Tight Wire Support (group)

[Schuyler]

Continuing the trend of self-education and wanting to do EVERYTHING I've gotten it into my head to learn to walk a tight wire. I think that I have the wire part down, now I'm focusing on the tight. I'm not precisely sure how to anchor the wire. So a few questions, can it be done on the street? What's the best way to do it for a stage act?

I am, for all intents and purposes at the moment, focusing on a small and barebones frame. A metal "X" on either side, low to the ground, with the wire over top. If I didn't want to put a bar between the X's and loop the wire around in a circle (like this) what other options are actually out there?

[gav]

If you don't want a portable rig like that, then you need to find rigging points on the street where you perform, or on stage.
These points can be light poles or what ever else is fixed to the ground strongly.
To make a rope truly tight requires a lot of strength in those rigging points, and a lot of force to get it tight. Normally people would use a 'come along' or something like it.

http://www.webriggingsupply.com/pages/catalog/wirerope_cable/wirerope-comealong.html

Find your local 'rigging' shop and see what they have.

Personaly I have never seen anyone use a tight rope on the street by using rigging points. There are some acts that use a 'not so tight rope' doing it this way. Flying Bob being the most memorable.
I'm sure he'll post a response here for you.

Good Luck !!

[roughtoughcreampuf]

There are some acts that use a 'not so tight rope' doing it this way.

Daniel Duke of Danger!! :]

[jeep caillouet]

Tight rope walking

Will Soto uses both. He has a street rig with 2 x's attached to cleats for docking boats at Mallory pier( square ) pulled tight with a come a long. He also has a portable rig I've seen him use a few times a few times when he couldn't excess the cleats due to cruse ships being docked there. Contact him at willsoto@mac.com I'm sure he can tell you how to do it. I taught my dog Mo Money to walk on 1 3 inch rope 6 ft. high 10 feet across. It took a lot of doing. I built 2 t's with platforms attached at the top, a place to start and stop. Attached the bottoms together10 feet apart. put a bar 6'' or so under the rope. A vertical bar from the platform to the bottom under the come a long end. 2 come a longs with 6 parts so as to pull the rope 2by4 tight. The problem there was when I pulled the rope tight it went to 2and3/4'' , a bit to small. So while tight I raped the rope the rope with several 100 ft. of 1/4 black crab trap rope I got from the dumpster on the shrimp docks. Pretty amazing sight to see that 102 lb. dog walk the 1 rope 6 ft. in the air 10 ft. across! Contact Will I'm sure he can help you with your project.

[Evan Young]

Jeep, it's considered bad manners to post other people's email addresses in public forums where spammers can collect it. There are programs out there that hunt the web for email addresses posted in text that can be copy and pasted, like what you just posted. a safer way to post email addresses is willsoto (at) mac.com

I've seen Dextre Tripp do tight wire between two (very sturdy) lamp posts in Boulder CO. Slack wire is a lot easier to rig.

[jeep caillouet]

thanks for the info. Evan. I saw Dextre do the same in Aspen.

[Butterfly Man]

Dexter is a Tripp

Evan,

Jeep's new # is 305-923-9885 ... however, he only takes calls from jugglers between midnight and 4am (east coast time).


P.S. he especially appreciates talking about site swaps.

[Schuyler]

The Butterflymobile confuses me

Butterfly Man, where would one audition for the role of Moth Boy?

[Butterfly Man]

more like Larvae Lad, if you ask me

Start here:

http://www.themoth.org/

[jeep caillouet]

Evan you didn't blast B Man for posting my #? Has that got something to do with that you are both jugglers? Is there a conspiracy?

[Evan Young]

okay guys, he knows too much! Abort the plan!


(I hope you don't really feel like I was trying to blast you. Your post is potentially helpful and on topic for the thread)

[jeep caillouet]

tight ropeing

Schuyler, I forgot to tell you that there is one more way to do the tight rope walking. Groovy Guy uses a piece of rope about 1 and 1/4'' about 40' long. He gets 5 or 6 people to hold each end. He places a volunteer under the middle climbs on walks out to the middle and juggles three knives over the volunteers head. Very creative for a juggler. The rope is slack instead of tight thought. Good luck. I saw him do this last night at Mallory and he had a huge crowd!

[Schuyler]

I've seen a few pictures of slack rope guys using the audience to support the rope. It seems like a neat idea. We'll see where it goes.

Thank you everybody for your support and ideas. It's all pretty cool. Hopefully I'll get some pictures up of whatever I come up with someday.