The art of silliness was encouraged in his family. His mother was always impersonating different characters, as well as his sisters. After the untimely passing of his parents, Steeves took off to New York to follow his dreams. “They died when I was 23, from cancer 6 months apart from each other. It was devastating and it was just one of those traumatic life experiences that happened to me. It gave me the opportunity to say, ‘OK. What am I going to do now? What do I do?’. I think if they were still alive I’d still be back in Virginia.’
Steeves’ has immense talent in the art of improvisation, showcased in a favourite character of his named Roberto Pallamino. “He’s like a flamingo dancer, slash bull fighter and expert on love and lovemaking. He’s a Spanish kind of sounding guy and he’s got a serious lisp and wears these ridiculous Spandex pants and can move his butt.”
Steeves’ other favourite improvisational character to play is a woman named Lacrisha. “[She’s all about] woman empowerment, and she’s a burlesque dancer. She does have fake nails and she doesn’t waste time, she just uses Scotch tape to put them on.
“One thing you can say about her; you can take her out of the ghetto, but you can’t take the ghetto out of her,” he laughs. Both of the characters do reflect aspects of his own personality, allowing him to explore avenues of his self that he otherwise could not. “I have to say, if you can learn how to do other characters and sort of get away with it, it’s one of the most therapeutic things to do. It’s like,
‘Today I’m going to be this person, and this person doesn’t take any crap off of anybody’. I think the best thing about characters is feeling free to be as obnoxious as possible; you can just let it out. I would never do that, but my character? Absolutely.”
A lot of Steeves’ stems from his love of slapstick, much of which will be on display at Cirque Adrenaline, a spectacular show that integrates clowning with daredevil daredevil motorcyclists and complex aerial stunts. “I love either being punched in the face or running into walls. Jumping over things, falling downstairs – that’s kind of my thing. Stunts for me, it’s quantity not quality. I just keep doing it. The older I get, the less crazy I’ll be.”
Ross’ future goals are to continue touring with his family and take them all around the world. “I just got married,” he says. “My wife always wanted to go around the world and we were always wondering , ‘How are we going to do that?’. Then all of a sudden, I vowed to her at the wedding vows, without knowing how – ‘I’ll take you around the world, I promise you’, and here we are. She and my one year old are coming along.”
BY CHRISTINE TSIMBIS
