The Toronto International Circus Festival is back this year with many great performances and interesting booths. One of the spotlight performances is called The Fairy Tale Mashup. It was a great entertainment to an audience of all sizes and ages, performed by kids from the Circus Academy. It started out with Mother Goose coming in and introducing a whole bunch of her stories. She comes out with her storybook, and spills all her stories. Then, most of the characters come out and perform a dance with hula hoops. Afterwards, the stories start coming in. First, it’s Snow White and the Witch, and they perform on the trapeze. It continues on, with different stories, occasionally interrupted by something weird and wacky. Once, the characters even got mixed up into one story!
“I love doing circus because I like to be creative and do hard tricks and be physical,” said Jen Georgopoulos, the director of the Circus Academy. “I like to share what I love with the audience.”
The kids at the Circus Academy do a lot of training in preparation for the performances. “Training is really worth it and having all these abilities—being flexible and strong—really helps you in life. So training is a really good experience,” said Madi Georpopoulos, a student performer.
We also watched the Zero Gravity Circus perform. They were really professional, and seemed to know what they were doing. They were more graceful, and they were all daredevils. They also had more interesting tricks. Those people have got surprising strength hidden in those bodies! They made no mistakes, and when they did, they did their best to recover. Their attitudes were good!
Kray and Kiki were some of the coolest comedians around! Kiki the Clown, she could spin five hula hoops at a time, and Kray the Ringmaster, he could put out the fire on fire torches by licking it. They also tried to be funny about Kiki’s hairstyle, and juggled some balls. They even had a few volunteers go up and participate in the “Circus Olympics.”
Allison Cummings is the artistic associate who works with various performers and put the show together. Did you know that she had once tried for the trapeze herself? She said that her favourite exhibit was the Sideshow Alley.
In the Sideshow Alley, kids became Sideshow characters. They got to put on costumes, some makeup, and act in a play. For a few moments, they could be whomever they wanted to be. Five different artists from various backgrounds—circus arts, theatre, costume design, puppetry, and visual arts—helped you show off your inner personality!
If you didn’t know what you wanted to be, there were a few places that helped you decide, such as a booth called the “Kid Without A Body.” You went under the table, kneeling on some cushions, and the volunteer helped you through a plastic golden plate with grapes on it. There was also one called “Strongest Kid in the World.” There was a big dumbbell resting on a hay bale. It looked pretty heavy, but in reality, it was really light, although big.
There was another booth called, “Embellish Yourself,” where somebody knelt behind a special glass pane, and the person used neon markers to draw accessories on the face. The booth was bathed in UV light. You could make yourself look prettier, or accessorize yourself, or poke fun at the unfortunate person you’re drawing.
You didn’t have to bore yourself out impersonating other people, acting, drawing, or simply kneeling behind glass. There were also hands-on activities, where kids of all ages had fun, without needing to act out any personalities. There was one where you learned how to fortune-tell, and one where you did some arts and crafts. The result? A funky, pretty or cool looking mask, however you wanted it to be.
We interviewed Paz from the hockey circus show. We asked him a lot of questions. He said that one of the main challenges he met as a one-man circus was the flaming hockey sticks. One of his main stunts is juggling flaming hockey sticks. He went everywhere but he just couldn’t find flaming hockey sticks. The challenge was inventing them himself, as he was the first person to use flaming hockey sticks.
Paz’s son was also available for interviewing, and we jumped for the opportunity. His son said that traveling with his father to perform in the shows is a great opportunity.
“Not many other kids have this, and it’s a privilege,” Paz’s son said.
