We put on a trapeze show tonight as a fundraiser for Greg Stanton, a local politician running for Congress in the 9th district of AZ. As you can see from the advertisement they used, the guests attending didn't necessarily know they were going to be treated to a flying trapeze show. I'm sure most of them thought it was just another wine and cheese event at some doctor's house. That it was, but it also included an awesome flying trapeze show!
Practice time on Saturday consisted of getting the yard ready for the show. We put up a more permanent "back stage" area and hung curtains. This is a fancier version of what we had for the last show, and this is something we can use for all future shows. We also set up all the lights that day, and made sure everything looked good!
We are ready to start the show--just waiting for the crowd to arrive. I was catching first, so I had my knee pads on and was ready to climb up there!
Funny side note--Rod (and his family, and Quinne/April) is the polar opposite of most of us in his political views. Just for some context, he has a pair of tights with Trumps face all over them. Enough said. He took one for the team with this show, however, and donned his costume and smiled in the photo with the Democratic candidate. His son in law was our Ringmaster and his daughter was our bartender--and they quietly did their job without complaining (out loud to any of us anyway) about supporting a Democratic fundraiser. So...kudos to them. I guess that says a lot about his dedication to our team. We all joked about it when we first heard we might be doing this show. Everyone's first reaction was "what does Rod think about that?" He originally joked that he'd do it, but he'd be wearing his Trump shirt. He looked much better in his costume. So did our Ringmaster....
Just some funny pictures of Grant peaking out of the curtains. We cracked a lot of jokes about this. Grant's birth into the circus world. Grant is coming out of the circus closet. You get the pictures....
The crowd was much smaller than we've had in the last couple of shows, but that was because everyone who attended was encouraged (expected?) to pay a minimum of $100, and many paid significantly more than that. Apparently that's what people do for these political fundraisers. Clearly, I didn't have too many people there watching me, but I managed to get a pretty good sized group of contributors--after all, my family is full of faithful Democrats willing to support a good cause. Karen has been to almost all of my most recent shows, and for the first time, Kristina got to watch too! She was in town for a wedding, and was free to come watch me fly. She loved it, and I loved having her there! She was pretty impressed.
My mom also brought her two cousins, Kevin and Steve, along with to watch. They too were impressed! I think it's the first time I've met these two, even being first cousins of my mom's (she has so many!), and it was cool that this was my introduction. Hi, I'm your cousin's daughter, the flying trapeze artist.
Our show went off without a hitch, with us all throwing our best stuff. It was a shorter show than we've done in the recent past, but it was high energy and fun. When we started, George said he figured the candidate would say a few words before we started, and then he'd probably leave, as they usually do for these things. Nope, not this time! Future Congressman Stanton stayed for the entire show, and Dave said he was cheering us on the whole time. After we finished, he jumped up and asked to get a picture with us. What a great night!
To see the video from this show, you can watch it on my You Tube channel. It's a fun one, enjoy!
Some back story on all of this--George has been getting more and more involved in Democratic politics given events in the last two years. Like so many of us, he felt there was more that needed to be done, and unlike most of us--he's actually trying to do something about it. He's been attending and donating to many Democratic politicians and threw out the idea of offering a trapeze show as a fundraiser. He originally offered it to Kyrsten Sinema's people, but while they seemed interested, it sounds like this ultimately wasn't going to generate the kind of revenue that she needs for her campaign (understandably--she has a tough fight ahead of her). His next option was to offer it to Greg Stanton's people, and they were interested! He's running for Sinema's open House seat, and was a popular mayor of Phoenix and is heavily favored to win.
We didn't have too much time to put the show together, as we only just got the date confirmed about 10 days or so before it was scheduled. Plenty of time though--we're getting pretty good at this show thing! This time, we had our new logo (which I had Kathy print onto a curtain for us), rented a popcorn machine, had beer, wine, and hot cocoa, and of course, we had all of our cool lights up.
Show night was the most beautiful evening! The sunset was amazing, the yard looked great, and we were ready to put on a good show for all the paying guests.
How about this sunset? Wow, my second home is so beautiful. My heart was so full on this night. Not only do I get to be part of this group, but the fact that I get to contribute in this way to a political candidate that I support--I couldn't stop smiling.
*I can also add--Greg Stanton WON! He'll be heading to Congress to represent the 9th district of Arizona. Congrats!
