The Huddle Juggler - Huggler?

Wow well it has been awhile since I did this writing thing! How are you all?

So lots has happenedsince my last write up. RHowever long story short, just like Sarah I too have quit my job andmoved away from busy busy London, and now I have lots more time to dothings like JUGGLE!

So what have I been up to? Well those of you who aresubscribed to me on my Youtube channel will have seen that lately Ihave been going crazy trying to buy every last prop from Firetoys now England is getting some glorious weather. Mylatest toy being a walking ladder, loving the prop at the moment, I am recording my progress just for fun.Unfortunately training has ground to a halt due to the little rubberfeet being already completely destroyed? It's only been two weeks?Are they designed to be used on clouds?

Walking Ladder Progress

So what the heck is a huddle juggler? Well I have recently had a juggling gig. I was hired to try andcreate a fun atmosphere at a careers fair by Huddle. The idea was tobring along some fire and knives and turn some heads, a faultlessplan!

Sporting a fetching Huddle T-shirt

O hello health andsafety.

Yes we were told prettymuch straight away that both danger props were a no go. So it wasback to old faithful balls and clubs. Unfortunately as all jugglerswho have performed such things know, you can do the hardest tricksyou can think of and nobody will really turn a head. It is sad but Ihave found that nobody really cares much about juggling, well notlike other circusy people anyhow. However, put a chance of juggler death in theequation and you have a completely different story. Do simple cascadewith fire and you will have an audience, it is the jugglers tragedy.

I set off to try andget some interest, luckily I had brought a stilt along with me. In mystreet show I end with a juggle hopping about on a single poweriser stilt and itnever fails to get attention, and now was no different. I basicallyaccosted people, showed them a trick or two and sent them in thedirection of the Huddle stand, something that was pretty easy aseverybody I spoke to had a great opinion of Huddle anyway. The gig turned into a hybrid of walkabout and performance kind of thing, but it worked quite well.

Best way to train one side of your body only!

After two days ofjuggling and hopping about in the heat, it is no surprise that myarms are now aching like mad, and at least one of my legs are :)Really enjoyed the experience and am looking to do lots lots lotsmore juggling again now I have escaped London so expect more posts, Iwill also try and record some of my live performances so you can seewhat I get up to.

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My Comparing Experiences

Performing in a pantomime!

Or perhaps this?

All-singing, all-dancing...all-seeing

Weeks have certainly flown by at the circus, and Gloucester is long past us now. Just as our old space was starting to feel like home, suddenly it's all change. Suddenly we're squashed together with new neighbours and new scenery in Cheltenham racecourse and I'm slowly building up my little pound-land-inspired picket fence garden (even though there's not much space here). I'm thinking of having a garden party with Pimm's on the lawn and miniature cream teas. It's going to happen soon, just as soon as I find the time!

It's difficult to find time to do anything else at the moment as we're still having lots of rehearsals, along with two shows on Thursday and Friday and three on both weekend days, plus one on Monday before we leave to set up on a new site. Life here is pretty fast paced; one minute we're setting up the tent in one field, the next we're pulling it down to set up somewhere else. I think that's definitely part of the magic of circus, although it is exhausting. I'm not looking forward to our three day stop in Sunningwell; we'll spend most of the time building and pulling down the tent rather than performing in it! Remember in my last post when I said I quite enjoyed it? Strike that, reverse it! But we are becoming quicker at it each time.

 The good thing is, on Tuesdays (our usual build day), Hannah and I get to go around our next location, giving out flyers to shops and the general public. The only downside to that is we have to go in costume i.e leotard, fishnet tights and plumes of feathers and stand slap bang in the middle of town. As you can imagine, sometimes this provokes interesting reactions from some people, particularly the ones in Wetherspoons at 11 in the morning...

Ready to brave the public!

Being an all-singing, all-dancing, all-seeing usherette is fun but it is also proving to be incredibly hard work. We have to be ready and on the doors (of the tent) 40 minutes before each show starts and during the show, in addition to being part of it, we have to adopt the eyes of a hawk; watching out for rogue children who aren't sitting in their seats, or spotting people who need help in any way at all. It can be really challenging! Especially when children clamber up onto the ring boxes (the tiny barriers between the audience and the performers) when the horses are charging around the ring. Now that is terrifying, especially because it's our job to stop them!

We also sell programmes, take tickets, seat people, sell all manner of things from traditional trays around our necks in the interval, tidy up the tent after each show and sing, tap dance and generally join in with the show. We have a diverse role, that's for sure...

Some funny things have been happening as well. An alsatian dog from outside the tent jumped into the ring last week (during the horse act, of course!), Tom the tiny pony is randomly attacking Tweedy the clown and James the compere is habitually forgetting his lines! It's so funny to watch the same show everyday and know all the cues so well that it's really obvious when things go wrong! And the audience are often blissfully unaware. The saying 'the show must go' on has never rang so true...

The crazy Ukrainian acrobats!

I'll be back soon with more tales of the unpredictable life of the circus- just watch this space!

Stocking up on move day...

Having a snooze back stage!

Gloucester

Roll up, roll up; the first show is about to begin! So far we've been in Gloucester for five days and tonight we open to the public for the very first time.

Dishevelled, exhausted and slightly homeless is how we felt on Saturday and Sunday, a.k.a move day, or 'Dickie's Day' as coined by Gemma in her brand new Dickie's overall:

The pull-down and build-up of the big top is an integral part of circus life and a weekly activity. It's tiring and incredibly dirty work, but, weirdly I enjoyed my first experience of the dismantling and rebuild of the tent. There as definitely a great sense of camaraderie; everyone was helping each other out and being really encouraging. Maybe two months down the line, heaven forbid, in lashing rain and blustering winds, it won't be so agreeable. But the weather last weekend couldn't have been finer and we were all in really good spirits.

By 8.00am on Saturday, the power was off and pack up had begun. We had to pack away all of our possessions in our bunk rooms so things didn't fall off shelves and break in transit. Then the French Quarter was dismantled and soon it was time to work on the big top. It was hungry work and I'd had no breakfast, so I was really glad when Maisy, the kitchen manager, and Kelly, the admin manager, called out a chorus of 'sandwiches' at 11.30! And then there was waiting around, followed by the big exodus, where everyone grabbed a space in somebody's car and we hit the road for Gloucester.

When we got there we felt a bit homeless as our bunks hadn't arrived yet. Yet we were excited about our new location. The bright lights of a gigantic Sainsbury's beckoned to us over the wall and the town centre was only a five minute stroll away.

But there was no time to avail ourselves of the commodities; as soon as Wednesday (company day off) was over, it was back to work and incessant rehearsals- interspersed with chocolate breaks. Even though I'm doing lots of dancing, I still don't think it makes up for the amount of chocolate I'm eating in Gloucester! The mud situation is a lot better here than Folly Farm though, and I've stocked up on supplies from the local Sainsbury's having gone a bit mad after seeing a supermarket for the first time in weeks. So at the moment life is good. Yes to civilization!

I don't know what day it is anymore or what's happening in the outside world. My world is a tiny field filled with a big white tent and burgundy caravans, torches and gold glitter at 9.30 in the morning...



Llantony Priory: our location for the week


So we've finished all the dress rehearsals, and the show is a hilarious creation. Cal McCrystal, the director is brilliant. He's made the show hysterical, is so lovely to everybody and brings us bucket loads of Jaffa cakes in rehearsals! Although all these rehearsals are very exhausting, we'll certainly miss him when he leaves.

I absolutely love the costume too. The style is Victorian boudoir chic (interprete that how you like!). Hannah and I are wearing black leotards, gold jackets, huge plumes of feathers and matching red ankle welly boots. We're otherwise known as 'the chickens' or 'the starboard girls', (as we are the ones who silently announce the acts by walking elegantly across the stage with announcement boards). Everything we do have somehow become synchronised too, as we spend so much time silently communicating across the stage. We can practically read each others minds now!

More updates to follow shortly! It's hard to find the time to write at the moment, with so many rehearsals. I'm sure it will get less hectic when we all know what we're doing a bit more...

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Folly Farm

So I've been here for just over a week now and am starting to get into a pretty solid routine! I'm learning the ropes and lots of tap dancing to boot; it's an all-singing, all-dancing version of 9-5...except it's 24/7! Here we eat, breathe and sleep circus that's for sure. And it's brilliant!

My day looks a little like this:

8.00am- Wake up and wander over to the 'kitchen tent' for a breakfast of porridge and tea. Usually discuss the rain and the day's schedule which is hanging on the wall outside the barn.

9.00am- Tap call. Get a lift to village hall to practice the tap dancing sections of the show. Try to master the finale changes and the shuffle-tap-step combination!

11.00am- Back to the farm. Grab a quick cup of tea before we run through the whole show in the big top with the band and all the animals. This sometimes lasts a while if the doves are misbehaving!

The Doves misbehave a lot

1.00pm- Lunch break. Head to kitchen tent for lovely homemade bread and tomato soup or roast chicken and crispy potatoes. We're definitely spoilt when it comes to food here! Everything is either grown on the farm or locally sourced and cooked to perfection by the resident circus chefs.

14.00- Various sections rehearse individually to refine timings, cues and musical accompaniment. I rehearse tap, usherette cues and do some song writing if there's time.

5.00pm- Usually we finish by 5, but sometimes we stay later to practice bits of the show. It's certainly coming along though, but we tour to Gloucester on Saturday, so time is tight!

6.00pm- Dinner is served! It's usually accompanied by red wine and sometimes birthday cake and champagne if there's a special occasion...

 



Hanging out in the barn



Then the evening is ours to do what we like with! Usually there's Zumba in the barn or Hannah does a belly dance workshop. If there's nobody in tent we rig the hoop up for some aerial practice and get sawdust everywhere. Sometimes there's a party in someone's caravan or in the house (people here love to party!) which can often results in unco-ordination (to say the least) the next day! Sometimes we're so tired we just sit in front of the fire for hours toasting marshmallows and eating chocolate. There is no entertainment, in fact there's nothing besides fields and sheep, within walking distance, but there's always something happening here so you never even notice you're in the middle of nowhere! We're only on the farm for a matter of days now. Next stop; Gloucester! And that's where the real fun begins...

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And so the adventure begins!

At this very moment I’m in my very own tiny little wooden bunk room, which is complete with stable door, the most miniscule window and curtain, wooden dresser and very own sink. I’m typing on my laptop on my smaller-than-single mattress, listening to the patter of raindrops bouncing off the wooden rooftop and feeling quite snug in my winter duvet and slipper socks! After London, I really feel like everything has stopped; yet real living has only just begun...Welcome to my new life in the circus!



My new home!

Small yet somehow comfy...

I'd started to get a bit nervous about running away to join a circus; saying it and actually going ahead and doing it are two totally different things. After a whirlwind couple of weeks of leaving work, bounding off on holiday, clearing out of my flat and saying farewell to London before moving back home for barely two days was a bit disorientating to say the least, and in no way did I feel ready to up sticks, pack up all my belongings, again, and start a new adventure.

I began to have nightmares about communal showers, cramped sleeping quarters and no food. Surely it couldn’t be as bad as the conditions I'd been living in when I did litter picking at festivals last year? I’d somehow got it into my head that this was going to be like signing up to some kind of survival/endurance experience and I packed for treacherous conditions. Waterproof trousers, supplies of biscuits and a torch with multiple batteries went into my already packed-to-bursting case...

These assumptions couldn’t really have been further from the truth. As soon as I arrived I was welcomed into the open arms of Nell Gifford in her kitchen, where a little dachshund was running around and her daughter, Red, showed us a tap dance on the table.

My fears about enough space, mud and a running power supply were soon allayed as I was welcomed to my bunk room by the ring master 'Mr David' and the sound girl, Scarlet; both who were really friendly and helpful! My bunk room has more than enough space, its own little lamp and the grassy path really was more green than brown….This was already much better than anything I could have hoped for!

Everyone I’ve met so far has been so lovely; we've smiled, hugged and been introduced. I’ve become acquainted with the band, who have communal living quarters and a neat awning with straw-lined floor and a table offering tea and Nutella jars full of sugar. I soon met the other dancing usherette girl, Hannah, who I've met randomly once before at Aircraft! Also, in an extremely bizarre coincidental twist of fate, a week before I was due to leave my job to join Giffords, a new guy sat next to me in the office, who turned out to be her boyfriend! Wonders will never cease!!

Folly Farm



The barn- where the art (and sometimes internet) happens!



We are currently residing at Folly Farm- Giffords permanent residence- before we take to the road in two weeks time. There are little burgundy and white painted caravans everywhere, a (most unfriendly) goose in a pen, a pink and silver painted toilet block, a white tent for meals, a big barn with artists and a warm fire at one end and a sparklingly white big top, which is all set up with lights, gantry, seating and sawdust filled ring. Wow! What a place. On my first evening I sat with Hannah in the barn, where internet is available, and we talked to the four art interns- who are all so nice! Sadly, most are going home next week as their internship comes to an end, but one is going to work in the pizza wagon which apparently will tour with us! Yum! She said she’s never made pizza before, but there’s plenty of time to learn! They were all watching 4od and drinking bottles of beer, after having carefully drawn and painted intricate clock faces to stick around the set. Amazing!



Brian the unfriendly goose and his minion duck



Later in the week we did some aerial practice!



Hannah's first hoop lesson!

 

By this time it is 10.30 and time to head to the bunk to get some shut eye before the day begins tomorrow. Breakfast is at 8! Night night, see you soon for more circus adventures!

*****



Learning to slackline

In November I was lucky enough to be given a slackline from the lovely Sarah. This started a little obsession with learning how to use it. Filmed over 5 months, watch me get untrained back to the very first time I tried it in the video below.




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