How to Run Away and Join the Circus

- [Announcer] Three, two, one! (canon explodes) Blastoff! ("Entrance of the Gladiators" by Julius Fucik) Please welcome our first trapeze in the air, the Fabulous Flying Bell! (crowd clapping) - There's a certain feeling of adrenaline once you get up there in the air. It's a feeling unlike any other. (relaxing music) You feel power, you feel like you're in control. You feel special. That's what makes trapeze beautiful. That's what makes the circus beautiful. My name is Kristin Finley and I'm a trapeze artist. 15 years ago I was working for a brewery in Los Angeles. I had a great life making great money. I had my Lexus and I had a house. I was only 24 years old. A friend of mine told me that she was flying trapeze. And I said what are you doing? I want to come watch. I ended up taking a class and I was hooked. It was addictive right away. And I quit my life in L.A and I joined the circus. I went from good pay to zero pay. Just had to give everything up pretty much overnight and here we are 15 years later. I never looked back and I've been on the road ever since. (train whistle blowing) To run away and join the circus, it takes commitment. You have to be ready for anything. You have to kind of live on your toes because you never know what's going to happen. Your own personal space, your RV or whatever, that's your home. And that's what has to be stable inside. Whenever you're flying trapeze, you have to focus on what you're doing. And the moment you doubt yourself in the middle of a trick, most likely you're gonna mess up. You're not gonna make it. The fact that I was able to do it made it more appealing to me. And I'm doing these tricks and they're harder, and they're harder, and this is awesome. Whatever you want to do in your wildest dreams, do it. Anything's possible. There's not too many African American female circus performers, but I was still able to do it. Your life is what you make of it and I wouldn't change my life for the world. I really wouldn't.

Channel: Great Big Story

Views: 4,123,199

Rating: 4.602221 out of 5

Keywords: great big story, gbs, lag, human condition, circus, trapeze, runaway, Kristin Finley, RV, Alternative, Performer, Performance

Id: mDEjB2taQkU

Length: 2min 52sec (172 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 09 2017