All over the world right now circus hopefuls are working on death-defying acts, strapping themselves to things, flinging themselves onto things, off things, balancing on one another, dancing on each other’s heads. No really. And it’s Executive Producer of Le Grand Cirque, Simon Painter’s job, to find them.
All over the world right now circus hopefuls are working on death-defying acts, strapping themselves to things, flinging themselves onto things, off things, balancing on one another, dancing on each other’s heads. No really. And it’s Executive Producer of Le Grand Cirque, Simon Painter’s job, to find them.
“I do about 150 flights a year around the world,” explains Painter. “China, Mongolia and Brazil – you wouldn’t believe the crazy places I end up. My role is to source the acts and to lead the creative team behind the show, so I choose exactly what goes in the show.”
On his travels Simon discovers some amazing people, places, and acts. With people ringing him from time to time recounting stories of seemingly impossible feats, he’s often dubious. One find that stands out for him is a current show-stopper. “The Swan Lake ballerina act, where the girl balances on her partner’s head, that was amazing because it was in the middle of nowhere. I really didn’t believe that we were going to find anything at all. We got to this tiny village literally in the middle of nowhere and this tiny girl stood on her partner’s head on points and by the time her feet hit the floor she had a job with me.”
Getting a job with Le Grand Cirque is far from easy though (unless you happen to be able to dance on your partner’s head in ballet shoes). “I have a lot of contacts in various different countries and I find these amazing circus schools in China and Russia and we go there,” says Painter.”We have a recruitment system and we literally audition probably about 5,000 people a year into our training program. We recruit them into that program and once they get good enough they get into the show and we get them learning specific acts, or we actually buy specific acts themselves, so there’s a number of ways you get in.”
Once acts are accepted, the real work begins, “We have training programs and acrobatic directors fly up to their place and we have a school in China where we also do a lot of our training. They spend an enormous time working and they’re obviously very talented before they get to us anyway. It’s two years really, the training program. The last six months is the part where we take them to America and actually put them in their place them in the show.”
It’s fair to say La Grand Cirque don’t do anything by halves, and so January sees them returning to Sydney (where they’ve twice broken Sydney Opera House box office records) and just for fun, they’re running a show in Melbourne at the same time. “We’re probably the only people in the history of Australia to launch two shows at exactly the same time, two completely different shows in the two biggest cities in Australia,” says Painter, explaining the decision, “Both of these shows are very family orientated, family friendly shows. January’s really the best time to play, kids are off school and this show is really very good family entertainment, so there’s no better time to do it.”
The undertaking sees La Grand Cirque bringing about 80 people to Australia, plus gear. “There’s five containers worth of acrobatic equipment arriving and we have probably another ten containers of the stuff that’s already in Australia,” says Painter.
The Melbourne show brings together some of Painter’s most amazing finds: “Basically the show in Melbourne has been designed to showcase the most exciting and thrilling acts on earth. We scoured the globe looking for literally the best talent from all four corners of the globe. There’s a wheel of death act, which is two crazy guys from China on a 45 foot high gyrating centrifuge and there’s the Swan Lake ballerina act. There’s over 40 people in the cast. They come from China, Russia, America, all over the place. It’s a wonderful show: it’s a very fast paced show, it’s very family orientated, it’s also very funny as well.” No doubt Simon will be on the look out too… so get practicing circus folk of Melbourne!
Le Grand Cirque will be performing at The Regent Theatre from December 30 to January 23. Tickets from $44.90 are available from Ticketmaster on 1300 111 011 or online. More info available at legrandcirque.com.au.
