Wil Andruschak

I hear you play with fire?

That’s right, I run a professional fire-spinning troupe.

When did you start playing with fire?

Well, it was actually four years ago and it’s kind of a weird story. I was camping with a bunch of friends and one of my friends brought out something called flags, which is just a great big square of fabric and it’s weighted along two edges. You spin them around and it makes pretty designs in the air. She let me try it out and I was instantly hooked. I saw people doing fire in the community and I thought “Wow, that’s crazy.” I never thought I’d do fire, and somebody at a practice, at a community gathering, said, “Well here, I’ve got some fire, why don’t you try it out? You’re spinning poi already, why not fire poi?” It captured my imagination. I just love it.

Was there an element of confronting fear?

A little bit. What really drew me to it more than anything else is the beauty of it. I think human beings are attracted to fire naturally and then to see it used as an art form and actually manipulating it and controlling it in space is a really neat experience.

So, are you a pyromaniac?

Well, I haven’t burned down any buildings if that’s what you’re asking. I never was before, but I am addicted to fire spinning.

So you weren’t one of those kids always trying to get a hold of the matches?

Nope. I was just a nice nerdy kid.

Tell me about your day job?

I’m currently the producer of the CTV news at noon. I’ve been with CTV here for 10 years. I was the weekend anchor here for most of the last 10 years.

What’s involved in being a producer?

Well, it’s demanding. I’m senior producer, so I come in very, very early in the morning and go through all of the happenings from overnight and then start building the show. I decide all of the content in the show. It’s a lot of writing and editing and a humongous amount of information goes through my hands.

That sounds exhausting.

It’s demanding, but I really enjoy it actually, I’m very happy.

What are the safety concerns with fire spinning?

One of the things that makes us professional is we’re very much concerned with safety. We’re fully insured, believe it or not. That means we’re able to perform both indoors and out. We need to have safety people monitoring the performers, we have fire extinguishers, we have fire blankets, we have wet towels in case somebody’s clothing catches on fire and we also have to practise our drills regularly. “OK, you’re on fire, this is what you have to do, these are the commands you have to listen to.” When we’re performing, we’re listening to music, but we’re also listening for calls from our safeties. They’ll call your name and say “You are on fire.”

Has anyone caught on fire?

Oh yeah, it happens. I’ve been on fire several times.

Was it bad?

Nothing too bad, I’ve got a few burns. Once you understand the dynamics of fire and how it works then you understand how to deal with it and how to minimize any problems. We’ve never had a serious incident.

Is it all about not panicking?

Experience is everything. We’ve got some of the top performers in Western Canada on our team. I’m really blessed that I was able to approach people in the community that were working as solo artists and convince them “Hey, we can fill a gap here and start a professional troupe.”

How many people are in the troupe?

Currently, there are nine of us.

Do you all perform in a show, or does it rotate?

It usually rotates. It depends on what the clients want. So I might provide two or three people, I might provide all of us. We do charity shows sometimes, where we’ll donate our time to help support fundraising efforts, and often times I’ll get a few more people for that because we can basically do whatever we want.

How often do you perform?

It varies pretty wildly, but overall, maybe once every six weeks.

You use the name Cyan McKay when performing?

Cyan is just… I don’t like Cindy as an abbreviation of Cynthia, so just kind of made up my own abbreviation.

There’s no special meaning behind the name for you?

No.

Why did you decide to use a different name? Is it about establishing a performance persona?

Yeah. I just like it. My old persona, people know me by my broadcast name.

Do you fall into a character, becoming a different person?

I find it really, really relaxing. When you’re spinning fire, it makes the most spectacular sound you’ve ever heard that you wouldn’t hear anywhere else. The flames roar as they go through the air. It surrounds you in this heat and light and all these patterns and this sound and you get into the dance and the music and it’s quite magical actually.

Have you always been a bit of a performer?

Yeah, to a certain extent. I used to be a professional actor years and years ago, when I lived in Vancouver.