The First 24

I was swooped up at the airport by my dear spirit friends Mystic and Argent.  We then met up with Maya the Grand and went on a surprising mission with Grimm and Felix as our targets.  2 attempts were made, one solo complete success, the other a trio hiding that was mostly successful.  It took me only a few minutes to have fans in my hand.  The spinning had commenced! Being surrounded by people of my craft is AMAZING!   How can i possibly pass up an opportunity to play?

Argent and I dropped the girls at rehearsal.  The three of them, plus my dear friend Andy Swanson are working with a children’s theater company.  This month’s production was Aladdin.  Maya, Andy, and Mystic act and Argent is the super duper tech set man.   We drove to the theater, unloaded tools, and took a stroll down the promenade to the Santa Monica beach and enjoyed the Ferris wheel.

We returned to the A & M lair to prepare for a party, which meant i got to play dress up in mystic’s closet!  The way they have utilized their space is inspiring.  Argent built floor to ceiling shelves as well as a loft space.  The loft had a wonderful bed waiting in for me and i officially dubbed it ‘My Nest. ”  After trying on many outfits we ended up spending the night in, eating guac and chips.  And then a got a call from Felix the Fire Cat asking if i was available to  perform at a private party the next night.

Saturday Argent and I took my first trip to the fashion  district and noshed on bacon covered hot dogs, plantain chips, mangoes and watermelon. I see why LA is such a performance mecca.  There is everything you could possibly want or need for costume making.  There are blocks upon blocks of fabric stores, rhinestone shops, costuming items, trim, shoes (although they were all too small for me) sunglasses, accessories, bobbly bits and more! After procuring fabric for the projection screen, Argent and I had a paper mache day making the pillars for the town for Agrabar.

I had a crazy bus ride to Santa Monica complete with a singing man and dude who makes his living selling glow toys to tourists on the beach.

After a tranquil dinner, Felix dressed me up even more and we headed to the gig.  It was a private birthday Mardi Gras party at a warehouse near LAX complete with fancy couches and outdoor heaters. After a couple warm up spins, I went into full on flow attack mode.  It was the most fire i had spun in a really long time.  The crowd loved us!  I was really surprised that they were captivated for 4 hours with just two of us spinners.   I officially fell in love with a new fire tool called helix poi.  It is a combination of fire ropes, monkey fist poi and nun chucks. Just as i was getting tired, a new wave of energy came rolling through in the form of Maya, Mystic, and Andy.  There were two virgin spins that night.  The complete wonder-filled ah hah moment of fires first kiss is…….why i love teaching so much.  To be able to give someone that gift is neat!

We spun ourselves silly then headed to Denny’s for a little re-charge.  I was so tired and hungry at this point that i ended up half sleeping in Andy’s lap until the food arrived.  We were having a gay old time singing show tunes and laughing ourselves silly.  Our happiness seemed to fill the restaurant.  We got approached by a  group of folks from a dungeon around the corner who wanted us to come perform at their club.  They liked our style and thought we would be perfect for their venue.

So there you have it, my first 24 hours in LA…….and i will continue to say that it is the marvelous people that make this journey amazing!