Month: March 2019

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The Circus Show # 3.

The Circus Show # 3.

By Peter Zapfella

We checked into our room, and then immediately went to Luna Park, across Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Luna Park, Sydney Harbour

I met the event organisers and paid them my insurance fee as arranged.

Upon entering the venue I was shocked to see an elevated round platform in the middle of a massive tent like building, filled with lavish dinning settings. A round stage?

Comedy Hypnosis Shows are performed on a traditional theatre stage. It has a front, a back and sides – left and right. We stand on a stage and face the audience…. there is a front.

On a standard theatre stage I can make sure my volunteer performers stay well away from the edge of the stage during the performance. How can I watch a dozen people on a round stage?

If I face in any particular direction I am only playing to around one third of the audience, while the other two thirds are behind me somewhere.

The event organisers did not tell me it would be a round stage, and to make matters even worse, it was particularly high. All the further for my volunteer performers to fall and injure themselves! 

I am aware of only one successful insurance claim against a stage hypnotist, where he returned an unsuccessful performer to the audience by pointing in their general direction, and saying “I cannot hypnotise you. So go back to your seat in the audience.” The person stood up and walked off the front of the stage, over the edge, breaking their leg. The court found the stage hypnotist was negligent because he did not direct the person to use the stairs.

As fire eaters and flying trapeze performers were doing their thing, I had to get creative and come up with some quick workable strategies. 

I decided to arrange a dozen chairs in a circle, in the middle of the round stage. I would stand in the center of the circle, behind my performers, who would all be facing some of the audience, in every direction. In that way we would have a 360-degree front, with no back.

We did some sound checks with the radio microphones, and located the back room where I would pre-hypnotise my volunteer performers. Then back to the hotel near the Sydney Opera House to shower and dress for the evening performance.

Next: The Circus Show # 4

© Copyright. 2014 – 2019 Peter Zapfella www.PeterZapfella.com

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The Circus Show # 2

The Circus Show # 2.

By Peter Zapfella

We were to catch an early Saturday morning flight out of Perth, arriving in Sydney in the early afternoon. Suddenly I was woken by a phone call from my technician. He was at my front door, I should have been dressed and ready to drive to the airport. My alarm had failed.

I leaped out of bed, grabbing my bags and clothes. I dressed in the car, as he sped down the deserted freeway toward the airport. We were running late, perhaps too late to catch our flight. If we missed this flight we would not get to Sydney in time for tonight’s show.

At the airport there was a mad scramble as we sprinted into the departure lounge. While it was deserted outside, there were hundreds of people inside. As my technician took up a position at the end of a long queue of people, I heard a ‘final announcement’ for our flight. We rushed to the ‘late desk’ and managed to slip through the door as it was closing.

Sydney street performers

Around six hours later we were wandering along Sydney’s colorful Circular Quay, watching street performers, while looking for our hotel. We found it, but the room was not ready. 

A quick check of emails revealed another problem. The event organisers informed me that New South Wales government regulations required me to hold a special insurance policy for my performance. It was already Saturday afternoon, and the event was just a few hours away. The insurance offices were closed for the weekend. Checkmate?

The event organisers put me in touch with an insurance agent over the phone who could give me an immediate ‘cover note’, however the insurance fee was to be ten times more than the fee I was to be paid for the event! In short, I was required to pay ten times more to the insurance company, than I was to be paid for the performance.

That was the local law, and I was already there…. ready to perform in a few short hours.

The insurance agent then told me that even if I agreed, I had to pay the insurance policy before the evening’s performance, and he had no facility to accept payment from me. 

As we waited for the hotel room to be made available, I was stuck in an impossible dilemma. I am ready to perform tonight as agreed, yet I am suddenly informed I cannot perform without the required insurance policy, which must be paid before the performance, but cannot be paid because the office is closed.

I called the event organizer to explain the dilemma, who called the insurance agent, who agreed to accept payment if I paid the event organizer. I had to pay the event organizer so I could do the performance… crazy!

Next … The Circus Show Part 3.

© Copyright. 2014 – 2019 Peter Zapfella www.PeterZapfella.com