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

peterz