Bi Community News

Extreme Circus

They've just finished their time in Lincoln. I'd picked up a discount flyer about a week before they opened. A combination of weather, them not doing Mon / Tues, and other things meant that I finally went on Saturday evening, while L and a couple of US friends plus someone else went to a singing concert at the cathedral.

It's very good - if you're anywhere near the rest of their 2025 tour, do go and see it. There was no act that wasn't at least fine.

Not everything on their website was on in Lincoln. I saw a sword swallower who adds an aerial aspect; two skaters spinning around on a circular table; a motorcyclist doing wheelies / balances; an acrobatic act with a couple of long swings being jumped from / between (good, possibly would have been even better seen from the side); and an aerial act that involved being dunked in a water tank several times, finally with it on fire*.

The second half was the better one: double wheel* (good); a solo high trapeze act involving using some rings to swing / walk between two trapezes and then jump between them without a safety net (very good); five people jumping on / off a transparent box between two trampolines (good, particularly when they're effectively shuffling themselves in order doing it); ending with a motorcycle 'globe of death' working up to four of them inside... before three other motorcyclists do leaps off a ramp over the globe into what must be an soft landing point at the back of the ring, then ride round the outside of the big top to do it again and again (good).

Between acts, there's a clown I've seen several times before and/or the live band (good) perform.

Sometimes, when everyone at a circus comes out for a final bow, I go 'Mmm, I thought there were plenty of people doing two (or more) acts'. Not this time: there are a lot of performers around the ring.

* Until the fire, I was thinking they missed a trick by not adding some bubble liquid to the water so that she would leave a trail of bubbles when back up in the air.

** Either I have seen the same act about ten times, or it got copied shamelessly after someone came up with it: two metal cylinders, large and wide enough to have someone inside, are joined together by bars and rotate around the middle point. At some point, as the whole thing rotates, someone goes around the cylinder that the person causing the ring to rotate isn't in and jumps / skips etc, especially at the high point of their rotation.

This one had two of these setups, one next to the other. I don't think I've seen that before.