Here we have Mandrake doing his famous "Sawing The Lady In Half" illusion at the Rusty Flats sawmills in Grimethorpe and the picture below is the "Stapling The Lady Back Together Again" trick some moments after!
ouch I am not sure which hurt more, the saw, the staples or thinking of clearing my table... this is spectacular Michael. I think I have bored you with my tale of the circus when the lady lying on sword trick went badly wrong-very Ray Bradbury it was,,,put me off circuses for life.
Well Michael the story is -when I was about 10 in Kenya, a travelling circus came to Nairobi-I think it was from Eastern Europe-Bulgaria maybe. It was every inch a travelling circus, sad eyed animals, elderly clowns with bitter faces under their make up, tough looking gals with sequined tutus...always did like them. I had a seat with my sister up at the back of the tent. One of the acts was a sword act where this guy did various daring things with knoives and swords-mostly thrusting at the lady in the sequins . The finale was she would lie on a bed of swords and he would smash a rock placed on her belly with a sledgehammer.
This he did to great applause and up they jumped, bowed and rushed out of the tent. From where we were sitting there was a gap in the canvas and we could see the lady writhing around in agony on the grass outside the tent.and all the guys standing around looking a bit desperate.
Whenever I read Ray Bradbury's stories about funfairs, circuses and freakshows they always bring back that circus and those people.
6 comments:
From what I saw, you nailed it! Genius! Love these Michael! Really, really do!
Glad you like 'em Angelica. It's good to be gluing again after a short relapse! Clearing the table really helped- I should do it more often!
ouch I am not sure which hurt more, the saw, the staples or thinking of clearing my table...
this is spectacular Michael. I think I have bored you with my tale of the circus when the lady lying on sword trick went badly wrong-very Ray Bradbury it was,,,put me off circuses for life.
OoH Sounds nasty! Tell it to us again!
poor lady
Well Michael the story is -when I was about 10 in Kenya, a travelling circus came to Nairobi-I think it was from Eastern Europe-Bulgaria maybe. It was every inch a travelling circus, sad eyed animals, elderly clowns with bitter faces under their make up, tough looking gals with sequined tutus...always did like them. I had a seat with my sister up at the back of the tent. One of the acts was a sword act where this guy did various daring things with knoives and swords-mostly thrusting at the lady in the sequins . The finale was she would lie on a bed of swords and he would smash a rock placed on her belly with a sledgehammer.
This he did to great applause and up they jumped, bowed and rushed out of the tent. From where we were sitting there was a gap in the canvas and we could see the lady writhing around in agony on the grass outside the tent.and all the guys standing around looking a bit desperate.
Whenever I read Ray Bradbury's stories about funfairs, circuses and freakshows they always bring back that circus and those people.
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