And so it begins...looks as though I am only hitting this place up once a year..hahaha! Well, the season has slowed and I find myself waiting in from gig to gig. I have found performing lately to be rather therapeutic in a strange way. More often than not I am running around preparing myself physically and mentally before show time. It's my usual routine of wondering how I will do the act I was asked to do.
Lately it has almost always been sword swallowing and light bulb eating. The later not my most favorite routine to perform, but one that definitely makes people squirm in their seats. Although I think it makes me squirm in my seat more than the spectators. Man my teeth hurt after...I just think...boy do I hate my teeth..as I chew and grind the enamel off of my teeth. arg!
But...not many people eat the light bulb these days...and if they do they don't do this act very often. Over my career in fact I have known a few people who have decided to stop eating light bulbs due to injury or just retiring the act all together. I still have not reached a point in my sideshow career where I feel comfortable letting it go.
The light bulb act came to me in the early years of my sideshow life with The FreakShow Deluxe when I needed another act to couple with my fire routine. Prior to that I had a brief stink with Human Blockhead which was fairly successful but decided to give up performing it further due to the fact that almost every other member of the FSD was doing Human Blockhead.Also in that little mix of stunts was a version of The Human Pincushion which I decided to do in order to mix up the routine a bit. and that was by sewing buttons onto my body including my arms neck and face calling this routine "Button Boy" I must admit I rather enjoyed the reaction one gets when putting a newing needle and "threat" through ones skin over and over until the button is secured. I retired that routine after my last performance at the Doll Hut in Anaheim, CA. No real reason other than I felt there was a huge mountain of possibilities with the pincushion routine that I wasn't really interested in achieving. For example Deep Tissue piercing...not to mention I had a few pals who were already clearly experts at this part of the "deadly acts". the Trap routine also known as Iron hand routine was something that I felt was never a SOLID act...but more of a quick tease. that was until however I discovered other routines I could do to mix in with this routine...1 being the can crush=crushing a can onto the back of your hand...what better way to show "pain proof" "iron hands" just before dropping them into a trap. To top off the intensity of my routine I've found a wonderful Wolf Trap. Far bigger and more powerful than the usual coyote traps you see other performers using. About where I wanna be in regards to pressure without having to "rig" any of my traps.
