. Needed means not added on as a bonus but rather integral to, and defining of, the work. The technique should be a necessity of the performance (and perhaps also the other way round, but that is perhaps a topic for another time).

If technique is integral (which to me is a backbone of circus performance), then technique has a lot of responsibility. It is the major means we have to communicate our intent. I shall repeat that more clearly (and to really stress it, I shall do so by manually re-typing it, rather than using copy and paste): technique is the major tool that we have to communicate our intent.

That doesn’t mean that it should subsume the intent, but that it serves the intent.

If our intention includes the need to create a particular “character” (be that character one of pop-star, ninja, sailor or, dare we even say it, JUGGLER), then I hope it is clear that, although costuming and make-up, or staging and light, are important and valuable factors in our constructs, it is TECHNIQUE that must take the lead. We should innovate in our technique, believe in it, and shouldn’t be scared to trust it to tell an audience more about our intentions and emotional content then any other factor.

After all, love of technique is what drove us in the first place to learn this craft, and I hope that that same love is a factor in keeping us in this crazy, impossible, beautiful, painful, ghastly, inspiring, incredible life that we may call our job.

Innovate your technique: create the right trick for the right moment.

Trust in your tools: and let an audience share that trust.

And always remember: the technique IS the character.

Video of the Week – Monkey & Goat

arronsparks2 Comments

At the Circus Open Space there was a great topic of conversation suggested by Mish Weaver; ‘The BEST trick you have ever seen’.

I got quite excited by this conversation because it’s the main reason I became interested in circus. I love tricks.

I have a poor memory when it comes to names and other important details about artists but for some reason I remember tricks. I get annoyed when people dismiss this element in traditional circus, so many times I’ve heard the equivalent statement that contemporary circus ‘stays with you’, implying that an awesome trick doesn’t. Well it does for me. And here is (putting the ethics debate to one side) an awesome trick:

From an unknown circus on Nanwan Monkey Island situated in Lingshui County, South China’s Hainan Province (according to YouTube).

Geeks: Coming Home

Adam1 Comment

I thought it appropriate that if we were to go around calling ourselves Circus Geeks that we take a moment to explore Geeks, or Geekdom as the collective sub-culture is sometimes known. Being a geek myself, I started by looking up the word in the dictionary. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the word geek as:

1 : A carnival performer often billed as a wild man whose act usually includes biting the head off a live chicken or snake.

2 : A person often of an intellectual bent who is disliked

3 : an enthusiast or expert especially in a technological field or activity  *computer geek*

A carnival performer? In the first definition? Interesting. I would have assumed that the second or third definition would have been the primary definition. Let’s leave the fact that is says geeks bite the heads off live chickens for a moment and take a quick look at the origins of the the word geek.

It turns out the word geek actually has its origins in carnival and circus. Etymonline.com describes the history of the word geek in the following way:

“sideshow freak,” 1916, U.S. carnival and circus slang, perhaps a variant of geck “a fool, dupe, simpleton” (1510s), apparently from Low Ger. geck, from an imitative verb found in North Sea Germanic and Scandinavian meaning “to croak, cackle,” and also “to mock, cheat.” The modern form and the popular use with reference to circus sideshow “wild men” is from 1946, in William Lindsay Gresham’s novel “Nightmare Alley” (made into a film in 1947 starring Tyrone Power).

So the original geeks were fools and sideshow freaks and over time it came to be applied to anyone who got paid to do work considered odd or bizarre by mainstream society. Nowadays you’re a geek if you are particularly knowledgeable in any particular field, especially if it involves technology (computer programmers were the original tech geeks, an activity that was considered odd or bizarre by mainstream society a number of years ago) or is a subject that most people wouldn’t know too much about.

And so here we are: Circus Geeks – circus folk geeking out on an internet blog about circus. It seems we have finally come home.

The politics of circus

So & So CircusLeave a comment

What can you and can’t you say? Politics is driving me nuts. What have I said to people that I shouldn’t have said? Probably quite a lot.

Sat in a breakfast bar this morning watching the world go by and chatting about many things. Started with meeting with Mish. We were talking about her new show, Box of Frogs, which, frankly, I cannot wait to get cracking on. Also talking about our new show, Backgammon for Beginners, and what we’re doing with that. Finished all the show chat, rehearsal chat etc etc and inevitably got down to the gossip part – which I always enjoy and Lauren is a particular specialist in. She remembers details as I am left flailing over who actually said what about whom. Mish had seen the 3rd year show last night and it was duly dissected. I love doing this. Listing who was your favourite, then maybe your top 3. Then changing it. Then really enjoying going over the one you hated. There’s always one, no matter how much you try and sit on the fence. We’re not going until tomorrow night but I sometimes enjoy listening to people who have already seen it. It’s like pre match build up I suppose. Then Sam, Matt and Em arrived and we went over it all again and there was the lovely “which did you like moment” which I already knew Mish’s answer to. And then, that beautiful moment when someone carefully asks what you thought of person x’s piece. And then the disagreement – or, in some cases, almost salivating as you get going on a particularly juicy shared like/dislike of someone’s act – or even the person themselves.

It’s a crazy world because everyone can’t like everyone all of the time but it’s rare that these tensions even remotely surface. It just leaves you wondering what people said about you when you graduated – or every time you do a public show. Is it best to know or not? Therefore, is it best to say or not say whether you loved or hated a piece/performer/person or not? Or is it better to polish that smile and pretend you love everyone and everything no matter how bland/badly done/offensive it is just in case it comes back and bites you in the arse? I just don’t know.  I suppose the aim of the game is just to know who to sit on the fence in front of and who to tumble off the side with.

I look forward to seeing the 3rd years do their thing tomorrow night. I love going to the shows each year. Especially the banter afterwards and just enjoying watching that fleeting moment that anyone who has been on any kind of long intensive course feels: of standing on the edge of a huge unknown. Good luck to them all.

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