Pants Down Circus
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Pants Down Circus

The Pants Down Circus will be rolling into town with a performance at Drysdale’s, Potato Shed. The show is performed by four very refined artists who are coming off the back of a successful showcase at the Edinburgh Fringe and are currently finishing up at the Adelaide Fringe. We caught up with one of the stars, acrobat, Joshua Phillips.
Hi Joshua, thanks so much for taking the time to chat to Forte, where are you at the moment and what are you up to?
Right now I’m in Adelaide for the Fringe. It’s the fourth year in a row that Pants Down has done the Adelaide Fringe. Seven shows a week for a whole month!
As an acrobat, could you please tell us a bit about how you got into performing and what it is that you do?
I did a juggling workshop when I was 15. After that I slowly built up more skills and started performing in theatre shows in my hometown of Goulburn NSW. I then went on train at circus schools in New Zealand and Melbourne. My main skill is the balancing ladder, performing acrobatic tricks on a ladder is hard to describe, it’s best seen performed live.
Joshua ladder fb profile
Pants Down Circus is a rather unusual name, how did it come about and what is it different from other circuses?
We settled on Pants Down Circus as a name after trying to find a name for weeks with no success. We thought that it’s unusual and memorable, easy to find on the internet and just silly. It’s a bit confusing however when people think that there will be stripping.
What makes us different to other circuses is that we try to integrate humour into most of the things that we do. Another unusual aspect is that we perform a very broad range of circus disciplines for a circus with only four performers.
Also, like many other modern circuses we are animal free. We only focus on the incredible things that humans are capable of.
Hannah wheel crop (1)
The members of the Pants Down Circus all graduated from National Institute of Circus Arts (NICA) together in 2009, so you have obviously all become great friends over the years?
I’ve known Idris since well before we went to NICA, we’ve been great friends for many years. It wasn’t until a couple of years after graduating NICA that the four of started working together. Hannah and Caz specialised in doubles trapeze and it all happened without much effort at the start and now it’s four years later already!
How long did it take you guys to put the show together?
This is our second show. Our first show was a mash up of all of our skills and this time round we decided to give the show a classic rock theme. It took about a month of creative development but most of the skills were already there they just needed to find the right music and theme. We are always training new, bigger and better tricks to add to the show.
You have each travelled the world with your amazing skills, what has been some of the more memorable places have you enjoyed most?
There have been many memorable places. Last year we went to the remote town of Newman WA. Singapore was a lot of fun although incredibly humid and slippery for acrobatics! Edinburgh Fringe is one of my favourite festivals but a lot of hard work to promote the show as the festival is extremely competitive. My favourite place is still Brunei Darussalam. I still keep in touch with some of the people I met there. It’s an amazing place cut into the jungle of Borneo.
Idris guitar fb banner
You performed last year at the world-famous Edinburgh Fringe, how did it feel to perform at such an event and be awarded 5-stars for your efforts?
Edinburgh was exhausting! It’s a four week long festival with over 3000 shows competing for audiences. We did fairly well. There are many opportunities to promote your show and we ended up doing more promo performances than actual shows.
What can audiences expect from the show, who would you recommend getting along?
Audiences can expect high energy acrobatics and classic rock music. We’ve tried to create a show that will appeal to a broad range of people. If you like AC/DC you’ll love the show and if you don’t like classic rock we think that the circus acts should be engaging enough.
When&Where: Potato Shed, Drysdale – March 21
 
 
 
 

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