A year which has thrown up some serious world disasters and many legends having left us, has been rather good to me on a personal level and as a performer. I got engaged to my very special girlfriend Amy at Camp Bestival and have had some weird and wonderful performances. To cap it off with a month performing in Hong Kong has been surreal and yet with an M&S at the bottom of my road and proper tea bags sold in the local supermarket, I haven't gone without home comforts. Although I can't afford anything in M&S here!
Lucas Jet - UK Circus performer available worldwide
I was brought out here by a company called AIML. My stage for the month has been in The Landmark, a luxury mall with lots of big posh brands but for the month of December I'm not sure anyone did any shopping, anyone walking into the Landmark would have been drawn to the mightily impressive circus installation and not just because I was part of it ; ).
It's like someone was juggling a circus, the cast of Madagascar and the North Pole and the three elements landed in a pile together to form this marvellous masterpiece. Every time you look at it you spot something different going on. From monkeys climbing ropes to hippos balancing cups and sauces on their head and a cannon that fires a ball across the installation. Its a collaborative work of art from French illustrator Eric Giriat (do check out his work <) and the lovely Toiling Yu (who was designed my incredible costume, you can follow her on instagram).
I was here in Hong Kong as a circus performer from the UK which was obviously a real privilege but was not without pressure, I felt a certain weight of expectation on my shoulders so was disappointed to find that massages are no where near as cheap as Thailand. Performing 12 times 10 minute shows per day for a total of 31 days.
My Christmas in numbers
31 days performing
12 shows a day
372 shows
3720 minutes of performing on stage. I can't work out how many hours that is for some reason. If I divide it by 60 it comes up 62 hours on stage?!!!!!!
0 drops*
1 Baby juggled (Scroll to bottom to find out more.
* Don't believe everything you write on the internet
Luxury Mall Circus Entertainment from UK Circus performer in Asia
My one man circus show was compacted to a 10 minute version. I usually do 25 minute shows but due to the amount of shows the client was looking for we reduced the duration of the show to a very high impact all action performance.
I packed in the different circus props so that the show was extremely varied and kept the attention of even the most distracted businessmen. The show can't be summarised nicely with words but luckily we live in a video world and I've put together a lovely little promo video for my shopping mall circus performance service. If you like the video I'd love it if you can click the thumbs up or leave a comment on Youtube. Super thankyou in advance of course.
A Thousand Thankyous
First and foremost to Olivia Siu and Gabriel Law for finding me initially and bringing me out here for this wonderful experience. I have to say massive thankyou's to all the staff at Landmark Mall, you've looked after me and been the best temporary family a lonely juggler could hope for. So many snacks, tips and meals that you've given me. I really really appreciate it. Thanks also to Tony Leung Kin Wing and the rest of the Hong Kong jugglers who took me out for amazing food and gave me some fresh inspiration to learn some new things. Thanks also to Hong Kong Unicycle Hockey who hosted me for a few games and reminded me that I actually really like playing. Thanks to Ben Matthews of The Big Ben Comedy show, who asked me if I were up for doing an interview which I'll link to below.
And thankyou to all the photographers and instagrammers that shared pictures and videos of me!
I hope to see you all again one day!
A moment to reflect
I think overall, 31 days, 12 shows a day was maybe a bit too much. I think a lot of fellow performers would say I'm daft. I'd tend to agree, but when your sat at home in England and someone is asking you to come perform in Hong Kong, you get a little bit excited and just try to come up with as generous package as possible, which is what I did. So although it was maybe way too many shows for sensible people, I'm proud that I stuck it out and delivered show after show, day after day. I'm also really grateful for the opportunity to drill my performing so much, fine tuning little pieces of each routine and just trying little things out was really great. I learnt a lot and its been a wonderful experience, and thankyou Steve Jobs for FaceTime.
If anyones interested in hearing a little history of me as a performer and how Bigtopmania got started you can take a listen to my podcast interview here.
Extra Bonus Special Moment
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