Waking up at 9am to get my hair done – way to early for me! Buying a limited edition print online while walking to my car in the rain because I was so worried it would sell out. French toast sticks and tots from Sonic for breakfast. 30 minutes to send out templates and then meeting Cheryl to rig. Parking it on the couch for an hour long nap with The Piglet. Whipping my hair into shape with my new gold curl stick and gluing rhinestones all over my face. Spinning on the lyra at an AIDS benefit. Eating delicious quinoa and hummus (the perks of performing at fancy events!). And making ridiculously attractive faces in a photobooth with two of my favorite girls.

My life is split between being parked at my computer designing websites and performing with my circus troupe. Yesterday was a fairly typical circus work day. I got up around 11 and had breakfast with the piglet on the deck. My new makeup was delivered, essentially a box of glitter, so I tested everything to see how well it would stay on and then curled my hair with my new curl stick. (The clamp broke off my old iron, so I was very happy to buy a new one) I did a little design work for a few hours and took the piglet for a walk before heading downtown to rehearsal.

For our show tonight we are performing as starfish on a jellyfish for The Octopus Umbrella Circus Presents: The Clown Party – yes, it’s going to be as strange as it sounds! We wrapped the chandelyra in stripes of sparkling fabric and then ran through the routine once before going through our regular lyra routine for our show tomorrow.

We had a couple hours to kill before rigging, so we walked over to a new Detroit-centric store that had recently opened in Eastern Market. I bought a Detroit is for Lovers tee and a pack of Detroit postcards so I can write to my brother and grandparents. While we were wandering around the owner of the shop actually recognized us as The Weird Sisters, which was kind of awesome :) We stopped for sushi and yes…that is crab and roe. In the past two days, after over 10 years of being veggie, I’ve eaten fish TWICE (on purpose) and possibly had a minor spazz both times because I was so nervous!

At 7:30 we drove over to the venue to rig our now sparklfied Princess Jellyfish. I’m not going to pretend for a second that the ladder isn’t as high, heavy and as terrifying as it looks. For climbing as much as we do (30ft sometimes), rigging from a ladder still gives me a heart attack almost every time.

We ran through the routine again to make sure we wouldn’t smack into the wall, which was a little too close for comfort. And by the time I got home and parked my ass on the couch I was 100 percent exhausted – one episode of True Blood, a midnight snack and I was out!

While it is a lot of work to create routines, switch out music and make costume pieces for multiple shows each month, I wouldn’t trade anything for getting to spend my day like this with ladies I adore.

Here are a few photos from the opening of It Came from Planet B! These are all from the end of the show when, after being abducted from the small town of  Springdale Hollow, all of the townspeople return glowing from the wonders of SCIENCE! We (The Weird Sisters) ended the show using our minds to control the dancers on the ground and then spinning on our spaceship (chandelyra) while the human harp played herself.

I suppose you’re all probably sitting there thinking “what the heck is a human harp??” Get ready to be grossed out…it’s a woman, surface pierced from her chest to her knees and then strung onto a harp. Very glad I was upside-down and spinning the whole time so I couldn’t see it!

Photos by the insanely talented Spilt Sugar and her husband Dave since, ya know, it’s hard to take pics of yourself while you’re on stage :) (Thanks Dave!!)

[ day / night ]

This week has been exhausting. Work all day, rehearse all night, and somewhere in there I fit in teaching class and a dentist appointment. I’ve been driving to rehearsal, getting blasted with black light paint and then passing out on one of the big comfy couches in the theater while I wait for our scene.

Our latest show opens tomorrow night – an alien abduction, B movie-style production. We play the alien queen triumvirate and are debuting our new, custom-made apparatus. I’m so excited to share video with you guys – it is so cool! (For you Michigan peeps: It Came from Planet B at the Emerald Theater, 9pm, May 18, June 1 & 2)

This week also culminates with something I’ve been working toward for the past year…I officially quit my corporate day job to (literally) run away with the circus. Just had a meeting with my boss and while he wasn’t stoked to see me go, he was really happy for me. I have a whole post on how I was able to make it happen coming up soon. But for now I’m going to try and make it through the day without crying of happiness at my desk or letting out a maniacal laugh :D

one . two . three . four

Suqared Circle revue is a locally produced circus wrestling show. Last year the religious zealots won and took over hosting this year’s match. Rev. Allister Killfun’s son booked all the entertainment, including a troupe of flying nuns, The Sisters Weird. Little did he know, he was actually booking a gang of circus freaks more commonly known as The Weird Sisters Circus (that would be us, for any of you newcomers).

We began our routine in black and white habits performing to a beautiful song by Bach and halfway through, ripped off our nun gear to reveal clown noses and circus stripes and then rocked out to “Crazy Train” until Allister Jr. came to chase us off the stage.We ran circles around him in the ring and then head banged while he lay on the ground, defeated. It was SO MUCH FUN!

After we performed I parked myself in the crowd to watch a crazy caveman, brobots, a giant baby, drunken clowns, religious zealots, werewolves, and a one-legged wrestler named POGO battle for The Bible Belt. It was impressive and hilarious and completely bananas!

Recently we’ve started performing with a circus company called Bacchanal Promotions – we had our second corporate gig last night. I got my hair colored in the morning, picked up snacks at Trader Joe’s, packed up my make-up and costume before we drove to Sandusky to perform during a dinner for a food convention. Row after row of tables seating over 1000 people, multiple buffets and us swinging around right in the middle of it.

I love doing these little day trips where we drive a few hours away – we actually get time to hang out and talk about non-work stuff like dudes and sex. When we arrived at the venue we rigged our equipment (instead of playing at the water park which looked way more fun) and then Irina and I immediately passed out in the hotel room for an hour before we had to get ready. After a flurry of glitter,  rhinestones, fake lashes, braids and hairspray we did a little bed jumping and then headed down to the show.

Corporate shows are a lot different than the stage shows we usually do – people walk right up to you for a high five or to ask a question while you’re in the air.  There were also tons of kids asking for autographs and (literally) climbing on us. At one point I thought to myself, “Why is there a child laying on me?”

Last time we did a show like this we ended up performing to almost no music, so we were very happy to have a DJ playing what I refer to as “hot jams.” Makes it much easier to keep our energy up for hours at a time.

Our schedule is really filling up lately, which I’m so thankful for. We’re building a new triple hammock routine and working on a new badass apparatus for an upcoming show where we’ll be portraying the glowing alien queen triumvirate. My schedule over the next two weeks is going to be bananas with a full client load and rehearsals or a show every single night, but I get to work with so many fantastic, sweet, creative people I don’t mind it at all!

You buy clown noses and rubber chickens for work; you accidentally smack your head (full force) against someone else’s on more than one occasion; you randomly spot fabric burns and bruises on strange parts of your body and wear shorts without caring that it looks like you fell down a flight of stairs every day for a week; your feet are always dirty; you inspect the ceiling of every building you enter to see if it has rigging possibilities and can judge the height just by looking at it; every part of your body, including your face, has come into contact with someone else’s crotch at some point with no intention of having “relations”; you have the strange need to climb on everything

I asked my circus peeps to comment on this on Facebook and the conversation immediately turned to farts and spandex…so there’s that too haha, but here’s what else they said…

You never have to buy pants again; you hear music in terms of whether you can perform to it; you learn to eat “unusual” things; you’re most surprised when something doesn’t have glitter on it

And of course they posted some adorable cheesy things too…

You look around and realize how damn talented all your friends are

You meet some of the best people of your life

Awww barf :D

Sunday we got up at 7am to load the rig and headed down to the Riverfront to showcase alternative forms of exercise at a 5k for literacy. It was just a little freezing being right on the water, but we had a blast anyway. Lots of people stopped by to hoop and watch us fly and even a few students showed up to play and show off all they’ve learned.

After performing for 7.5 hours last week and then in 50 degree weather on Sun I’m pretty confident we can take on just about any show that comes our way!

You didn’t know Detroit has a carousel, did you?

[ Stretching before the show ]

The thing about circus kids – everyone has talent, everyone has toys and everyone LOVES playtime. Before and after the show on Saturday, we had a potluck and open play time. I love when everyone comes together to work on their respective disciplines. There was a DJ and we were all just moving to the music, doing our own thing. It was almost a show in and of itself.

Everyone is so willing to share and teach. There are a few new toys I’ve been eying as I’d like to have a circus trick I can do when there isn’t space to rig for aerial.