Behind the Big Top: Abigail Munn and the Magic of Circus Bella

0:00 Green Room On Air. Green Room On Air. The podcast that takes you beyond the velvet earth and into the pulsating heart of the entertaining world. Music. Hello friends, you have reached Green Room On Air and I am your host Ray Vernotti. It's so good to see you again. It's been a little while since I've been here in the Green Room. I've been pretty darned busy. I got the COVID again, which was an interesting experience, which I've gotten over, but it left me with a little insomnia. But I'm keeping on, keeping on. Hey, today, we have a great guest for you. Her name is Abigail Munn.

0:42 She's been on this show a few times in the past. And she's on again today. And we're going to have a little tour of the backstage of her circus, which is called Circus Bella. Abigail has been the director and ringmaster of Circus Bella for many years. She is a longtime circus professional here in San Francisco and a good friend of the Green Room. And I'm so happy she's going to be here today in a couple of minutes for you to listen to or watch, depending on whether you're on the podcast or watching on YouTube. For those who are interested I'm in a show right now it's called Truce, and it's at City Lights Theater in San Jose we have one weekend left we close on the 22nd of December Sunday, it's a very moving show to play with music it's been very well received by the audiences got a great review in the San Jose Mercury News and so I think that you will love it.

1:50 It's again at the City Lights Theatre. In san jose california just search city lights theater san jose california if you're interested in going and the play is called truce it's about it's a true story about when, a german battalion and a british battalion in the trenches of world war one stopped fighting to celebrate christmas together and it's about a lot more than that also it's about relationships between men and women during that time and a whole lot of other things like parental.

2:30 Relationships to the soldiers and other stuff and i think you'll like it so check that out but now let's get on to my conversation with the fantabulous abigail munn the director and ringmaster of circus bella and before that let me just let you know that they have a new show out and it's called kaleidoscope it opened last weekend and it will continue through january 5th, it's a it's a tent circus with clowns and all kinds of people doing amazing physical stuff, that seems impossible but will leave your mind blown kaleidoscope a winter big top spectacular through January 5th.

3:24 You can get your tickets at circusbella.org. That's circus, C-I-R-C-U-S, Bella, B-E-L-L-A.org. Circusbella.org, kaleidoscope. And our guest is Abigail Munn. Hey, if you like this podcast or if you're watching on YouTube, please subscribe. If you're watching on YouTube, hit the thumbs up. If you're listening on a podcast, please subscribe on whatever podcast platform you're using whether it be spotify or apple podcast or any of the hundreds of others that are out there all right folks without any further ado, i bring you abigail munn so when you say you're at the circus what does that mean, Well, I'm backstage at the circus right now.

4:17 I'm showing you, I guess this is a podcast so you can't see, but here's some clown shoes. Whoa, clown shoes. They're orange and red and yellow and huge. They're orange and they're actually specially made in Mexico, custom made in Mexico for our clown. So by a Mexican clown shoe maker. Well if you're gonna get clown shoes that's the way to do it i guess it's the only way yes so is this your tent that you're at or or so this is this is our tent we're getting ready for the our winter show kaleidoscope no which we open on december 13th and we will run through january 5th and we're down at the cross and at east cut we're excited is this your third time doing this with the tent so this is our third time doing it with the tent and our second time in this location so we were here last year at this time yeah so and then the other year before that we were in treasure yeah so yeah there's lots on at all times here well this is probably a better location than treasure island isn't it there's less wind different we like treasure less wind oh and we're in such a central downtown amazing location you know there's it's really fun we're right in the

5:52 middle of the city which i love yes it's it's a beautiful area there. Yeah what's it called the east cut what's the crossing at east cut so it's this kind of newish neighborhood it used to be called rincon hill and now it's the cross scene at east cut and it's really amazing densely populated really lots of different kinds of people living here in this very urban setting yeah i grew up in san francisco it looks all new and weird but i think it's pretty cool yeah because well like when we were growing up there that was all just warehouses and things.

6:34 Like that, right? Yeah. Now it's a lively urban area, as you say. Yeah, it's beautiful. So what are some of the acts you're going to have during this Christmas time in your kaleidoscope? So we have kaleidoscope. kaleidoscope we have this year a beautiful slack rope walker whose name is esther de monte flores and she balances on a rope so there's tight rope that's not what we're doing it's loose it's a loose rope and she's a beautiful dancer moving balancer on this rope we have eric allen and he's here from san diego and he stacks he's stacking a bazillion chairs and he's going and doing handstands on all the tops of all these chairs.

7:24 That's going to be really fun. And then we have aerialists, Dora Galilea and Veronica Blair, Circus Bella favorites. We have our clown trio and they've been working on some new material. They're very funny. We brought in our favorite, we brought in this amazing clown coach, Michelle Matlock, and she came in and worked with the clown. And so they've been working hard all weekend where it's hard to be funny. And then of course there's the circus Bella, our band. We cannot forget about our amazing, amazing, amazing band. Yes. So tell me why the band is so important to you.

8:07 I think it's like, we're in live in a live theater and anything can happen. And the band is working with the artists and the artists are working with the band and we have all of our music has been specially written for the show. So it's just like amazing. I don't know, it's just like, it's, I don't know, our band for us, I was just talking with one of our artists. It's like they're just they're so much a part this live music is so much a part of our show and what's fun here in the tent is we actually put the band up high i'm just going here maybe it'll be a little bit better reception that's actually cool because i can have the video for this too and so some people will be able to see it if you if it's okay yeah yeah should we go outside and yeah sure but i think it's super fun because the band oh wow the band is part of, who we are as in fact we can even go we're going to take a little tour this is a this is our first interactive interview i'm trying to take it up i love it we can take a look at the bandstand here so we're gonna yeah and we can kind of take a little tour of the tent here we are inside the tent and people are rehearsing and people were kind of still setting up and then if you see over here we have the oh there's someone there there's people are kind of working I mean, that's where the band's going to be up there. Oh, neat.

9:30 So they're on a platform. Yeah, they're up on a platform. So they're above. The curtain's not hung yet, but the artists will come out this curtain. And the band is kind of up in their own. Space oh cool can we talk to some of the the artists there sure i'm recording a podcast, does anybody with anyone want to be that podcast that's great so this is this is it's called green room with ray renati and it's a local theater podcast and this is awesome this is we're doing this very impromptu right now so this is ori quesada and he's a beloved member of the circus hello hello unique and unusual rollabola act so do you want to you can talk yeah sure tell me about your act yeah so i do a rollabola act but my style rollabola it's it's a lot more traditional chinese acrobatic style that was like my background is in chinese acrobatics so i'm balancing metal a metal bowl on my head and i put metal bowls on the edge of a longer rollabola board as i'm bouncing it and I them onto my head.

10:40 So I throughout my act, I stack up and then I do like a cup and a spoon and everything. So yeah. Wow. How does one decide to get into that? That's incredible. It's a good question. So basically I'm, I'm from the city. I'm from San Francisco and my family's from here. And I started training when I was like seven years old here in San francisco and it just so happens that the main teachers at the circus school here were formerly part of the nanjing acrobatic troop in china and so i yeah i like did a summer camp and then was asked to start training and yeah trained from like 7 to 18 in chinese acrobatics and performed with their their youth circus it was like an acrobatic troop so yeah so like a lot of those things yeah.

11:33 They take a lot of those, those things that take so much skill, you have to start when you're young and sounds like you did. Kinda. Yeah. Yeah. I started training this act when I was like about like 16. So I had been training for like almost 10 years, just in kind of everything. When you do acrobatics, kind of do a little bit of everything, but this act was specifically given to me the solo act that I've been doing just forever. Nice. Yeah. And what is your name again? I couldn't hear. My name's Ori. O-R-I. Oh. Quesada. Yeah. Okay. Well, thanks. Yeah. I'm looking forward to seeing that. I'm not exactly sure what it is, but I think I got it. Yeah.

12:18 Awesome. This is fun. All right. I think everyone else is kind of working. We've got lights and sound going up. And then we have, if you go over, you can't really see there's a contortionist. I see that. with her coach in the back i do see her yeah wow and we're doing rigging and things so we'll go back out of this kind of loud in here but that's fun this is fun little welcome to the backstage lot of circus bella yeah oh this is exciting yeah now you only have one animal right which is your dog we have the dog the dog will be doing pre-show at some events so but yeah finley the dog is isn't has been in rehearsals every day and ready to go so so how how much are you able to rehearse the whole for how long are you able to rehearse in the tent there not enough so we start rehearsals a couple weeks prior at our rehearsal space in oakland and then we're about we're able to rehearse for about a week in the tent before the show goes up i mean that's what's sort of i think unusual about circus compared to other theaters like we are building this village.

13:32 Yeah you're actually building the theater so we're we start from scratch bear a lot and then put up the space and then put up the lights and then put up everything you know it's that's i think what's sort of magical is we're really creating the whole venue not just going into a venue we're really making we make the whole we're making build the whole space ourselves, Yeah, that's a big commitment. It's redonkulous. I have, you know, I'm often I'm like in the middle of the night. I'm like, what am I? There's this moment, too. I always have like that when the trucks are about to arrive and you're like, make it. What have I done?

14:16 Make it stop. I can't. Oh, here we go. But the show is really great. And the cast is gorgeous. And and this year we're building a little bit. What's great is this is the second year in the same location. And there's some things about the show that we're sort of taking last year. I keep saying Kaleidoscope 2024 is like 2023, but better. So, you know, there's things that I wanted to change that we were, you know, once a show goes up, you're kind of there. I mean, you can make minor tweaks, but sort of making some larger shifts, knowing more about the space and the venue and all the things. So, and then some of the acts are different just because life happens in.

14:57 And so, so is there a theme to the show or is it, or the acts just sort of all put together in a wonderful way or is there like a. I would say it's more of the B. I mean, I think it's to me, what this show is about is kind of sort of celebrating the beauty and the pictures that we all make together on the stage kind of like a kaleidoscope it's like, i don't know it's sort of there's not it's not a real story yeah and there is definitely thought about the journey that we're going to take you on and it's not going to be like it's very narrative story but i think.

15:40 I try very hard to make sure, you know, and actually even musically, we're going to take you different kind of emotions, feelings, textures, colors, you know, big groups acts where we really, I swear we can't fit one more person on the stage to a solo performer by themselves in the ring, kind of having that experience. And so there's, you kind of run the whole thing and there's funny, goofy things. And then there's, yeah, more, more, uh, I don't know, emotional parts of the show. And the music can really punctuate the different. Yeah. Well, that's, we actually, it's sort of Rob and I always think about when we're working the score, like how, what is this kind of journey?

16:21 Like, you know, when you listen to an album, maybe it's not necessarily a story, but it kind of all fits. I mean, we don't listen to albums anymore, but I try to. I do. I have my record player. right here and i listen to my like there was like off in a wonderful album there's an intention of the journey it goes through and i we kind of we do that same thing great great have you had any. Interesting challenges this year and getting this going this has been blessed like we had every interesting challenge that you can imagine last year and so this year has been, really, I mean, it's tech week is tech week, but it's been pretty smooth sailing, but that's, it's only because we've done our time. Let me tell you about last year.

17:05 I think we didn't have one thing go right. We're just swimming uphill the whole time. And so here, you know, it's been some long days, but we're kind of like feeling a little nervous. It's like, this is all going too well so but it's you know it's we're still standing by for an interesting challenge to occur and but we've been we've been amazingly on schedule the whole time which is i cannot say that the last year like the interesting challenge i'll share last year's interesting challenge because we were we've been still joking about it was we found out we had to get an engineering so we have to get an engineering stamp for then a pull test for our fire prints we have to make sure that we have to have an engineer come out and test everything and we're like who does circus tense so finding an engineer and then we finally get this engineer who flies in he's like okay do you have your dynamometer and we're like you're the what the dynamometer like i'm like texting our product or one of our.

18:05 Production staff, I was like, Jack, do we have a dynamometer? And what's a dynamometer? So, you know, scramble ensues. I do a last minute drive. We find one. It's in Redwood City. I run, I get the dynamometer before the shop closes, before the guy, the engineer who's flying back to Seattle. So anyways, things like that. It was just- What is a dynamometer? I've never heard of I'll tell you what a dynamometer is. It's a device that measures the force of pull. So what we do is we have to, what they want us, the engineer wants to see is to make sure that the tent, the stakes are going to really hold the weight of the tent. So we bring in somebody and you test that the force, the stakes can hold.

18:50 Oh, I guess that's kind of important. So that's what a dynamometer is. Yeah, that's good because you want the tent to stay up when there's people in it. We do want it to stay up when there's people in it. I think I've heard in the news. This morning we had our parents' section and we faced it. I remember hearing in the news at some time, like circus tents collapsing in foreign countries on people or something like that. They do. I mean, there is. But that won't happen here because you have the dynamometer. Because we're tested. And also, you know, it's like if there's over 50 mile an hour winds, we are canceling the show. You're not going in this tent. You know, there's like, we do have all sorts of, you know, emergency things because we want to stay safe.

19:34 Now, how do you balance all of the roles that you have? Like, are you good at delegating or do you just take everything on yourself? I'm terrible at delegating. So you exhaust yourself. But no, we have, that's not true. I have a spectacular team. So we have Carlo, the production manager, my right-hand man, and we have Jack Weinstock, who's the kind of also our kind of company artisan and roustabout and other kind of useful person. And then we have a fantastic house manager, Rhonda. So between that, we're in pretty good hands. That makes a big difference. That makes a huge difference. And I just work all the time. This is my kid, you know. I don't have kids. I have this circus instead. So I...

20:19 So what's a day in the life of the circus for you? Like now, like for example, this morning, I got up at six. Okay. It was a little, it didn't sleep so well. I got up at six and then got to the lot by seven 30. So we could set up the chairs for our fire inspection. Yeah. So we did that and then we did, then we had rehearsal from 10 to one. So I led rehearsal from 10 to one. Then I had a phone call with the Girl Scouts troop because we're planning a Girl Scout day outing at the 10th. And then I'll probably be here mucking around with some boxes and some chairs and answering a few emails. We have an event. We're doing a promotional event at one 11 minute tomorrow night. So I got to have to deal with that a little bit and think about what I'm going to say as a ringmaster for that. And then, oh, and then I'm going to drive to San Bruno somewhere.

21:09 I'm going to eat and I might have a cup of coffee that I'm going to eat. And then I'm going to drive to San Bruno and I'm speaking in front of, of, of arts, a community board in San Bruno, because we're going to bring the summer show to San Bruno next year and tell that we're okay. And then on the way home, I'm going to pick up some costumes for tomorrow's rehearsal. Oh my gosh. So that's, that's today. And then it's just like day after day like that. Something will happen. But I'll eat and drink coffee. And while I'm in the car, I practice my lines and I'm singing in the car. So on the way to San Bruno, I'll be singing, running through my vocal warm-ups and practicing my songs.

21:50 Wow. I love it. That's my day. Gosh. And then I'll take a very hot bath and boil it myself like a lobster and then do it all tomorrow. It's wonderful. Well, you must love it to be able to do that every day. Oh, it's super. And it's not, this is, we're under extreme. It's not, it's not, this is, this is as busy as it gets. Like this week is bonkers. The little trip to San, unexpected trip to San Bruno. I was like, really? Okay. Yeah. I mean, you have to say, because they're going to give us some money to do the show, but I was like, could we not have picked a better day? But okay. In the middle of traffic. Oh, it's awful. Well, luckily I don't have to be there until seven.

22:30 So it'll be after traffic. Oh, that's good. That's good. Well, people should go on your website and look at all the stuff you have on there. There's a video of last year's Kaleidoscope. I guess it's last year. Yeah, there's a video of last year's Kaleidoscope. And it really gives you a good idea of how much fun it is. I really enjoyed it. It's just real short, but it looks like it's wonderful. It's really fun. It's a really nice video. You really get a feeling of what our show is about. And I feel like, yeah, we're just an injection of joy and sparkle. Yeah. Which I kind of need right now. So tell us again when the show is happening. So the show is runs December 13th through January 5th.

23:15 And to get tickets, you could go to circusbella.org and buy your tickets there. And yeah, that's great. That's I think that's all you need to know. You should buy it tomorrow. We're selling tickets. Yeah, it's going to sell out. So get them sooner than later. Sooner than later yeah all right well thanks abigail that's awesome thank you thanks for the impromptu tour of the circus oh yeah that was fun yeah.