AddThis SmartLayers

It's more than spandex suits and cheesy grins

“Standing in the big top of the Moscow State Circus, preparing to step from the dubious safety of a 40ft platform not much bigger than a skateboard and launch myself into the air, I began to realise it takes a lot more than just wearing body-hugging spandex suits and permanently cheesy grins to make it as a successful circus act.”

But by this time it was too late – Sutton Guardian reporter Daniel Judge had already volunteered to take on the flying trapeze.

And the advice of Vladimir and Sasha of the Flying Trapeze Akhtymovs, who kept telling him to “just step off”, wasn’t helping matters.

Daniel had been invited to join the circus performers in their trapeze act, but after being given a few basic instructions, and climbing the wire ladder towards the trapeze near the roof of the big top, he was having second thoughts.

After giving it some thought, Daniel stepped off the platform – and didn’t move.

“I was suspended in the air, strung up like a chicken in a butcher’s shop, me gripping the trapeze handle for dear life and the two muscle-bound gymnasts holding me back by my safety harness and delaying my circus debut and possible new career as the seventh member of the Flying Akhtymovs,” said Daniel.

“But then, with a hefty push, they let me go and I was flying across the big top where hundreds of highly trained and skilled acrobats and gymnasts had been before, and in truth, it all seemed pretty easy.

“Well, easy in as much as I had a safety net below me, I was strapped into a harness and all I did was swing from one side of the big top to the other until I began to lose momentum and couldn’t hold on any longer.”

Do you have a story about the regional press? Ring 0116 227 3122/3121, or
e-mail [email protected]