Mondo was fabulous. The show was extremely good this year, I’d say better than any other mondo show that I can remember. Vova and Olga were well worth the plane ticket that we paid for to get them out here. They were AMAZING. Machines, really. But beautiful machines. They were also very nice.
My other favorite from the show was George the slackrope walker. (If I find a link, I’ll post it, but so far, google has been failing me. It would of course help if I could remember his last name.) He was extremely good, and after the show, back in the gym, I got the chance to talk with him some about slackrope, and specifically the best way to turn around while standing on one. George was very willing to teach, and after a few minutes of practicing on the lines on the floor, I was starting to get the urge to actually do some slackrope. I pulled the mountain climber’s tape out of my duffel, and we tied it between two aluminum risers in the gym. At first the risers slid around a bit, but for whatever reason they didn’t move after the first couple of minutes.
George showed me how to practice just about everything he did in his show, and now I have a TON of stuff to work on. One of the things he did that I had previously thought was near impossible was balancing with your feet perpendicular to the rope, (facing the audience). Not only did George show me the trick to doing it, but by the end of the night (2am) I was able to actually balance there for about10 seconds! I had also turned around on the rope a total of four times–the first four times I’d ever done it.
i didn’t know you could function this early in the morning, what time did you get up?
oh, and i almost forgot, George’s last name on his “business card” he gave us is Fuller. They anounced him as George Orange at the show. The “business card” also says you can see more photos of him at http://www.midnightcircus.net
Regarding the tape — I was wondering what you were up to, over there.
Dave