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Hey everyone!
So, after my debut as a show in Milan, I went to West Africa to work with a charity (Accountable Development Works) teaching circus workshops to kids in orphanages. Last year, Lee Nelson and I talked about the adventure, and he suggested I try doing a street show there. I tell ya, I was mildly horrified at the idea at the time, but he gave some excellent reasons to try it out and after stepping off the plane and sussing out the situation in Freetown, I decided to give it a go. My contact with the charity did NOT want me to perform anywhere that wasn't in an controlled setting but I managed to talk him into letting me do something up the street from our guest house and I went out around 6pm and did a short show. All I had on me was a hat and some juggling stuff (those of you who know me, know that I'm not a particularly amazing juggler, but I can be entertaining so I thought, what the hey..) and I did a few bits and messed around for the crowd.
I just gotta say, for the record, to Lee: thanks so much for that! It was SUCH a valuable learning experience. Honestly, not only did I have a lot of fun with the crowd (it was nearly all children and youths) but they LOVED it, and I learned some valuable information about crowd control. Sierra Leone is a very very volatile place: I saw two fights (they didn't really reach "riot" status) erupt while I was there and I was really surprised that nothing like that happened while I was performing. Even when I was doing my workshops in Koidu, there were a couple of moments where one of the kids (who was an ex-combatant) got a little aggressive, but *nothing* like that happened in Freetown, even when I was getting audience participants organized.
While I'm not exactly suggesting to y'all to rush out to a war-torn West African country and go do shows, I say, if you happen to be there on your travels, just go out and do it. You won't regret it. I'm so glad I did. I think I'm a stronger performer for it now. And no, I didn't hat, because my contact with ADW was present and he would have killed me.
So, thanks for that, Lee!
So, after my debut as a show in Milan, I went to West Africa to work with a charity (Accountable Development Works) teaching circus workshops to kids in orphanages. Last year, Lee Nelson and I talked about the adventure, and he suggested I try doing a street show there. I tell ya, I was mildly horrified at the idea at the time, but he gave some excellent reasons to try it out and after stepping off the plane and sussing out the situation in Freetown, I decided to give it a go. My contact with the charity did NOT want me to perform anywhere that wasn't in an controlled setting but I managed to talk him into letting me do something up the street from our guest house and I went out around 6pm and did a short show. All I had on me was a hat and some juggling stuff (those of you who know me, know that I'm not a particularly amazing juggler, but I can be entertaining so I thought, what the hey..) and I did a few bits and messed around for the crowd.
I just gotta say, for the record, to Lee: thanks so much for that! It was SUCH a valuable learning experience. Honestly, not only did I have a lot of fun with the crowd (it was nearly all children and youths) but they LOVED it, and I learned some valuable information about crowd control. Sierra Leone is a very very volatile place: I saw two fights (they didn't really reach "riot" status) erupt while I was there and I was really surprised that nothing like that happened while I was performing. Even when I was doing my workshops in Koidu, there were a couple of moments where one of the kids (who was an ex-combatant) got a little aggressive, but *nothing* like that happened in Freetown, even when I was getting audience participants organized.
While I'm not exactly suggesting to y'all to rush out to a war-torn West African country and go do shows, I say, if you happen to be there on your travels, just go out and do it. You won't regret it. I'm so glad I did. I think I'm a stronger performer for it now. And no, I didn't hat, because my contact with ADW was present and he would have killed me.
So, thanks for that, Lee!
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