The Spiegeltent is currently in Salamanca Place, Hobart. One of the shows on at the moment is called Velvet and stars Marcia Hynes. Hobart appears to be a happening place. There are large crowds of happy looking young people and not so young people thronging around the harbour and Salamanca place. Both day and night. The city area is pleasantly inhabited by mostly young looking professionals. There is approximately one cruise liner per day in the harbour. This adds some glamour to the ambience. Not all the people who throng the area at night appear to be tourists. People get off the cruise liners and take the tour of Hobart. But this is during the day. At night even without the crowd from the cruise liners Salamanca place environ is really happening. We went to a show at the Spiegeltent. This was a mixture of trapeze acts, solo drum performer, juggler, hoola hoop dancer and Marcia Hynes. The show was Ok but I had seen it all before. Many times. The trapeze act was similar if not identical to any travelling country circus act of the fifties. The solo drum performer apart from the modern high tech amplification was the same as any pretentious drum solo from the late 60's. The hoola hoop act was the same as any in 1956. It was new in that it was a man instead of a woman who initially pretended to be gay and no good at hoola hoop dancing but of course he turned out to be whiz at twirling hoola hoops. And he was entertaining. His hula hoops were electrified and glowed. He could make them look psychedelic. He could make patterns. His body language was believable and he played up to the audience. He danced well. During the show the noise was turned up to 11 and vibrated through your body. His act was no exception. Marcia sang a few songs and took part in the theatrics but her amplification was also up to 11. She did appear to be singing live but she could have been miming - it was hard to be sure. Marcia is a big girl and has put on weight as she has got older. And she has not put much effort into covering up her stomach or keeping her figure. Have all performers stopped resorting to proper foundation garments? I regret this. Marcia should try and be sexual. She could make herself much sexier by wearing corsets. She did not sing any solo ballads that suit her voice. As always in these situations I turned my attention away from the stage and looked to the audience for my entertainment. Just what did their faces say? What information could I glean? What prompted them to come to this show for example? Some were bopping in their seats. A lot were smiling. All were looking with intense interest. A lot were entering into the spirit of the show and responding whatever the artist was doing. Not a lot of the audience were young. Not a lot were old. Most were over middle age. Were there more men than woman? Maybe. But not many. Mostly they were couples. Some were groups of girls out by themselves for the night. All appeared to be hungry for entertainment. The question is - who were these people and where did they come? What are their back stories. What are their lives like? What motivates them? Who are they? People who could afford it I suppose. The show was on and people are looking for entertainment. During the day there was a girl busker in Salamanca place who had more talent than any of the performers. And she was more entertaining. She sang like an angel. I would like to know her name. Her picture is on the Salamanca Place website but her name is not mentioned. I regret not buying a cd from her when I was offered one. When I was 10 or 11 a circus came to town and in entertainment starved Moyhu of course we children insisted on going. One of the acts was a man with two horses. He could ride both horses standing up with a foot on each horse. Part of his act was boasting to excess about how good he was and he asked if anyone in the audience could also do this. There was plenty of children who put their hands up claiming they could and I was one of them. I hadn't ridden two horses side by side but I could certainly ride a horse standing up in the saddle cossack style. Maybe I was the first to jump in the ring because I was picked to take part in his act. His act was to question me as to what I could do and to act surprised and disbelieving at my answers. He didnt believe I could do what I said I could so after asking me to take off my shoes he bunked me up on the horse and attached a safety harness to my waist. I had no problem doing two circuits of the ring standing up and he made the comment "just my luck to get a smart alec kid" which of course brought the house down. He then pulled on the safety harness which lifted me off the horse and made me rise up high in the air and swing around in even smaller and quicker concentric circles. This caused oohs and aaghs in the audience. I was up fairly high. He then said 'get on the trapeze and see what you can do then seeing your such a smart alec" and the audience again laughed but he was joking this time and let me slowly down to where we both took bows to nice applause. I was aware I was flying around through the air and I enjoyed it. I would have even tried the trapeze if I was allowed. I was always jumping on stage when I was young when visiting stage shows and circuses came to Moyhu. There was a lot in those days. The Blind Concert. The Deaf Concert. An RSL fundraiser. A Sports Day concert. Maybe two circuses a year. I saw a very young Slim Dusty sing two songs that if my memory serves me well were before Pub with no Beer. I remember laughing uncontrollably at the clowns and comedians. Uncontrollably. Of course that was before I grew old and cynical.
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