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Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Bent out of shape

My piece on training to be an acrobat in today's Irish Examiner

There will be even more clowning around than usual on the streets of Dublin this weekend when the Urban Circus hits town for day of stilt walking, juggling and all-round acrobatic fun.

If you think that your job requires you to be flexible, to stretch yourself, to bend over backwards, and to climb all over people to reach the top, then spare a thought for those circus performers who must literally deploy those skills for our entertainment.

I had a taste of the circus life earlier this month, when I took part in a special two hour acrobatic skills workshop during the Temple Bar Circus Festival.

“Don’t worry, it will be easy,” said the marvellously malleable teacher Ali Mswabi, as I nervously changed into loose-fitting clothing in the Ss Michael&Johns above the Cultivate centre in Temple Bar on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

There were four girls and two other guys taking part in the workshop too, and, at that moment, we all shared a look that united us in one thought: Easy for you to say dude.

“Time for the warm up,” Ali exclaimed. A cold dread gripped my stomach. Oh no, I thought. This is beginning to sound a lot like exercise. The huge difference, though, was that this was actually fun as opposed to flapping away on a treadmill staring though dead eyes at the calorie counter on the screen.

We started by jogging laps in the hall, and after that Ali put us through all sorts of muscle-stretching and balancing contortions. I was very chuffed with myself for being able to bend the whole way back while crouched on my hunkers (though that’s sure to hurt come winter time!).

I was already sweating buckets as Ali lined us up for the first stunt: the handstand. Ali, who is originally from Somalia but resident in Cork for seven years now, has been at this since he was 8 years old. Therefore, he was more than qualified to deal with someone like me, a klutz with the apparent agility of Jabba the Hut and about as much co-ordination as the Red Cow roundabout.

He partnered me with a girl named Roisin, who had to lightly hold my legs as I stood on my hands for a full minute. I was scared of doing it too quickly and kicking her in the face so it took three attempts until I get it right. Once up, I straightened my body totally, as instructed, and ignored the quivering in my arms and the rush of blood to my head to hold out for the 60 seconds. Success!

Next, Ali got us to do a cartwheel, something I haven’t attempted since I was a slightly-more dextrous eight-year-old. He partnered this with a tumble, done the proper way by bending and touching your toes, arching your body into a triangle shape, then turning yourself head over heels using the back of your neck, as opposed to the top of your head, as the fulcrum.

So far, so good, but just as I was about to lay back for a lengthy rest on my laurels, I realised that all that had come up until now was just the baby moves. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, for my next trick: the amaaaaazing flyspring! This involved using your hands to jump head over heels and land on your back - or, if you can manage it, your feet - on a mat.

I was in the zone at this stage, so I tried both. On the first go, I lost my nerve just as I was about to delve into the propelling handstand and so ended up crashing sideways. Next time, however, I made it over onto my back, and quite fluidly too if I do say so myself. Feeling cocky, I attempted it again and this time I finished it in a half-upright position. Ali cheered and I wished I had a copybook to present to get a gold star.

Ali then produced a long red skipping rope. My heart sank because I realised we were entering the logical/co-ordination-heavy segment of the class. I’m ashamed to admit that I conform to the stereotype of the man who can’t multitask: I can’t walk and type a text message at the same time, so how will I fare trying to count myself into jumps over a rope?

We started off by practicing to run through the moving rope without getting hit, followed by performing one skip and then jumping out of the way. Once I’d gotten the hang of that, Ali encouraged me to get down into the press-up position, and try to jump the rope that way. Needless to say I spent the next five minutes getting tangled up and cursing like a sailor out of frustration, but on my last attempt I managed to nail down three consecutive push-up jumps.

Confirmation of my utter clumsiness and illogicality was achieved with the next trick: juggling three hats. It looked (though doesn’t sound) simple enough: wear one on your head and hold one each in your out-stretched arms. Then lightly toss the right one to the left, using the right hand to move the hat off your head, replacing it with the hat from your left hand, leaving that one free to catch the hat thrown from the right (my head hurts just trying to explain it).

This was a complete disaster. At one point I think I’d mastered it, until one of the girls pointed out that I’d actually dropped one of the hats and I was just doing it with two. To bolster my plummeting self-esteem, Ali stood next to me and put an arm around my shoulder, halving the complicated manoeuvres. All these feats are so much easier with a trained acrobat doing most of the work.

Finally, it was time to start forming some shapes from the bodies of all eight of us. I started with the flag: standing on Ali’s crouched thighs, holding onto his lower arms, and leaning back to billow in the wind like the move’s namesake. We then tried the same trick with Ali resting against the up-stretched legs of a third person, while I hooked my foot around his neck so I could lean back even further. It worked too.

Of course, what would any acrobat workshop be without building a human pyramid? My group actually managed to build three separate ones, all with me on top, but of course. The first few times I tried to be as dainty as I could, profusely apologising to the others as I clamoured all over them, the vertebrae of their spines tickling my feet.

Somehow we managed to hold steady each time, at least long enough to get a picture anyway, before I ended up tumbling backwards onto the mat and the whole structure collapsed into a fit of giggles. Afterwards, I was flushed and sweaty, but as I strutted home, I couldn’t help but pat myself on the back - for I can reach back there now - and think: I’m flipping great.

*The Dublin Urban Circus takes place this Saturday (August 1) from 12-7pm at Wolfe Tone Park, Dublin1. See www.dublincity.ie for details. To contact Ali and his acrobatic group see www.hakunamatata.ie/

A kinda magic

My interview with Keith Barry from last Saturday's Irish Examiner

Keith Barry has conjured some amazing feats in his time: stopping his own heart, catching a bullet in his teeth, driving (and surviving) blind-folded on a public road. Yet there’s one stunt that not even he can pull off: making a builder appear on time.

“I’m sorry I’m late,” he says as he rushes into Dublin’s Fitzwilliam Hotel some 15 minutes after our arranged meeting time. “I was on the phone arguing with the builder who is due to come and do my skirting boards.”

It’s a busy time for the magician, illusionist and all-round mentalist. He’s in the midst of moving house - his escalating career and the birth of he and wife Mairead’s daughter Breana 10 months ago has necessitated the move to a bigger place - and he’s also putting the finishing touches to his new live tour, ‘Direct From Vegas’, which kicks off next Saturday (July 18) in Castlebar.

Then again, this 32-year-old wouldn’t know life to be any other way. He’s back home for the past few months, having completed an extraordinarily successful six week stint headlining at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas.

During his stay in Sin City, his star rose so high and so fast that Barry is seriously in danger of developing the bends. Celebs like Paris Hilton and Bette Midler were queuing to attend, and then the Las Vegas Review Journal voted him the best magician in Vegas after just six weeks. To top it all of, the boy from Williamstown, Co Waterford, who started teaching himself magic from a book at age 14, picked up a Merlin Award - the magicians’ Oscar - for ‘Mentalist of the Year’.

“That was a big deal because there is a lot of competition out there from the likes of David Copperfield, Penn and Teller, The Amazing Jonathan and Lance Burton,” he says. “To get it from the critics is extra special because they’re ruthless in Vegas.”

“I had to pinch myself during the Vegas thing in general. It’s what I’ve been striving to do pretty much all my life. It was surreal getting off the plane in Vegas and the first thing I saw was a whole wall with my face on it. In the hotel my face was on the room keycards advertising the show. It never stopped being weird.”

He adjusted pretty quickly however, and went down so well that it looks as if he’ll be back over there early next year for another run. “I’m definitely going back, but whether I move out there is another matter entirely,” he says.

It’s a given that his success rubbed a few competitors up the wrong way. “There’s a lot of rivalry and bitchiness in magic which is why I don’t really associate with a lot of other magicians or societies,” he reveals. “A perfect example: a friend introduced me to [illusionist] Criss Angel, but he didn’t want to talk to me. There’s no need for that. There’s room for us all.”

The content of Barry’s Direct from Vegas tour will reflect his growing passion for and research on hypnosis. “It’s called instant induction hypnosis, where I put people under really quickly, and within seconds they won’t be able to lift a pen off the table, won’t remember their names, or even how to tie their shoelaces.”

In addition he’ll have e10,000 on stage with him every night to reward any observer who can best him in a complex game of what he calls “psychological warfare” (someone has yet to achieve this). “It’s me playing with their minds,” he says with a sly smile. “Am I f*cking with them or not? Are any of the clues I’ve told them true?”

On a similar note, Barry will also be tackling a specific group that have long rankled him: psychics. “I don’t believe in them,” he says bluntly. “I’ll be showing people that I can do the job of a psychic, maybe even better than them.

“I believe people are being duped. I don’t judge them by the way; I judge the psychics. I’m duping you as entertainment, and I’ll tell you that. A psychic will claim they’re talking to your dead brother or something.”

Does a magician need to be that sceptical in order to flourish? “No not at all, but I’m a scientist too,” he replies. “I graduated with an honours chemistry degree and worked in labs for two years. I always advise people who go to psychics to read a book called The Full Facts of Cold Reading by Ian Rowland. He takes apart and explains their entire process.”

The depths and potential of the human mind is what fascinates Barry the most lately: one of the things he’s been researching is brainwashing techniques used by the CIA. “I got my hands on these internal CIA documents used on prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, totally crazy stuff,” he says. “I can’t really het into it, but they gave me some great ideas for routines.”

Barry admits that he’s a workaholic, averaging about fours sleep a night. That must have come in handy when someone had to get up to attend to daughter Breana? “She’s actually just started sleeping in the last four nights after 10 months,” he laughs.

He admits that it’s hard to be away from his family so much, but they’ve learned to make it work. “We’ve made a rule where I won’t go without seeing them both for four weeks at a time no matter what I’m doing,” he explains. “I’ll either commute or they’ll fly out to me.”

In case anyone is wondering, Barry says he never used any of his mind tricks to hoodwink wife Mairead into falling in love with him.”She’s far too savvy for that unfortunately,” he laughs. “We’ve been with each other since school, so she’s known me from my very humble beginnings up until now. She’s well onto all my tricks.”

After his Irish tour, he’ll be heading back to America to film a new TV show for the Discovery Channel, which will air next year.

“I have a couple of ideas for it, but one of them is that I want to fool the most intelligent people in the world,” he reveals. “For instance, I found this guy named called Chris Langan, who has a proven IQ of 190. That’s higher than Einstein’s.

“He’s almost certainly the most intelligent person in the US, if not the world. We’re also looking into getting Stephen Hawking and Garry Kasparov. They will be a big challenge for me.”

He also warns fans to expect something entirely different from his next live shows after that. “I want it to be called Keith Barry XXX: Leave the Kids At Home,” he says. “It will be a full-blown hypnosis show. With that title, you can imagine what it’s going to be like.”

Should we imagine people simulating sex acts, for example? Barry just smiles mischievously as he gets up to leave and replies. “It’s going to get people talking, that’s for sure.”

*Keith Barry plays the Olympia Theatre Dublin (July 30-31; August 1-2). See www.keithbarry.com to book tickets.


Monday, July 27, 2009

Out to win

My feature on the OutGames from Saturday's Weekend mag in the Independent.

Gay people don’t “do” sports: it’s a long-held stereotype that has proven frustratingly difficult to shake off. However, the emergence of a number of international sporting events for gay athletes over the past decade is helping to consign that misconception to the sin bin of history where it belongs.

One such event is the 2nd International World OutGames, which kicks off in the Danish city of Copenhagen today (July 25) and runs until August 2. Up to 8,000 gay people from all over the world will compete in 38 disciplines in a contest that was originally founded in Montreal, Canada in 2006.

There are 35 registered Irish athletes (all men) taking part in the OutGames over the next week, so Weekend caught up with five of them in between training sessions to talk about their involvement and their own personal experiences as gay men in a wider sporting culture that - when it comes to homosexuality - has proven stubbornly resistant to ideas of tolerance and diversity.

*Nick Flanagan

Like other 18-year-olds who have just completed their Leaving Cert, Nick Flanagan went on holiday straight after his last exam earlier this month. The big difference, however, is that Nick’s overseas hijinx involved hours of gruelling sports training, rather than boozing and clubbing, every day for two weeks.

“My cousin is a personal trainer in France, so I visited her and we made it a kind of sporting holiday,” explains Nick, who is from Tramore, Co Waterford. “We were up at 4.30 most mornings, and spent six or seven hours training every day. It was pretty intense.”

Nick is the youngest athlete in the Irish contingent taking part in the Games, where he will compete in five events: the 50m butterfly; 100m butterfly; 50m freestyle; 100m freestyle and 200m freestyle.

“I’ve been swimming competitively for six years, but this is my first international event,” he explains. “The highest I’ve reached before now is the Irish Division One.”

Nick has always played several sports, and he says his sexuality was never an issue. Then again, he did have one particular skill set that probably helped him in that regard. “I have a few black-belts in martial arts so I guess nobody was going to start on me,” he laughs.

“I came out at age 16. I was still in school, but there wasn’t any hassle. There were probably a few comments made on the sly, but nothing was said to me. I didn’t lose any friends over it. If anything, I’ve just made more friends since. My family took some getting used to it, but now they’re fine.

“Coming out to the guys in my kickboxing club was the one I was most worried about, because it has a perception of being a real macho, ‘straight’ sport. But the lads were great about it. The teacher told me once that the only thing the other guys said was, ‘Fair play to him for coming out and being honest’.

“I wouldn’t be shy about it. I just said to everyone that if they have any questions or problems to just talk to me about it and we’ll clear it up. I’m still the same person.”

Be that as it may, Nick acknowledges that his positive experiences might not be the same for other gay sportsmen and women. “I know plenty of people in swimming and kickboxing who are gay but haven’t come out,” says Nick, who plans to start studying Freshwater and Marine Biology in Galway this autumn.

“They’ve told me, and asked me what to do, but they just don’t feel ready to tell their families or friends. If it’s hard for them, then imagine what it’s like for a high profile sportsperson who is gay. They will have much more attention put on them. It’s not an easy decision.”

*John Kilcullen

“One of the things that always irritated me is the assumption, made not only by straight people but also gay people, that if you’re gay you couldn’t possibly be into sport,” says John Kilcullen, from Lucan, Co Dublin, adding with a laugh: “You had to come out as gay to your straight friends, and then come out as interested in sports to your gay friends. Both were equally hard to do!”

John is part of a four-man crew who will be taking part in the rowing events during the OutGames. At 60 years of age, he’s also the oldest member competing.

“For me, it’s a question of getting fit enough, but it’s hard,” he explains. “I did rowing for a year in UCD in the late 1960s, but the training now is very different. In the last four weeks, we’ve started concentrating on speed. I do the majority of my training on the rowing machine in the gym. I feel it in the bones though; it’s pure will power that gets me through.”

As much as he enjoys it, John knows Copenhagen will be a big challenge. “I was initially told we were taking part in the leisure row, but it seems to be anything but,” he says. “It’s over 6km for one thing. We don’t have a 6km straight run when we practice on the Liffey. The maximum we can get there is 2km. It’s going to be tough.”

John’s boyfriend of three years is also a member of the rowing crew taking part. “He’s a bit younger so I don’t think he’s feeling it as much,” John laughs.

Given the nature of his sports club, homophobia obviously isn’t the problem it might be in other sporting organisations. Nevertheless, having lived through the good and bad times for gay people in this country, John can relate.

“I was involved with a soccer club for years and a couple of lads were gay, but they were very, very cagey about it,” he says. “They just felt that the other guys would be uneasy, and think they were looking at them in the dressing room.”

Does he think the sporting environment in general is ready for out and proud sportsmen, like in the GAA or the Premiership, for instance? “I think it will be, but not yet,” he replies. “Old attitudes are changing, but it’s a brave man who’ll be the first to test whether they’ve changed enough.”

*Edwin Keville

Edwin has been a member of Rathfarnham AC for 15 years, where he has honed his track and field skills for this year’s OutGames (he won four medals - one gold, two silver and a bronze - at the 2006 event).

“The atmosphere is amazing at it,” he explains. “The opening of the games is like the Olympics: every country comes into the stadium, parading their flag. It’s a magnificent feeling.”

It’s a particularly proud moment for a man old enough (he’s in his early 40s) to remember less enlightened times for gay sports people. “I’ve been involved with sport for years, but I was in the closet for a lot of it,” he says.

“I’m pretty open now, and a lot of the guys in the club know I’m gay so I don’t have a problem with that. They know all about the games and they’re very supportive. My partner often comes with me to events organised by the club, and it’s never been uncomfortable. He’s coming to Copenhagen with me.

“You still get the odd person who is a bit funny about it. A lot of gay men who are in sport want to keep it secret, and I can understand that. I don’t think sporting culture has changed a lot to be honest. High profile guys still seem to think it will ruin their reputation. That’s very sad.”

*Joe Ruddy

This year’s OutGames shouldn’t be a bother to Dubliner Joe; after all, it will be his fourth major world games event competing in badminton and squash. “I played at three events in the first OutGames in Montreal, but before that I won a silver medal in the Gay Games in Amsterdam (1998) and a bronze in the Sydney Games in 2002,” he says.

“Badminton is a peculiar one because a lot of people, guys in particular, would call it a ‘pansy’ sport or a gay sport, whereas at the top level badminton is incredibly athletic and the players need to be phenomenally fit and strong to compete.”

The 47-year-old admits that it was a long time before he came out to anyone he was playing sport with. “People had to me very careful when I was younger,” he says. “I guess I didn’t want to get picked on, and I didn’t want to make the other guys uncomfortable.

“When I went away to my first Gay Games in 1998, most of the guys in my club in Ranelagh knew about it, and they were genuinely supportive. Since then, we can have some banter and craic. But everyone is a lot more open now. Gay sports people are much more comfortable and relaxed. The world is a different place.”

Be that as it may, Joe concedes that when it comes to homosexuality and sport, in general, “there are still a number of major breakthroughs to be made”. “The first Premiership footballer to come out will be earth shattering,” he says. “We had [Justin] Fashanu, but that was kind of after the fact. The first guy to come out while he’s still playing at the top level and at the height of his earning power will be a milestone.

“[Diver] Greg Louganis’ coming out was big, as was Martina Navratilova’s, but at the same time, people always make exceptions for world class talents, and they almost turn a blind eye to it. When people see that there are gay people at every professional level in sport, then that will be huge.”

*David McCrystal

Belfast tennis player David McCrystal admits that he was guilty of thinking other gay people wouldn’t, or couldn’t, be serious athletes when he took part in his first world event, the Chicago Gay Games, in 2006. “That’s probably why I lost,” he now laughs.

“When I heard there was a gay tennis event, I thought it would be middle-aged people flouncing about thinking they were Chris Evert or something. I got a serious wake-up call. The standard is very high at these events. For instance, last year, the Euro Games singles open was won by a German player named Pavel Jakunin who was on the ITT [International Tennis Tour] a few years back.”

The 35-year-old’s participation in such a major gay sporting event is all the more notable because it comes just a month after a report by the Northern Ireland Equality Commission found that the level of anti-gay prejudice in the North has doubled in the last three years.

What’s more, DUP MP, and the region’s effective First Lady, Iris Robinson, is a vocal opponent of homosexuality, saying last year that homosexuals are more “vile” than child abusers, and can be “cured” by psychiatry.

“Nobody really takes her seriously,” David says. “If you look in every country you’re going to find some local MP making equally dodgy remarks. But from that point of view I’d be happy for people like that to see a man from Belfast winning a medal in a gay sports event.”

**See www.copenhagen2009.org and www.outinireland.net

Friday, July 24, 2009

On the QT

Met Quentin Tarantino in London today for a chat about his new movie Inglourious Basterds. Check out Day and Night in the Irish Independent on August 14 for the interview...

Thursday, July 09, 2009

The Power of love

My question for Brenda Power is this: imagine you're alive during the suffragette movement in the early 20th century that's seeking to gain the universal right to vote for women.

Would you think it fair or just or right, and would you tolerate it, if the powers-that-be smugly responded to your campaign by saying: "Alright, we'll give you women the vote BUT you can only vote in local and council elections, not in general or presidential elections or national referenda".

Technically, that is giving women A right to vote - just not THE full and equal vote.

It's the exact same thing that the Irish government is saying to gay people regarding civil partnership and marriage