Wanderlust Circus

Wanderlust Circus
Origin
Country	United States
Founder(s)	Noah Mickens Nick Harbar
Year founded	2006
Information
Traveling show?	Yes
Circus tent?	No
Type of acts	Acrobalance, Aerial dance, Belly dancing, Burlesque, Contortionist, Cowboy clown, Freestyle BMX
Website	wanderlustcircus.com

Wanderlust Circus is a theatrical circus troupe based in Portland, Oregon, which began in 2006 and since 2009 has had a branch in San Diego, California, known as Wanderlust Circus South. The two organizations collaborate to produce shows up and down the U.S. west coast. Wanderlust Circus, under the direction of founders Noah Mickens and Nick "the Creature" Habar, is known for showcasing circus, music, and specialty acts, usually with an accompanying original storyline.

Fictional Backstory

William Batty and his spirit cousins, the members of the Wanderlust Circus, are blessed and cursed with conditional immortality: should they ever leave the circus life, their long years will catch up with them leaving them old or even dead. Batty and the Wanderlust Circus all come from different time periods - Victorian England, the Old West, swing-era New York and even the present day. Batty himself is over two hundred years old. Shows follow the troupe's adventures on the road with simple comic stories providing the through line between acts.

History

Wanderlust Circus began in 2006 as a collaboration between Noah Mickens (a.k.a. William Batty) and Nick "the Creature" Harbar.

The two first teamed up in 2006^[1] to form two separate but related circus shows: Wanderlust Circus headed by Harbar, and Batty's Hippodrome, led by Mickens,^[2] whose circus and stage names came from a Victorian Era circus and its Ringmaster respectively.

The pair founded the Hippodrome Circus Arts Center,^[3] which opened on November 17, 2007 on the lower floor of what is now the Rotture-Branx^[4] venue complex. The Hippodrome venue was short-lived, and when the owner of the complex decided not to let that venue continue in 2008, Mickens and Harbar combined their respective circuses under the Wanderlust name. Wanderlust eventually settled into the Bossanova Ballroom, and proceeded to put on a series of shows that lasted through 2010.

Some of these shows were seasonally recurring, such as the White Album Christmas show (in collaboration with The Nowhere Band, aka the No Star All Star Band, featuring members of the MarchFourth Marching Band, Solovox, Stereovision, and others)^[5] and the Cirque L’Amour show^[1] for Valentine’s day. Other shows tell the legendary backstory of the Wanderlust Circus itself, including The Rose Rush^[6] which featured Eric Stern of Vagabond Opera.

Another collaboration between Wanderlust Circus and Vagabond Opera occurred in 2010 when the opera Queen of Knives debuted in Portland.^[7] This opera was written and produced by Eric Stern and directed by Noah Mickens. It featured cast members from Vagabond Opera, as well as others, including Nagasita (Tiare Tashnick),^[8] a belly dancer who frequently performs with Wanderlust Circus. Nagasita also collaborates with Wanderlust Circus to produce the dark fantasy theatrical series Bogville, which she co-directs with Mickens.

In 2011, Wanderlust introduced two new show formats. Megabounce^[9] which premiered on March 12, 2011, is an audience participation format in which the circus acts are set to dubstep dance music, featuring both a prerecorded soundtrack and some prominent live DJ’s. The audience gets to watch the show while dancing to the music and participating in such activities as balloon volleyball and being covered with glitter shot from homemade cannons. The Wanderlust Circus Orchestra features an old-time Vaudeville style circus set to vintage music with short comedy skits in between the main circus acts, in a format reminiscent of the Spike Jones television show.

In 2009,^[10] Alexander Dial, one of the Wanderlust acrobats, left Portland to return to his home in San Diego, and there established his own circus production company called Otherwise Entertainment. After a year spent establishing his new troupe, Mr Dial has taken on the name of Wanderlust Circus for both his existing and future projects in San Diego. As a result, Wanderlust Circus now consists of two distinct but intertwined branches. and these two organizations collaborate to produce shows all up and down the west coast from northern Washington to southern California.

Cultural context

Wanderlust Circus is part of a Bohemian movement of circus and cabaret artists in the Pacific NW, which began to show its face around the turn of the 21st Century. Early examples of this movement include MarchFourth Marching Band (2003, Portland OR),^[11] Circus Contraption (Seattle, WA) and the Yard Dogs Road Show (San Francisco, CA), all of whom have collaborated with Wanderlust Circus and some of its previous incarnations. The two founders and directors of the troupe, Noah Mickens and Nick "The Creature" Harbar, each have a long history of producing, directing, and performing in circus shows in the Northwest.

Nick "The Creature" Harbar was born and raised on the road. His parents, Mary Ann Willis and Greg Harbar, were the center of a Houston musical ensemble called The Gypsies^[12] starting in the 1960s; and played a large role in bringing traditional Romani musicians to the United States and publishing many of their traditional songs for the first time through Mel Bay Music.^[13] Creature himself first gained notoriety in San Francisco as a show producer and facilities manager at influential art collective CELLSpace.^[14] While living and working there, he and partner Mike Templeton produced and directed a dinner show called Circo Romani,^[15] with musical director Zhenya Kolykhanov of The Red Elvises. Their production company was called The Wanderlust Company. Creature moved to Portland in 2006 and contacted Noah Mickens about working together.^[16]

Noah Mickens has created and performed in a great number of shows in Portland and elsewhere dating back to 2000, starting with his experimental music and performance series 36 Invisibles, and working on the board of directors for 2Gyrlz Performative Arts.^[17] Mickens' first circus venture was Cicuri Curajul, a "fake Romanian Circus" co-produced with Tony St Clair, which debuted on April 25, 2004 at the Crystal Ballroom.^[17] Upon the abrupt dissolution of Cicuri Curajul, Mickens and fire martial arts performer David the "Fireninja" founded a ritual performance troupe called Societas Insomnia^[18] which lasted from 2004 to 2007. Societas Insomnia featured a variety of performance types meant to evoke a world of nightmares, including fire dancing, suspension (body modification), and butoh, along with traditional circus acts and Tuvan throat singing by Enrique Ugalde a.k.a. Soriah, who portrayed the sun. In 2005, Mickens also co-founded and toured with The 999 Eyes of Endless Dream Carnival,^[2] an underground freak show, now the 999 Eyes Freakshow, as ringmaster and Master of Ceremonies. While serving as Creative Director of an art bar called Someday Lounge, Mickens returned to a more traditional circus format with a show called Batty's Hippodrome in 2006. Just a few months later, along came Nick the Creature.

By this time, the Bohemian movement of circus, cabaret, marching bands, burlesque, and freakshows had spread all over the world; with noteworthy centers of activity at New York City's Coney Island, New Orleans, and Los Angeles; and other troupes starting in almost every city.

Core Troupe

• Noah Mickens as William Batty, the immortal ringmaster of the Wanderlust Circus, and band leader of the Wanderlust Circus Orchestra. Batty is based on the Victorian-era ringmaster of the same name.

• Nick "the Creature" Harbar is Wanderlust Circus' technical director, and from time to time plays an exaggerated version of himself in shows.

• NagaSita, aka Tiare Tashnick, Wanderlust Circus' premier belly dancer

• Paulina Muñoz and Alicia Doerrie of A-WOL Dance are Wanderlust Circus' principal acrobatics and acrobatic flyers, performing solos and as a duo.

• Jon Dutch and Scott Maxwell are acrobatic bases and strongmen

• Russell Bruner is a vaudevillian swing dancer, who was crowned King of Burlesque in 2012. Bruner's most frequent dance partner in Wanderlust Circus is Paulina Muñoz.

• David "Leapin' Louie" Lichtenstein, an Old West cowboy clown who does lasso tricks, cracks whips, rides unicycles, and juggles.

• Blake Hicks is a trick cyclist known for his balancing acts and personally customized blue LED "Tron bike."

Noteworthy guest performers, collaborators, and performances

Recurring guest performers in the Wanderlust Circus have included:^[10] the acrobatic troupe Kazüm;^[19] the A-WOL Dance Collective,;^[19] hand balancers Brittany Walsh and Keph Sherin; tap dancing sax player Shoehorn; aerial contortionist Meg Russell; Vaughn Murray as Barnaby the Bear; vaudevillian duet The Bellini Twins; jugglers Charlie Brown, Curt Carlyle, and Rhys Thomas; stiltwalkers Sid Simpatico, J'miah Guske, Scarlett Rose, Ari Lynn, Dawn Laderer, and J-Money; juggler and sword swallower Luther Bangert; dancers Sugar Kane and Karolina Lux; and comic actors Jay Lieber, Burk Biggler, and Tommy Twimble.

Outside musical collaborators include The Nowhere Band, The Stolen Sweets, The Trashcan Joe Orchestra, The March Fourth Marching Band, Vagabond Opera, and 3 Leg Torso. Wanderlust has shared the stage with Primus, The Jim Rose Circus, Yard Dogs Road Show, Circus Contraption, Skinny Puppy, Vau De Vire Society, Gooferman, Electric Dollhouse, and DJ Assault.

Wanderlust Circus has performed at numerous noteworthy locales:^[10] the inaugural party for Mayor Sam Adams at City Hall, The Electric Daisy Carnival in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, Oregon Country Fair, The Portland Rose Festival, and performed a specially choreographed epic circus on and around the 60-foot steel fire sculptures of The Big Art Experience at American Steel Studios.^[20]

References