There were a number of different kinds of juggling, with hands and feet, rings and balls, from the ground and high in the air. My favourite was the juggling with brightly coloured scarves, to the tune of Bolero. These very lightweight scarves drifted and twisted gracefully and had to be deftly snatched by the performer as the music became faster and faster.
Acrobats performed nimbly on the high wire and the slack wire, sometimes with ropes and ribbons and often combined with juggling.
One young woman had a terrific act with hula hoops. Her grande finale was when fellow performers threw more and more hoops to her, sometimes 10 at a time. These went over her head and down, until most of her body was thickly covered in hoops, all twirling merrily.
The tightrope walker provided great entertainment. Pretending to be unsteady on his feet must surely have been harder than just walking across the high wire! Beneath him were two clowns holding a very small light blanket, pretending to be very concerned. A chair was tossed up to him and he balanced this in the centre. Balancing the long pole, he sat on the chair, climbed up on it and generally fooled around --- far steadier than I am on a chair at ground level!! Finishing his act with the chair, he dropped it and it was caught in the little blanket! He abandoned the pole and fussed around a little on the platform. Then he walked confidently to the centre, where he faced the audience and promptly fell forwards off the wire, accompanied by huge gasps of panic. While we were all still in mid gasp, he swung 360 degrees ---- and we realised that he was attached to the wire by something on his shoes. PHEW!
The clowns played out many little diversionary scenes between acts, then one commenced an act of his own. He walked around the audience, with a spotlight hovering over faces until he chose someone. A young man and woman were taken into the ring and given a skipping rope, which they swung while the clown jumped. Communicating with them via whistles, he got the man to jump. Then he put a blindfold over the man's eyes and whispered in his ear. We guessed that he told him to jump every time he heard the whistle. The man was poised ready but the rope swung and there was no whistle, so his feet caught the rope. Quietly, the clown took the rope from the woman. He slapped it on the ground and blew his whistle. The man jumped obediently. This was repeated over and over, with the whistles coming faster and faster and the audience clapping and laughing. We spoke to the man on our way out and asked him if the clown had said to jump when he whistled. "Yes", was his reply,"but my wife has only just this minute told me that there was no rope to jump. I was congratulating myself on jumping so well."
Then, to my great glee, the spotlight played over Steve's face. I held my breath,
hoping like mad that he would be chosen!!! My dear, shy husband, who embarrasses so easily! What a naughty wife he has!! And chosen he was. He was made to sit on a tiny stool beside a young woman from the audience. They faced a large, plastic, old fashioned type camera. The clown demonstrated, move by move, how he wanted them to pose. They ended up cuddled close together while he ducked under the cover pretending to take their photo. "The photo" turned out to be of two monkeys! Lastly, he got them to jive around in time to the music, insisting on wiggling hips. I thought I was going to burst! This is the man who wouldn't dream of wiggling his hips on a dark dance floor with only the two of us present :-) I had to try hard not to laugh in case it made me cough; I was doubled up, rocking back and forth, with tears streaming down my face.
As we left, the clown, who had changed clothes by this time and was helping to pack up, came up and thanked Steve for his cooperation. I felt like kissing him!!
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