Last Friday I went to the see Zippos Circus at Hampstead Heath with some friends from work. I think part of the reason we went was because those of us who live in North London were tired of all the plans always happening across the city. The other reason is that it sounded like fun and we got a deal (£8.50!) from Time Out. Some of us had never been the circus before, and some of us (like me) hadn’t been since we were kids. I don’t know what exactly we were expected going in, but it turned out to be a total blast. 

The tent was set up outside on Hampstead Heath and inside was pretty intimate. There wasn’t a bad seat in the house and since it wasn’t full the seven of us got central seats facing the middle of the ring.

The show started with some tumblers called the Zulu Warriors. I don’t have any great pictures of them because they were so quick everything came out blurry. They were like the most amazing cheerleaders I’d ever seen. They were throwing each other in the air, jumping about four feet in the air, and creating these amazing human pyramid structures. There was a  guy called Mr. Nadler and his dog Speedy. They did some really cute tricks many of which had the dog crawling all over the man. My favorite trick is anove where the dog jumped on to Mr. Nadler’s feet and then the man did a handstand while balancing the Speedy on top. It was impressive balancing, plus Speedy was just super cute.

And while we’re talking about balancing, let’s talk about Kremena. She’s from Bulgaria and did acrobatics competitively and even won a few medals before she turned to circus performing. She looked amazing, but mostly I was impressed with her strength. She looks amazing!

One my my least favorite acts over the course of the show was the clowns. They were trying but their tricks weren’t very smooth. When a tube was meant to explode and fall on the head of a clown, that clown caught the tuba and put it on his head. Or when a clown was flapping his wig, you could see his arm moving as he pulled the lever. It just wasn’t seamless. However, I did like the trick above where they shot a canon at a piano and it exploded. It just looks funny to see a piano explode.

Many of the performers in this show however, were truly impressive. Odka the contortionist defied my understand of human anatomy. First of all, she entered in a bottle (above). How did she fit in there?! Then when she got out she twisted into all kinds of shapes. When I showed Ryan the picture below, he was unsettled. He said it was confusing to look at because, “her top is on the bottom and the bottom is on the top.” And she look perfectly happy like that!

Most impressive though was that she could shoot an arrow using her feet! The amount bending that this took blew my mind. She was even able to shoot a balloon in this position. It was mind bending for me and body bending for Odka.

An integral part of going to the circus is light up toys (which lots of kids had) and snacks. But for me, the best circus snack is cotton candy. I decided to indulge and so did my friends Amy and Pooja. In addition to the crazy sweetness, the funny texture, and the overall gritty stickiness, what I love best about cotton candy is it’s giant size. Just look at it!! It’s bigger than my head and nearly as big as my torso. Truly amazing.

Overall my favorite parts of the circus were the acts that frightened me. The ones done at extreme heights or by crazy daredevils. Those acts gave me the feeling of being on a roller coaster. You know the feeling – scared, exhilarated, and delighted. For example, Stefanie (in the photos above) did all kinds of crazy acrobatics while dangling in the air from an over-sized umbrella. She twirled, she swung around, she held poses, and she even balanced from her face. FROM HER FACE!!! I was literally yelling aloud in amazement.

In my opinion the best act was the Galaxy Duo (although I think the guy did the most awesome stuff). Basically they had this giant spinning baton with cages on the end and the two people did tricks in and on the cages. I was completely overwhelmed by how cool and dangerous and amazing this all was. At first the guy was just on top of the cage doing tricks, then he was jumping rope (photo below) and then he was on stilts.

And then he was BLIND FOLDED!! I was dying. And even better my friends were dying. I love the photo above of Imogen and Becky covering their mouths. Sarah (bottom right in the photo above) even shouted, “don’t do it!” I like to believe that he was totally in control the entire time, but there were moments with the blind folds where he pantomimed like he was falling. It made my heart jump, but he landed safely every time. Throughout the whole show the ring master did a below average job of hyping up the crowd, but for this guy there were thunderous and appreciative applause.

Although I generally thought the ring master was a lackluster when it came to his rapport with the crowd, he did have a cute act with some budgies (which I’d call parakeets) he had trained. They did cute things like ride in a car, swing, and slide down a slide. What made it especially cute was that the birds kept being “naughty” and running off to keep to play and do more tricks. It was a funny bit him acting all put out and frustrated and the birds kept scampering off. It was a nice relief to the thrill rides of some other acts.

The finale of the show was the Cage of Terror (above), which also had my entire group of friends yelling with shock and excitement. It started with one guy on a motorbike riding around inside. Mind you, it’s not really the big of a cage. Then a second guy started riding around inside. And they went upside down. Crazy. Then after two were in there, a woman got in and stood in the middle. And she didn’t just stand, she waved and moved around. Moved around like a crazy person!

When she got out, a third motorcyclist got in. My friend, and the crowd, and I were all dying. And then we saw it. THERE WAS ONE MORE. ONE MORE. All of us were shouting about there being a fourth one. In these above photos it is hard to see but those red blurs are the four motorcyclists. Then, when it seemed like there couldn’t possibly be more the cage slowly started to split open. And the four guys were still riding. It was terrifying and thrilling and amazing. When the cage finally closed and the guys got out the applause were insane and they had a standing ovation.

As the smell of fuel and burnt rubber lingered in the air, all the performers came out for one final bow and to wave good bye. The seven of us left smiling, laughing, and chattering away. We saw some amazing things, but what I loved best was that for a few hours my friends and I shed the seriousness and cynicism that can come with adulthood. We laughed, and yelled, and squealed, and were thrilled just like children. It was a great evening.

Zippos Circus is still around in London, although not in Hampstead Heath. They’ll be performing at Brent Cross from 27 October to 1 November, 2015. Check out their website for more details. The most expensive tickets are less than £30 and the cheapest are £7. It’s well worth it!

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