Night at the circus

[fbhjr]

Yesterday I learned that if you buy your tickets 126 days early for a show
on the least popular night the day they go on sale, you can get really good
tickets at a really good price.
I’m sure back on September 1st when I bought them I knew they were front
row. But, in the four months since then I forgot.
So, I was as surprised as my wife when the usher told us we weren’t in the
balcony and led us to the front row center seats.
As I said to my wife: “We’re so close, if something goes wrong they might
land on us.”
I’m told that was not a happy thought.

I can say that the Shanghai acrobatic circus is really, really good. Some
of the stuff they did was stuff that if I saw in a comic book with super
heroes I wouldn’t believe possible by normal humans.
“They shouldn’t show Batman doing that,” I’d think. “He’s a normal human.
Well trained and skilled, but that would take outright super powers.”
But, these guys did them.
Things like throwing other people in the air and catching them with one
hand while the person being caught stayed rigid as a board. Jumping off a
swinging pole backwards and catching another swinging pole with your legs
without looking. Rotating your body around your arms while another person
stands on you. Human pyramids supported from the top, with one strong guy,
instead of the bottom.
Amazing stuff.

Of course, being a live performance, there were mistakes. To some extent,
as they were minor and no one got hurt, that actually made the show better
for me. As amazing as these folks are, it’s still hard and things go wrong.
Like my wife, the guy rolling the mobile acrobatic stage in place who got
his shoelace caught in the wheel made me smile. I’m sure he was horrified.
And, it only made me smile as a “Oh, I’ve been there buddy” kind of way.
The woman who lost two different wigs in two different acts in different
directions gave me a better appreciation of just how fast she was spinning
for it go fly so far. And, it was interesting to see who went and picked
things up when they fell.
For the spinning plates there was clearly a policy of “if something goes
wrong with one hand, dump it and concentrate on the other one”.
And, for me that stuff is as good as the actual tricks.
How do they recover when things go wrong? Who is watching for problems?
Who directs people while on stage?
And, being up close we could actually hear some of the talk between
performers as they were aiming for their marks and syncing the timing of
them. It was in Chinese so I don’t know what was actually said, but seeing
who set the pace and did direction was very interesting.

I know there are folks who say this stuff ruins the magic. But, not for
me. Maybe it’s because I’ve been doing public performances since before I
was 8. There has never been any doubt in my mind that the magic is due to
hard work, lots of practice, skill and training. Seeing examples of the
structure that holds the show together is more magical for me, not less.

Comments

[pallid-regina.livejournal.com]

That sounds AMAZING.

[kismets-kiss.livejournal.com]

I'm like you, the the tics and twitches of reality in a live show makes the show for me. It puts me smack "in the moment" and my empathy is all on them.
I envy you and Temper the experience! Must have been so much fun!