Jaclyn Mittman
Arts Editor
If there is one thing to see at this year’s Los Angeles County Fair, it is definitely the aerial high wire show “Pirates of the Columbian Caribbean,” performed by the Murcias family.
In front of rows of wooden benches is a very large pirate ship and a revolving contraption that appears to be two skulls and crossbones.
At each end of the crossbones is a large metal wheel that remains stationary while the entire contraption spins.
Two of the male acrobats stand on the inside of the wheel, while two other actors begin to spin them.
As both wheels spin, the acrobats revolve, similar to a mouse running in a wheel.
“I thought for sure one of them was going to fall,” Allison Goodwin, a Cal State San Bernardino senior, said.
The show made audience members gasp in shock as they watched the pirate actors bravely run along the wheels. “Oohs” and “ahs” could be heard among the crowd along with the occasional “Oh, god!” Clearly the audience was scared for the actors.
The “pirates” not only ran along the inside of the wheel, but they also would climb to the outside of the wheel and run along the top, making the entire audience tense with fear.
The “pirates” yelled out the occasional “arr” and mocked a sword fight with sticks.
“Every time they screamed ‘arr,’ I couldn’t help but laugh,” Nicole Harden, ULV senior psychology major, said.
After yelling and fighting with each other on the wheels, the “pirates” climbed up onto the pirate ship that stood 30 feet in the air.
They performed aerial high wire acts by running along the thick wire to the other side of the ship to fight their “opponent.”
“My favorite part had to be when the woman did the splits while on the high wire. I was in complete shock,” Goodwin said.
A long board attached to rounded bars on both ends sat upon two of the actor’s shoulders, while the female “pirate” climbed on top of the board and went into splits.
All three actors were balancing on the high wire.
The audience glared at the actors in complete amazement, wondering how they balanced three people on a wire.
There was also a part in the act when two of the actors sat on chairs that balanced on the wires, and then they stood up on them holding long bars to balance themselves and pretended to fight in order to be the “Captain of the Columbian Caribbean Pirate Ship.”
“This was really cool. I was amazed at what they were able to do,” Nina Goodwin, Alta Loma resident, said.
Fairgoers are invited to see this suspenseful high wire act, filled with fear and amazement.
The show starts every day at 2 p.m. The fair will be open until Sept. 28.
Jaclyn Mittman can be reached at jaclyn.mittman@laverne.edu.
Jaclyn Mittman
