SIGNUM * Bindlestiff Family Cirkus * MARROW

The fabulous Miss Una is an aerialist extraordinaire, performing on the Lira (a suspended ring), the trapeze, and Corde Lisse (slippery rope). She's worked with many of the big ring circuses doing everything from riding elephants to driving trucks, before deciding to throw her lot in with the much smaller Bindlestiffs. "When I was with the bigger outfits, if I had an idea about the show, there wasn't much chance of actually seeing it implemented. With the Bindlestiffs, everyone has some input into the show. Besides, these are my best friends, the people that I want to be around."

The Cirkus's one man band, Corn Mo, played at the same bar in Texas at which the Cirkus was playing one night, and afterwards, the Cirkus members said to themselves, "That's something we've got to have!" Now every night he duct-tapes his Cassio to an aluminum folding walker and plays his accordion – which is blessedly possessed by the spirits of David Lee Roth, Tiny Tim, and Willie Wonka. Often, he stops midway through his song 'Epi-lady' to tell a rambling story about loading trucks for a living and the petty tyranny of his bosses, and how he discovered, in the bathroom, a solution to his workaday woes. Corn Mo concludes with an offer to call anyone who is having a bad day at work and sing them a song accompanied by accordion, over the phone. All they have to do is email him at cornmo@hotmail.com and leave their work number; skeptics may be assured that the offer is genuine.

Magic Brian is a master of prestidigitation, and has been studying magic for 15 years. Last year he left his job as a writer and producer for VH1. "I had done one tour with the Cirkus. When I got back to my job I said to myself 'Why am I doing this? This sucks!’ Traveling with the Cirkus and doing magic is what I really want to be doing."

Dr. Henceforth Flummox tends to the Cirkus's morally ambiguous ailments through the rituals of psychic surgery and as the resident insectivore and glass walker. "The cirkus is a display of festivity and absurdity which is an extension of the basic sideshow; while so much radical art is nihilistic, the B.F.C. is the opposite. I find it interesting to see what's going on with the audience during the shows; they get drawn into an imaginary space that they can participate in, an atmosphere of total play. This seems very utopian to me. I don't want to be preached to even if I agree with what's being preached; I want to be totally engaged with a performance where the impossible seems possible."

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