By NICOLE VALICEK
Silvers Circus performer Phoenix Harrison and his ‘Wheel of Steel’. 97838 Picture: DAMJAN JANEVSKI
CIRCUS performer Phoenix Harrison casts a spell of amazement and fear in audiences when he performs under the big top.
The first time audiences meet the circus performer he has jumped on an enormous apparatus that spins ominously under the spotlight inside Silvers Circus grand tent.
During his act called ‘Wheel of Steel’ Phoenix balances on the outside of a tall structure that almost resembles one giant and one small hamster wheel revolving on a central axis.
As the act gets going he starts to pick up the pace, running, using a skipping rope and even blindfolding himself, to the shock of audiences.
Phoenix is also one third of the Phoenix Riders Globe of Death, another adrenaline pumping performance where three motorcycles ride simultaneously inside a metal sphere simultaneously.
The dare-devil built the wheel himself, with the help of his father, and also self-taught the act.
“We dreamt it, built it tried it trained it and perfected it.”
The self-confessed adrenaline junkie said any fears he may have had during the early stages of practicing the act are long gone.
“I love it every second I’m up there.”
The seventh-generation circus performer says the circus is not just a way of life, it is his entire life.
“Since I’ve been a little kid I’ve loved people happy and smiling and in the ring when I see that it finishes my day good, it makes me happy.”
His parents were both world-class performers – his mother was a trapeze artist, his father juggled, his grandmother was a ringmaster and his mother’s father was a lion tamer.
However he and his parents were forced to take a good hiatus from travelling when he was young and fell very ill, the consequence of which was two successful heart surgeries.
The 24-year-old joined Silvers Circus joined the circus full-time at the age of 17 and can’t imagine doing anything else.
“At the end of the day it all falls back on this circus and performing and what I do I love.”
The travelling, the different towns, meeting new people, the daring acts and seeing people smile are daily reminders of why the circus means everything to Phoenix.
Phoenix says the ringmaster, clowns, jugglers, trapeze artists and all of the performers are his family, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.
