In his La Ronde performance, Adam Malone’s burlesque-inspired feats include a “chaotic” hoop act in which he manipulates fast-spinning blunt objects with his hands.
Less stressful, he says, is pulling off his take on the traditional but rare ‘Washington Trapeze’, which involves balancing on his head.
“I go into a bit of a Zen space, and I balance, and my body kind of takes over for me,” Malone tells RNZ’s Nine to Noon.
Adam Malone is also a renowned hula-hoop artist.
Benji Hardwick
Growing up, Malone’s older sister was an elite trampolinist, but gymnastics wasn’t really his thing. But when he was a teenager, a traditional circus company started up in his hometown, and the vibrant performer fell in love.
“They saw something in me, and they were like, ‘We’re going to put you on stage with us and pay you’.”
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After high school, Malone pursued makeup artistry and performed in the queer nightclub scene before studying circus at Melbourne’s National Institute of Circus Arts, where he learned the Washington Trapeze act.
“I saw an opportunity to learn this super random, weird, rare act that I kind of wanted to do and took the opportunity to learn it, took the risk as well. I ended up kind of reinventing the act. I’m really stoked about that.
“It’s super fun. It’s super weird. And that’s what’s fun about it.”
“Spreading my legs for a living” reads Adam Malone’s Instagram bio.
Benji Hardwick
Later, Malone worked with Circus Oz but, approaching 30, felt the call to focus on his own individual circus acts, which infuse burlesque and cabaret.
In La Ronde, not wearing much makeup or any wigs, the performer shows more of his masculine side.
“I start in a suit, and then I have heels and the heels come off, and then the suit comes off and then I’m in a camp girly little lingerie number. It’s really campy. It’s really fun.”
At the end of a week “stomping around the Spiegeltent in eight-inch heels”, Malone says it’s his feet that hurt the most.
Jinki Cambronero
If they “have the balls”, performers have the freedom to do whatever they want within circus traditions, Malone says.
Because they’re doing things the human body isn’t necessarily designed to do but can do, the job is very physically demanding.
“That’s what’s fun about it, but obviously you have to maintain your body. You have to be good to yourself. You have to train. You need to listen to your body.
“I’m exhausted today, but I know that I get my rest when I get home, and I know the steps that I need to do to make sure that I’m going to be fine to do my act every night.
“It’s actually my feet that hurt the most at the end of the week, stomping around the Spiegeltent in eight-inch heels. But it is my choice, my responsibility. We suffer for the art.”
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand