The Arena

Our time in Switzerland was so brief that even though I left three days ago, I still have people asking me if I'm there. Most of my time was spent in the arena, or else watching the planes take off. Performing in an arena was a first for my circus, and certainly an interesting experience.

 Geneva Arena, conveniently located at the airport!

The set up was tricky as there were no bridges, no stage, no nothing. Absolutely everything had to be set up, and quite a lot of the material had to be brought in or rented on site. Aerial points were rigged with high tension cables strung from one end of the arena to the other, and the was barely enough cable to do it. It was a lot of work, but I think everyone was pleasantly surprised (and relieved) at how smoothly things went.

That, of course, was a trap. When it comes to live performance, the gods of show business can't content themselves with smooth sailing. So they decided to throw a wrench into the works. Specifically, this guy:

Heh heh heh...

Initially, our sound tech was overjoyed to find himself in a space outfitted for rock concerts. But when the sound console failed and accidentally erased all the levels... well... that was less joyful. I don't know how many hours he spent fixing things, but I do know the musicians spent six hours doing sound checks and levels instead of the usual two.

 Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's how it went down.

Being a concert hall, we were all given awesome security clearance bracelets! One for each day! As ridiculous as this kind of stuff is, I'm always really excited about it and it makes me feel terribly important. And yes, I have saved all my accreditation from gigs past.

Excuse my paint covered hands, this was after a show.

As for the space? Well, there was definitely space. I don't think we've ever had so much room backstage. Or all around the stage for that matter. And while that was quite nice, the stage itself was so poorly constructed that every step sounded like a herd of elephants. And any acrobatics sounded like we were under heavy artillery fire by herd of elephants. 'What about for German wheel', you ask? The creaking sounds the stage made while I did wheel were so extreme that my initial reaction was that my wheel was literally coming apart. While that freaked me out quite a lot in the beginning, it was the later fear that the floor would collapse under the collective weight of the troupe and equipment that was most worrisome.

Aaaaaany moment now... 

But the biggest challenge?

The audience.

It's not that they were unresponsive. It's that we didn't think we'd have one. We're pretty much an unknown entity in Switzerland, so unlike in France, we can't rely on name recognition alone to fill seats. While we had initially planned on eight or ten shows, that number was cut down to three. And a few weeks before we opened, we were told to invite as many people as possible to make sure we'd have a public.

Yikes.

In the end, those worries proved unnecessary. The seats got filled, the audience loved it, and there are even whispers of a possible return across the border.

I just hope we make it in time for this...