Interview: Allison Blei Goes from Financial Analyst to Aerialist with MR. SWINDLE'S TRAVELING PECULIARIUM
Show will be under the Big Top at Boston's Harpoon Brewery, October 12-November 5
Allison Blei took a leap of faith when she decided to step away from her career as a financial analyst to join the circus – leaving behind her spreadsheets to become an aerialist with a flying trapeze act and to tour the country.
Fate intervened again for the 2002 Florida State University (FSU) finance graduate when, in 2008, she met her husband, Ivan España, an award-winning performing artist of the renowned Flying Españas. Their shared passion for performing and producing led to a creative partnership that has since seen the pair use their artistic synergy to conjure up new acts and ultimately, in 2010, to produce their first live production.
In 2011, the couple – co-owners of Salto Entertainment – launched “The Great Mr. Swindle’s Traveling Peculiarium and Drink-Ory Garden,” a vaudeville-style show that returns to Boston for its second engagement, October 12 through November 5, under the Big Top at Harpoon Brewery in the Seaport district.
By telephone recently from her home in Sarasota, Florida, Blei talked about what Boston audiences can expect from this year’s show, and more.
Where did you learn circus arts?
At FSU in Tallahassee, they have a circus program. My first memory of seeing the FSU Circus is when I was maybe five or six years old and studying gymnastics. My mom said, “You could do that some time.” That really stuck in my head and when I became a finance student there, I took electives in circus arts. After college, I worked in an office job for a few years and then I auditioned to become part of a performing group, “The Flying Pages,” which is when I first became an aerialist and did the flying trapeze.
What have you got planned for this year?
It will be a fresh edition, led by the hilarious comic duo Bananas, and featuring the talents of the bodacious Madame Rotatress as well as the Cylinders, the Spinologist, and the Strongman, and more. And we’re bringing back “Daredevil Chicken,” played by the husband-and-wife team of Jonathan Taylor and Anne Goldmann, who also do the Bananas routine. The entertainment program, created by Mr. B.S. Swindler, known simply as Mr. Swindle, will be preceded by the Drink-Ory Garden, where Dr. Elixir’s adult beverages will be on the menu.
How is Mr. Swindle’s different from other such shows?
The main difference is probably that we’re an adults-only show and we want to shock our audiences. To elicit uproarious laughter, we have to blindside them and take them on a rollercoaster of emotions that both scares and astounds them. We do this with aerialists and some outlandish comedy acts. And this year, for the first time, we’ll have a trampoline wall and three trampoline artists – one from Poland, one from Tennessee, and the third, Ivan’s son and my stepson, Sian, from Sarasota.
Is the show a family affair?
We have a company of more than a dozen performers, four of whom are our family. Sian, 25, is a sixth-generation member of the famous España Family trapeze troupe of Mexico. Our entire family – including Sian, Zore, 27, and my two children with Ivan, Kiano, 12, and Estan, 7, will be together in Boston. Sian will be on the German wheel motorcycle and doing the sky wheel with Ivan, while Zore will be on the cyr wheel and hula hoops, and I will be showing off my aerial skills. Kiano and Estan are not performing yet.
What’s the target audience?
Definitely 21+. It’s not dirty, but astonishing for sure with absurd, unusual visuals. It’s even funnier this year and designed to provide everyone with a feel-good, fun time. We have a new strongman act that is hilarious and should have audiences barreled over with laughter. Our new tour kicks off in Boston and we’ve been preparing for it since April. I’ve watched all the rehearsals, and I laugh harder each day.
Photo caption top: Allison Blei.
Photo caption side: The cast of “The Great Mr. Swindle’s Traveling Peculiarium and Drink-Ory Garden.”
Photos courtesy of “The Great Mr. Swindle’s Traveling Peculiarium and Drink-Ory Garden.”
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