Circus Performer
Nofitstate Circus

Paul E

0:00:02 My name is Paul E. I’m a circus performer and I perform around Cardiff. I enjoy aerial the most, so anything that’s off the ground, up in the air, so that, my main discipline is trapeze. It doesn’t feel like work at all. I get to have fun. I get to play on a daily basis and you get such an adrenalin buzz and you can’t help feeling happy through doing the physical activities.

00:00:36 I got into gymnastics really, really early. A lot of people did football and things like that and that was dull ’cause basically you’re just kicking a ball around a field whereas I had six different pieces of apparatus to play with and just limitless possibilities on what to do with them. School did bore me quite a bit. I was able to do things pretty easily in school and I pick things up quite quickly. So, that made it even more dull.

00:01:10 I remember I used to fall asleep a lot in chemistry and maths particularly and even with nodding off I’d still kind of pick up what was going on. It was just, things didn’t get covered quickly enough in school. I didn’t really have a clear idea when I was in school what was gonna come next. My parents never pressured me into kind of doing anything or having to be any particular career or anything like that. They were always supporting whatever decision I made for myself. It was pretty much, it’s your life so you have to decide what, what you’re gonna do with it.

00:01:56 I finished my A levels and bizarrely ended up working in finance. I stopped the gymnastics and ended up doing nothing but work. I had a very good career. I had a good job and everything in my life told me that that was gonna be my future. I’d just work my way up the chain and that’s, that’s the kind of lifestyle that I was heading for.

00:02:23 I was stabbed 2003 close to where I was living and, and that, I nearly lost my life. It was very close. About five minutes away from everything being gone and more. That made me put everything into perspective. Made me realize how unhappy I was with my job. It made me think that I was wasting my life away doing something for somebody else. I looked at everything and thought, this isn’t what I want. This isn’t the person that I want to be. This isn’t what I want to be doing for the rest of my life.

00:03:09 I wanted to go into performance. I knew that for certain. So, I decided to combine that with teaching. So, I went and did my drama and teaching degree. Going into something new was both terrifying and exhilarating. As soon as I started the course in university the fears and terrors were gone. It was liberating not to have to go into work.

00:03:42 I don’t have anything that I’m aiming for other than maintaining what I have now. I have a lifestyle that I really enjoy. I get to do something that I love as a job. I get paid to do some crazy things and to have an adrenaline buzz and that is part of my dream really. It’s that I’m able to do what I want every day. I kind of have the dream job and I wouldn’t change that.

ENDS