The Circus of Horrors comes to the Hawth Crawley in February – I chatted to Master of Ceremonies Dr Haze to find out a bit more about the show – it was a very entertaining half hour 🙂 .
Please tell me a little more about The Circus of Horrors
It is an alternative rock and roll circus that has been running for 20 years now and we travel all over the UK and worldwide. We are currently in the middle of a huge UK tour of about 100 dates lasting about four months. It encompasses bizarre and unusual circus acts as well as beautiful acts, all accompanied by rock music. It has its gory bit but the show’s biggest asset is its humour. There are lots of laughs along the way. It has a forked tongue planted firmly in each cheek.
It has lots of different acts. We have a sword-swallower who swallows anything from the leg of a chair to a lit neon tube which you can see glowing inside him. We have arial acts including a girl who hangs solely from her hair and another girl who hangs solely from her teeth. We have people limbo-ing under fire inches from the floor and lots more. It is a thrill-a-minute show and very exciting.
How many of you are there?
There are 28 of us, performers and musicians. We have a very small crew as we do most of it ourselves.
Lots of people would know you from your ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ appearance. During those appearances there was an incredible amount happening on the stage. Would I be correct in thinking that it wouldn’t be constantly as busy as that all the time?
On Britain’s Got Talent you have only two minutes to cram as many things in as you can. However we do try to do many things at the same time, so as one act finishes, another act starts immediately meaning sometimes there are always at least two or three things going on the stage at a time. You don’t know where to look; everything is going on at once! Everything is done at a frenetic pace in the show.
Would you say there is an age limit for Circus of Horrors?
It is fun for all the family, as long as your surname is Addams. We wouldn’t say it is suitable for under 16s in our opinion but of course parents may have other opinions and they can make their own decisions. There is a little bit of nudity and adult language in it. But nothing offensive- it is funny more than anything else. It is more like modern Carry-On type humour.
Have you got a favourite act?
There are so many acts and they are all so varied. It would be very difficult to say. It is just a very exciting show form start to finish.
Are there any further acts that you would particularly like to sign up that you have seen performing elsewhere?
We do see other acts here and there, and we constantly talk about bringing them in. The great thing about the Circus of Horrors is how it constantly evolves and we change it regularly. The audience do, however, like to see their favourites. It is a bit like seeing a band and them not playing their greatest hits which would be a let down. At the same time we want to have new shocks and new surprises so we try and add more every year. So there is something in each tour that people have never seen before.
I presume that is how you keep it fresh for yourselves as well.
Absolutely- it keeps it more interesting for us too. It is a great show to do. It has a great cast, plus it is great that we all get on well together.
Are they tricks or are they truly dangerous?
There are a couple of illusions but most are very dangerous. However I look at horse racing, Formula One racing or people who work on scaffolding on building sites and think that I wouldn’t like to risk those. There are lots of things in life that have a calculated risk. That is what it is all about.
The majority of things are absolutely genuine, including the sword-swallowing. People often assume that the sword retracts into the handle so we prove beyond a doubt that it doesn’t happen because the first sword he swallows has got no handle. It is simply a blade with a chain on the end of it.
The lady hanging by her hair is genuinely hanging by her hair there is no doubt about it, you can clearly see it.
You travel the country constantly, how long does the show take to set up? Presumably safety is your utmost concern.
It only takes about two hours to set up believe it or not – it is very quick. We are very slick at that now. Everything is safety checked and by law have we check all equipment bi-annually, we test the dynamic weights of al our lifting equipment etc. It is very straightforward, it’s just a case of following procedures. We have very strict health and safety, risk assessments and method statements and we follow them to the letter. It you follow them things are less likely to go wrong. It doesn’t mean that you can never have an accident but it makes it less likely.
Dare I ask what sort of accidents have you had?
Our sword-swallower has impaled himself twice. On one occasion he was putting a sword down his throat and his esophagus didn’t open properly and he cut himself inside his throat and the second time he did it with the neon tube and ripped a hole in his esophagus.
But we have had more bizarre accidents than that! There is one segment of the show where our demon dwarf (Captain Dan) pulls a hoover across the stage attached to his *ahem*…. there was a day when the corragated hose to the hoover broke and he superglued it together on the night of the show, it wasn’t dry when he put it on and low and behold he got his willy stuck inside the hose of the hoover.
We had to take him to hospital to get it removed properly.
What on earth do you say at A&E in these circumstances?
I walked in first and I told them that I had someone with me with a hoover hose accidently superglued to his *ahem* and the nurse blithely said ‘OK, bring him in’. It was when I asked whether she was sure I should, as their waiting room was full of people, that she fully realised what I’d said. She got two nurses who thought it was very amusing and who were trying not to laugh. We all headed out towards the car and as I opened the back door I realised that I hadn’t mentioned that he was a dwarf so when they saw a dwarf with this hoover hose attached to him it was even funnier. Once they uncoupled the Henry Hoover they put him in a wheelchair put a blanket over him to cover his embarrassment, wheeled him in to the hospital and about half an hour later they got it off!
That is not all! What was even funnier was that there was also a girl with us who’d hurt her knee and when we said we were going to A&E she said she’d come along and get it checked out. She happened to be in the cubicle next to where Captain Dan was. The doctor who was seeing her asked her to drop her trousers so that he could examine he knee properly she was embarrassed to admit she hadn’t any underwear on. The Doctor retorted ‘Well, if you think that’s embarrassing, you should see what going on next door!’
It all ended alright – apart from getting a bit embarrassed and having a bit of superglue where it should be.
This I must say is the funniest, strangest and entertaining interview I have had to date. If the show is half as zany as Dr Haze then we are in for a treat.
The Circus of Horrors is at The Hawth Crawley on 24th February. Click here for booking details.