10.25 Dispatches: Runaway!
I send out a newsletter every month with information about what I’m up to. It’s fun and short and I’d like to try and interest more people to join. For the next few months, I’m going to post what I wrote in the newsletter the week after it’s sent out. You can have a look and see if this is something you might want to appear in your inbox every month. Scroll to the bottom to sign up.
So, it’s been about two weeks since I hopped on the circus train. Literally, I jumped on to a moving train as it was leaving Toronto. You can read about where this all came from on the blog post below called the Circus Riot.
I’m settling into a routine on the road. This is my new life now. I usually start my day pretty early. I wash up and eat breakfast with the rest of the performers. We finish any setup on the grounds that we didn’t get to the previous night, then just hang out for the rest of the afternoon. When lunch is over, we do a rehearsal - even though we transport our own tent, every space is different and each town has its own unique vibe.
You can really feel the anticipation grow as we get closer to showtime. I like to know the kind of crowd we’ll have in the audience, and so my favouritepre-show routine is to peek from behind the curtain. Check’em out!
I love the other performers - what professionals! If there is a mistake, these seasoned acrobats and jugglers and clowns keep smiling and the audience barely knows anything happened. I’m one of the clowns, again literally, not figuratively. We do a number where we’re trying to steal the strongman’s weights, but none of us can really lift them. Hilarity ensues, I assure you.
After the show, we hang around and speak with audience members that aren’t ready to leave yet. Then we unwind with food and drink as we pack things up and get ready to leave early in the morning.
Anyhoo, it’s super fun! I’ll be gone for most of the summer and will be back in the city for The Exhibition - come and see us!
In the meantime, there are some new episodes of the Stories We Don’t Tell Podcast. You can listen and subscribe at the link below. Also, since we’re on summer hiatus with the Stories We Don’t Tell event, we still like to keep things going. Every month during the summer, we’ll be having a workshop for anyone wanting to get some extra writing done. During event season, we do two workshops leading up to each show where performers develop and craft their stories. The summer workshops are the same concept without the added pressure of working towards an actual event. Sign-up for the workshops below!
That’s all for now. The wifi can be a bit spotty out on the road, so I hope this email makes it to your inbox!
-- Paul
