Royale

Did my first paid gig at the Royale night club in Boston last Friday night. Got the gig through my good buddy Morgan and the Boston Circus Guild. Morgan is a talented hand balancer, acrobat, aerialist, and owner of "The Cat With The Smallest Arms In The World" (see previous blog posting). Boston Circus Guild is a wonderful bunch of people who are trying, with significant success, to grow the circus community and facilitate opportunities for circus performers in Boston. Hopefully I will have the opportunity to work with them a bunch in the future. It is a cool thing to hang out with fantastic people, making money, and doing what you love. The fantastic people I got to hang with on Friday night were Chuck of Emperor Norton's Stationary Marching Band, and Mooch of A Different Spin. Both of these guys do a ton of work to ensure that the Boston Circus Guild runs smoothly and continues to grow. Also, they are a lot of fun, and they bring treats!

Morgan and I spent a bunch of the time the previous week up on the lyra (aerial hoop) together putting together our act for the night. Really, it was more like a series of poses and tricks than a polishes act, since the gig was ambient and not performed up on a stage. It was my first time working on aerial hoop, but lots of the stuff I've learned on trapeze over the past couple months helped me pick it up fairly quickly. And Morgan is a good teacher. She was also fantastic at putting together our costumes, doing my make up, and just generally reassuring me throughout the night that this was not a high pressure gig and that I'd do fine. And, surprise, I did! Both sets, performed between the hours of 12-1am went really well. And just as an added bonus, we shared the green room with was a fantastic Bhangra dance troup also performing at Royale that night. They were really nice guys, and their costumes were fantastic. Only bummer about that was the rival Bhangra group in the audience who made trouble for our new friends during their set. I guess when you're a Bhangra dancer in Boston you have to watch out for that sort of thing.

So here are some pics from the night. I really had a ton of fun. As soon as I get the video from Morgan, I'll post that too.

Me and Morgan feeling all good about things after our
successful second set.

That Chuck on the left, Mooch on the right, and the lovely
Morgan sandwiched in between.