“I need all hands on the tent RIGHT NOW!!!”
Poles crashed to the ground, walls buckled and fell. We’ve been working over 24 hours now with no sleep. In that moment, any lack of sharpness or misstep could have meant death. That was about the time when the jet planes started taking off about 40 feet from our circus tent…
Let me back up and give a little context to this story. It’s the summer of 2008, somewhere around July 3rd. I’m touring England in the Festival Circus, working as a juggler, acrobat, and unicyclist. It was one of the more unique experiences I’ve had: I was simultaneously a student of the Academy of Circus Arts and a performer in the Festival Circus, which were one and the same. I like to think of that troupe as some kind of superhero – to the public, we were The Festival Circus, but our secret identity was that we were a bunch of students at the Academy of Circus Arts. I kept a journal in the small scraps of time I had available, so as not to lose the great stories to the mists of time, or to my leaky memory.
That summer was many things, one of which I’m sure now was a scam: we paid many thousands of dollars for the privilege of doing some of the hardest work on the planet without pay for months on end, performing to make the owner money. I say this in jest – I don’t think the owner made any money at all. Also, it was certainly the most profound and valuable formative experience of my life. In just 6 months, we performed 135 shows in 25 locations across the UK. This was probably the hardest time of my life, and also the time where I grew most and did some of my best work. I’m sharing this story to illustrate the point of how we can often do our best work in the worst circumstances. Now, back to the story:
The previous day, we rose at 6:00 AM in Whitehaven, toward the North end of England. We had to pack up the tent (which seats approx. 700 people) and drive across the country to our next location at a private airport in London for Employee Day. Packing up the tent on a good day, with a crew of 18 hard workers working at a full sprint without breaks, takes 3–4 hours plus 30–60 minutes for the bleachers. We were short-handed and had just finished a long string of shows, so we were pretty tired for the wake-up call at 6:00 AM. We managed to finish by noon, and head out for London. It was a beautiful drive on a beautiful summer day, through a gorgeous countryside. It felt like nothing could go wrong. We were supposed to arrive at 8:00 PM, but as things typically go in the circus, we ran into many problems and didn’t arrive until about 10:00 PM.
Now, we were told that this would be a really difficult gig, as we had to build up the tent overnight, only sleep a couple of hours, and then do 7 full shows back-to-back with no real breaks. We were also told that the airport security would be prepared for our arrival and able to assist us in our setup by providing water, food and coffee, bathroom access, etc. This was false.
The reception we got from security was anything but warm or helpful. In fact, they seemed to be operating under the instructions to harass, interfere, delay, and irritate us. It started with their refusing to let us onto the runway, where we were supposed to build the tent. They told us that this would be impossible, and it was only after about 3 hours of reviewing our contract and the explicit communications with the organizers that they reluctantly let us into the compound (with aggressive pat-downs of everyone in our troupe, of course).
Now it’s after midnight, and we have less than 9 hours to set up our tent on an airport runway without driving a single stake into the ground. Normally setting up a tent this size requires driving in over 100 solid iron stakes, weighing in at 35 pounds each, to a depth of about 4 feet. To make matters worse, we’re also at about half our normal crew size – some vehicles broke down along the way, as was common (circuses are often quite poor and can’t afford good vehicles), and 3 of the students were severely injured. One threw out her back that morning, another, our contortionist, injured one of her major nerves from overstretching, and was hospitalized. The third had the tightwire frame collapse on and break her foot, and the icing on the cake came when we found out that she was allergic to the painkillers and was not only in agonizing pain, but also vomiting all over the site. Security, needless to say, was not amused… By 3:30 AM, we had to call an ambulance, and buildup had only just begun.
It’s now 5:00 AM. The sun is beginning to rise. We’ve just finished raising the center poles, and are beginning to pull up the canvas – and the wind starts. It starts raining lightly, and the wind picks up. The canvas turns into a giant sail, yanking up one of our strongest guys into the air. He lets go, and the pole comes crashing down. One of the students screams, and the rest of us rush in to grab the poles before another collapses. “I NEED ALL HANDS ON THE TENT, RIGHT NOW!!!” All thoughts of tiredness are gone now. This is a matter of survival. We somehow get the tent stable and lashed down by 6:30 AM, and are told we have 1 hour before first show. The security guards toss us a couple sandwiches and coffees, and tell us we can change in the airplane hangar. We have no idea what we’re going to do for sleeping after the show, or where we’re supposed to go, or what will happen with our injured students, but we’re all in show mode now. The tent is up, and the audience is coming.
Between 7:30 AM and 3:30 PM, we perform 7 full shows. It’s a blur, but I remember performing some of the best routines I’ve ever done. Everything was sharp and clear. The audience was electric. We all gave 110%, despite running on zero sleep, in one of the most physically demanding jobs in existence. After it was over, the owner gave us a 10-minute speech and then told us we had to tear the tent down again and head to our next location by midnight. We finished packing by about 10:00 PM. We had now been working for 40 hours without sleep, many of us injured or sick. As I crawled into the back of the truck and fell into my sleeping bag, I remember thinking that this was the greatest adventure of my life.
Remember, when you think you’re at your end, you may only just be beginning…
Sometimes we wait until the circumstances are right before acting, but my experience is that we are woefully ignorant of what circumstances we actually need to do our best work…