Twisted Circus Tour 2019
What is Twisted Circus?
Twisted Circus is a popular nightclub event previously hosted at iconic locations such as Indigo O2 & Bloomsbury Ballroom, created by the Pr company and nightclub specialist XclusiveTouch. Running throughout the year in Soho but taking over large venues for halloween weekend, this event is about as extreme and exciting as nightclub entertainment can get!
Stage One: The Brief
We had already worked with XclusiveTouch for several years- putting performers into their residencies and for the London based Twisted Circus Festival over various Halloween’s. So when we got a call saying they wanted to do a UK wide, big city tour over 2 nights in October we were excited to cast the creepiest, most extravagant and dramatic shows for them. As always they requested circus/dangerous acts with a dark and twisted halloween vibe.
Stage Two: Many Cities, Many Possibilities
We began by looking into the various venues in the cities that they had planned the events for, Liverpool, Manchester, London, Birmingham and Newcastle. Some venues had various restrictions such as no fire allowed, or low ceiling heights which prevented aerial performances. We carefully worked out the requirements and limitations of each venue so we could best cast the performers and acts for each city.
In terms of location we have performers based all over the UK but when requiring specialist performers such as freak show, sword swallowing, contortion, danger performers, etc it can be more limiting to where they are based. In terms of the client’s expectations the more outrageous, terrifying, and unusual the better. In complete contrast to our corporate clients this client wants bare skin, bold looks and really ‘thinking out of the box’ acts.
Stage Three: Costumes & Performers
The concept for the evening was freestyle performance working to whatever the DJ was playing, most of the venues were huge nightclubs so stage entertainment was a vital visual component of the evening. We tried to ensure each venue had a ringmaster/classic circus style costumed performer, a clown or harlequin style dressed performer and something more dark, sexy and mysterious so the acts would be very clearly different as they rotated through the night.
Each performer was scheduled to complete multiple 10-15 minute stage shows with the next one immediately taking over so there was a continuous flow of entertainment. Based on the venue limitations we planned:
Liverpool would have a Ring mistress freak show performer, a harlequin contortionist and an underwear clad fire performer as this was one of the few venues which allowed fire.
Manchester also allowed fire but we swapped things up a little giving them a clown fire performer, a ring mistress contortionist and a dark and suave sword swallower.
London was large enough to support aerial so we suggested a creepy clown themed aerialist, ring master sword swallower and dark and mysterious contortionist.
Birmingham was a very large venue however it had a relatively a small stage area with low ceilings as it was in a former tunnel, so we suggested a ring mistress contortionist, clown danger performer who also offered LED and a sexy freak show performer.
Newcastle had a very large stage so we opted for a trio of danger performers who could utilise multiple props together and fill the stage, a ring master sword swallower, and a duo freak show act.
The acts were planned, the costumes were made and delivered – we were all set.
Stage four: Night One - Liverpool, Manchester, London
The 30th October rolled around and our teams across the country sprang into action. The London team had enormous crowds and The Clapham Grand venue was the perfect location to hold such a huge event. Confetti cannons over the stage made this event really atmospheric.
Upon their arrival at the Liverpool Venue the performers discovered the stage had a giant inflatable clown suspended over it and was also partially covered by a mezzanine level- the crowd barrier was also far too close to the stage for fire performance- luckily the performers managed to work with the venue to ensure the correct safety measures were met and swapped out some of their fire props to work within the space- losing fire breathing and spinning poi and focusing more on fans and body torches. The acts were really well received here with the audience still being able to get pretty close to the action, the contortionist squeezing herself through tennis racquets made a particular impact on lots of guests who looked amazed and horrified in equal measure.
The Manchester Venue known as ‘The Playground’ was spread across a number of different rooms each with very different themes and two different stages, so this team of performers adapted their sets slightly on the night so that once the performer had finished a set they would walk over to the next performer’s stage to kick of the next show with the contortionist and sword swallower working on the main stage in front of the DJ which had fabric bunting above it and the fire performer working across the venue on a much more open, safer stage where she could still offer big fire tricks.
With the client’s management team spread across the venues they all agreed the first night was a huge success and were excited for the second night of the tour.
Stage Five: Night Two - Birmingham & Newcastle
For the second night of this awesome tour the Birmingham and Newcastle venues really went to town on the celebrations! Confetti cannons, streamers from the balconies, glow sticks and giant crowd balloons made these two events colourful, exciting and energetic. ‘The Tunnel’ venue in Birmingham allowed guests to get quite close to the action causing stunned reactions, the LED performer included the Twisted Circus logo in her pixel equipment so as she performed her illuminated, high energy set the brand flashed across the stage bringing cheers from the crowd.
Due to the dressing room being far from the stage area the acts worked together in some of their sets to create even more exciting performance such as one of the freak show duo biting the nail out of the nose of the other performer which had just been hammered in there or the contortionist twisting herself into a knot on the back of the bed of nails performer.
Similarly in Newcastle the team worked together to bring the most extreme halloween show together, pierced weightlifting, human pincushion popping a balloon skirt and inserting the pins into the face, taking a drink through a straw inserted through two of their faces and much more both teams had fantastic success delivering exactly what the client hoped for. Although it took a lot of organisation we hope the twisted circus tour is here to stay!
“We’re excited to build on the momentum from previous events and have added even more acts to the bill. Over 30 circus performers and DJs will join us, making 2019 our biggest ever Twisted Circus celebration.”
– ROBBIE CAVE
XclusiveTouch, Director
Creating custom entertainment options is exactly what our team enjoy doing most. With our vast selection of costumes and our ability to custom make something to suit your specific needs means our performer’s acts can be tailored to suit any event theme.
To enquire about our Halloween, or even our classic Circus theme, please use our Contact page, or if you have your own ideas in mind and would like to discuss a custom package created just for you, just like we did for Twisted Circus – feel free to drop us a message.