| Auckland, New Zealand is well served for pubs, clubs and restaurants, but those seeking free entertainment must hunt farther afield.
My husband’s fondness for alternative sport led us to a Tuesday night gathering of fire jugglers in Victoria Park, near Auckland’s historic Victoria Market. Participants meet as soon as the sun goes down, along with a troupe of drummers who provide rhythm. The gathering – which huddles beneath a motorway overpass in a corner of the field – is audible before it is visible.
Tuesday nights are open to anyone, from juggling enthusiasts to professional circus performers, as well as spectators, children and dogs. Equipment is shared, discussed and mended, and any given Tuesday passers-by can watch not only torch jugglers but flaming staff twirlers, poi swingers and even acrobalancers.
On this night, a woman has come to see if someone will teach her some basic poi skills. There are also seasoned performers in the group – a pair of Australians called Jacob and Sophie, who casually give an acrobalance show that involves Sophie standing on Jacob’s shoulders while both of them swing clubs, and ends with her balancing on his head. The demonstration is as much for their own practice as it is for our entertainment.
Jacob cheerfully recalls that when they did that stunt in a London pub after drinking just half a pint each, Sophie wound up on her backside and Jacob strained his neck.
The pair has been working together for three years, before which Jacob played in a circus group. They are currently travelling around the world, supporting themselves by performing in pubs and at paid gigs as well as by busking. Jacob says he enjoys the lifestyle.
"Busking is always there. You can walk into any city, any town, any place and earn dinner and board. What other job in the world can you do that with?"
A juggler for the last two-and-a-half years, Jacob is a relative newcomer to the sport, but he is a committed one. He is as interested in how his equipment is constructed as he is about what he does with it, and has made most of his own performing tools. He describes his method for converting regular, plastic juggling clubs into torches.
"I just cut the top off, leave the wood, put a rubber disk over it, then an aluminum disk, then an aluminum tube holds the disk in place hard against the plastic – and then I just put the wick in."
Jacob adds that he handed one of his own torches to a juggler along with two NiteFlites (fire juggling torches that cost about $70 CDN apiece), and the juggler didn’t know the difference.
So far, Jacob and Sophie say their act has been well received in Auckland – they’ve had only a 10 to 30 per cent walk-off during day busking shows, which is an impressive rate. Aucklanders seem less interested in the evening fire shows, however, perhaps because the skill is so familiar here. The Victoria Park gatherings are so well known that Jacob and Sophie originally heard about them while staying in Thailand. Victoria Park skirts downtown Auckland, and the jugglers and twirlers are visible from the revolving restaurant on top of the Sky Tower, where waiters explain the swirls of flame to tables of tourists and business people.
Although any sport involving fire is potentially hazardous, the Tuesday night jugglers do not require permits to use the park, and city or bylaw enforcement do not interfere with them. In fact, they claim the authorities have disturbed them only once – and that was when a juggler asked the police to come and disburse a rowdy group of spectators.
It is a rare event that combines elements of skill, beauty and community so elegantly and so casually – if only playing with fire was encouraged in all cities.
Julia Williams is travelling around the world exploring the global arts scene. |
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