Stockton circus performer Kirsty Nicholson leaves audiences agog at her ability to squeeze herself into a tiny glass jar. Ruth Addicott catches up with her to find out how she does it.

MOST women struggle to fit into a size ten dress, let alone a 2ft wide glass bottle. For Kirsty Nicholson, it’s just another day at the office.

The 23-year-old, from Stockton, performs with the Circus of Horrors, a show which shocks audiences worldwide with its strange acts and death-defying stunts.

After training at the Cleveland School of Music, Kirsty joined the circus cast in October as a singer, but after wowing crowds with her ability to bend in all kinds of places – she can wrap her legs around her neck, no problem – she was challenged to squeeze herself into a glass jar 2ft by 18 inches.

For Kirsty, who always dreamed of being a performer and has seen every single tour of the Circus of Horrors since she was seven, it was a challenge she couldn’t resist.

After her initial reaction (“complete terror”), she stepped up to the challenge and began squeezing herself into small spaces.

“I started off practising getting into my mum’s dustbin,” she says.

“Then I tried my nana’s washing bin and gradually managed to shrink myself into smaller and smaller spaces. It was a squeeze, but eventually I managed to get inside the glass jar. I was petrified at first and found it hard to get out. I had bruises down the back of my legs. I was quite literally shaking, but the reaction I got from the crowd was amazing.”

Suffering from claustrophobia as well as a sore appendix (she had it removed shortly before her first performance), Kirsty says the hardest part wasn’t getting in, but having the door closed behind her. “You can’t open it from the inside so I always need someone there to open it,” she says. “I just have to keep telling myself they are going to let me out. I’m only in there for five minutes, but it is very hot.”

Kirsty emerges from the jar in such a graceful fashion, she almost makes it look easy. But it’s taken a lot of skill to get her limbs used to being in such a position.

Aside from being rushed to A&E to have her appendix removed weeks before her first show, she faced a further setback in Newcastle when she was caught up in violence before a football match.

The performance was taking place the same day as the Newcastle/Sunderland game. Kirsty had gone into town at lunch time for something to eat when a group of Sunderland fans ran through the city centre and a brick was thrown at her head, knocking her into a shop window. She was rushed to A&E – the second time in the space of weeks. But despite being badly bruised and suffering a swollen jaw, she didn’t have any broken bones and was determined to make the show.

“I thought if I can walk, I can perform,”

she says. “I was desperate to do the show so they gave me morphine and I made it to the theatre with half an hour to spare.”

A true professional, Kirsty disguised her bruises with make-up, donned her costume and performed her act. “It was hard,” she says. “I was in a lot of pain and I was a bit wary and nervous, but it’s such an integral part of the show. I’d waited years for the opportunity to join the Circus of Horrors and wasn’t going to let some thug spoil it for me. All I could think was ‘the show must go on’.”

The Circus of Horrors has been going for 15 years and is celebrating its anniversary with a new tour entitled The Four Chapters from Hell.

The story begins in a French Asylum where the inmates escape to Victorian London and become performers in the Freak Show. The audience is greeted with everything from daredevil flying trapeze artists and whirlwind roller skaters to a sword swallower who swallows three swords at once and takes a bow mid-performance.

As extraordinary as it is, Kirsty’s act isn’t the strangest. The show also features a woman who’s suspended from the ceiling by her hair and a man who swallows a piece of wool, makes an incision in his stomach and asks a member of the audience to pull it out.

Since it started in 1995 with a debut at Glastonbury, the circus has toured all over the world. The Telegraph described it as “circus without a condom”, Ant and Dec said they had “never been so scared”.

“There are a lot of things you want to watch, but just can’t,” says Kirsty, whose ambition is to do the high wire.

Her friends are impressed and her mum’s extremely proud of what she does. Her nan has a few reservations, but it’s not so much the safety issue, as the fact she does it topless.

“It’s the best job in the world,” says Kirsty. “There aren’t many other jobs where people stand up and applaud you at the end.”

Despite their freaky performances and quirky eccentricities, Kirsty gets on well with the 26-strong cast and says she has made friends for life.

“The cast are not as odd as you’d think,” she says. “You will never meet a nicer bunch of people. It is hard work, but a lot of fun. I absolutely love it.”

• For info on forthcoming tour dates visit circusofhorrors.co.uk

SUNDERLAND
Sunderland Empire
Monday, January 24
Tel: 08448-472-499
sunderlandempire.org.uk
WHITLEY BAY
The Playhouse
Sunday, February 13
Tel: 0844-277-2771
playhousewhitleybay.co.uk
SCARBOROUGH
Futurist Theatre
Wednesday, February 23
Tel: 01723-365-789
futuristtheatre.co.uk
DARLINGTON
Civic Theatre
Saturday, February 26
Tel: 01325-486-555