Photos by Taylor Bishop and Sierra LaDuke
The Alwun House hosted the Mystic Circus, an erotic, sexual and demented series of acts designed to test the moral limits of its audience, this Saturday. The show featured juggling, glass dancing, burlesque, fire twirling and everything in between.
“We’re not unwilling to push boundaries and really have a great time with people, and test the boundaries of what people believe and what they don’t believe, and kind of shake up the order of things,” performer and co-host Rush Hicks said.
The Mystic Circus got its start when Hicks relocated to Phoenix from New York. Hicks then discovered a group of talented, pain-tolerant performers to accompany him in his endeavors.
“We’re the most progressive midway circus that I’ve ever seen, but it’s not about me, it’s about my performers,” Hicks said. “We’re pushing the circus world into another stage.”
The circus was right at home with the Alwun House in the Garfield Historic District, which has a history of hosting similarly edgy events.
“Alwun House gallery and arts space is known for the widest range of unparalleled, unbridled noir-burlesque cirque productions over the years,” said Kim Moody, founding director of the Alwun House.
Moody also described the experience as “phantasmagorical.”
Hicks’ performers said they enjoyed the environment of the circus.
“(This circus) is so open and free and relaxed with everything,” glass dancer Lia Fowler said. “We’re all one big happy family.”
The show began like a Coney Island-themed side show, which featured a juggling act and a lesson on the do’s and don’ts of glass dancing. The opening also featured Hicks stretching a condom over his head and blowing it up with his nose.
The circus then transitioned into a darker theme, where performer Marissa Melon was suspended over the stage by needles inserted through her bare skin as she played a sexual version of Satan.
Video by Sierra LaDuke and Taylor Bishop
Although the act looked extremely painful, Melon said otherwise.
“I have a pretty high pain tolerance,” Melon said. “I do heavy breathing and meditation.”
Hicks was then sent to hell as a performer by setting his back on fire.
The fire theme continued as a performer engaged Hicks in a flaming hula-hoop act, in which she lit two hoops over an open flame, and performed for Hicks as his “personal fire nymph.”
At the end of the first act, each performer sold raffle tickets in order for audience members to win a chance to “flog” Melon in the next act as her 21st birthday present.
The second act opened with Melon performing a skillful acrobatic hula-hoop routine above the stage.
Afterward, burlesque dancer Lily La Vamp performed a routine, and then proceeded to pour hot candle wax all over her body.
The next act called for five audience members to have a sex-noise competition in a game of R-rated human “Simon Says.”
The show ended with an impressive sword-swallowing act performed by Hicks. He forced an entire sword down his throat after pushing a needle through his skin to make the act more challenging.
After the show was over, Hicks and Fowler (also known as Cookie the Clown) encouraged the audience to staple dollar bills directly to their bodies.
The audience seemed to appreciate the uniqueness of their experience.
“They play with the audience, they’re erotic, they’re fun,” audience member Dennis Bertoli said. “(My family and I) have never missed one.”
“There’s an exotic aspect to this circus that you don’t find in a typical circus,” said another audience member, Holly Shoemaker.
Even though this event could be potentially viewed as offensive, the performers felt oppositely.
“We’re not trying to upset people or hurt people’s feelings, we’re just having fun,” Hicks said.
The next Mystic Circus performance will be on Oct. 11, again coinciding with Second Saturday. For more information, visit the Alwun House website.
Contact the reporter at Jillian.Carapella@asu.edu
