Blog 2- The first big top.

2017: Where it all began.

So, in 2017 I joined my first ever travelling circus! It was a medium sized show, travelling all over York.

I was only 17 and I was super excited. Now, to cut to the end. It went from what I thought was a show that valued their staff. To a show that taught me exactly what I never want to experience again. Yes, it started my career but, it also became a lesson taught, to say the least. While I wont be disclosing the name of the show, or using any names of the people who owned it. I do want to share my real and genuine story and tell it how it truly went. As in all walks of life, you find the good and the bad and you live and you learn.

To start from the beginning. I was originally told I would get to perform in the show with my aerial hoop. However, when I got there, I was told this would not be the case. Looking back this was the first real red flag... But, I was 17, naïve and just happy to get a toe in the door. I was eventually told I would be doing the catering trailer and ticket office. I would receive 150 pounds a week as pay. Cool! That was still amazing to me. 150 pound sounded like a lot to me. I had no comparison to anyone else's wage and had never had to pay any bills up until this point . I had no idea how little that was. I was just happy to have a role and be on a show. 

About a week went by and I was settling into the routine of the show and getting used to my jobs. 

The first pay check came by and I was so excited. 80 pounds... 80 pounds was in the envelope. 

Red flag 2. Again, I put it off as maybe I misheard the original price? I certainly wasn't going to go and bring it up to the bosses, after being there only a week! This was then when it started to get worse. 

After about 3 weeks, I started being given more and more "jobs". By the end, to go into detail this is what my day ended up looking like: 

7.30am wake up. 8am - 2.30pm ticket office. The show started at 4pm, so 2.30pm I came out the ticket office. I had 1 hour to get ready for the show and "try" too eat (often I just didn't have the time). 

Doors opened at 3.30pm. I have to get everything warmed up and ready in the catering trailer. That meant being in there for 3pm.

Show starts at 4pm. Close the catering trailer, run to the spot light and operate that for the duration of the show. Run back to the catering trailer for the interval. Back to spotlight for the second half. 

Then, run back stage 5 minutes before, to go on for our Knife throwing act... Run back to spotlight. 

Run back stage again for Finale. We usually did 2 shows, so after finale, straight back into the catering trailer to do it all again!

After the show, this would be when I had to do social media and emails. That's right I, somehow got conned into replying to council emails, as the show boss! Defusing issues about unpaid ground costs and more... RED FLAG 3... 

I was also in charge of running the Facebook, Instagram, ticket phone and website and online tickets. Each week (sometimes daily) I'd have to set up ticket sells for the upcoming shows, run a competition, deal with general complaints and inquires and post social media posts.

This was not even the worst part. After about 3 months I started to get accused of stealing money, stealing hot dogs from the catering wagon and apparently the money for the toy snakes, tickets sold and food sold wouldn't add up. That meant I'd get fined "the difference". Not at cost price either. I'd be fined public selling price. So a hot dog at cost price was 20p, but I'd be fined 2 pounds, which is what we sold them for... I ended up being paid about 20 pounds a week and I was working 20 hours a day daily. 

I was not eating, I was getting thin and tired and I was burning out. I eventually was starting to fight back (they didn't like this). Cut to 5 months in, I woke up one morning to go to the ticket office and there was a girl already in there. "The boss wants to see you"... Okay I knocked on the boss's door. 

"You need to leave, we no longer need you. You've caused too many issues". I felt like a truck had hit me. I had just worked my ass off, been bullied by the owners for months. The minute I started to bring up my concerns. My concerns, that I could no longer physically or mentally, deal with the amount of work load I had. I was fired... 

Truth be told it was a blessing and we actually got out before the show completely fell apart. But, it was still gut wrenching. I couldn't help but feel like, what did I do? Only weeks ago did the boss brag to my own parents, about "how amazing I was." I was worried about them black listing my name? 

We did find out they told all the fellow staff that we stole from the show and that's why we had been told to go. Of course, none of this was true and after the show collapsed, a few weeks later and ended up shutting down, people started to see the lies they had spun. We too believed the lies. A fellow friend had left the show, due to not being paid and the boss managed to get us to believe is fake side of the story. So, we understood how easy it was to be swayed. It of course still hurt. But, if it wasn't for this experience. I would never have learned my value. I would never have learned what a circus isn't. How a circus shouldn't be run and we would never have looked for work out side of the UK. 

We decided to take a job in Europe, purely to let the dust settle and it turned out to be the best decision we could have ever made! We now know what to look out for on shows and the signs of a good show or a bad show. We now know, how to say no and not to take on all the "jobs". We now know, what price to charge and we are doing better than ever. This show while it was an awful experience, it was what made me stronger and taught me just how much I can deal with. It gave me the base to build my name in the industry. We have now built a strong reputation and have never had another bad experience. 

As for the show... After is closed its stayed closed. We shared our side of the story and it brought to light the truth of how this show was run. Others that had worked there, came forward with similar stories. Those who had their head turned by the boos, started to see it in its true light. This show and its owners will never be able to go out again. Their kingdom fell and it fell hard, as it should. 

The way they treated people was just awful and no one deserved it.

Oh, 2 side note stories too! 

1) We had a really lovely, rare Ducati bike. Only one in the UK like it at that time. We used it as an entrance for the Knives and it had just come out of a garage and worked beautifully.  

1 week before we left the show, it suddenly stopped working. We never found out how they did it and unfortunately it had to be scrapped. But, we now know the owners broke it to try and get us to leave. 

Of course, they didn't factor in how resilient myself and Seb are to things like this. The only real tragedy was a gorgeous, rare bike being scrapped and that we worked hard for it. We were only 17 and 19. How could grown adults do that to young adults. It still breaks my heart.

2) First off lets remember a knife act uses real knives. I know the risks going into the ring and it is live entertainment. Accidents can happen. We were on stage doing the act, like we had 100 times, this time one of the knives did catch my skin. Once i realised I was bleeding (up until this point it only felt as if id been scratched so I wasn't too worried.) Turned out it was little more serious than we thought. 

I did in fact have a nice whole under my left armpit, that clearly needed attention and stitches. Anyway, we headed to the emergency room right away. 10 hours later I was finally seen by a Dr and was stitched up. Despite now being in a lot of shock and some pain, you would think I'd at least get a the day off to recover. OH no... I got the morning off the ticket office (only because, I didn't get back in time for it to open). I still had to go ahead and do the show that evening, as if nothing happened. The boss's gave me no remorse. They didn't care and they weren't concerned about me. They were only concerned with whether or not they had to cover my act and job. I was doing so much in the show they didn't have people to cover and it would have caused some major issues so for them it meant they forced me to carry on... I can say I have never dealt with any other shows like this and I hope I never have to again.

So, that's the story of my first big top experience. A lesson I definitely will never forget, but will always be grateful for. 

I promise after this we had so many better and fun show experiences and I can't to share those too.

Thank you for reading. Don't forget to leave a comment and follow, it is very appreciated.
 

L.Foray. x

Knife Act 2017