Brady Spindel is an amazing man. He makes cool things, he makes cool music and he is a great circus performer. I met Brady a few years ago when the band Mutaytor was gearing up for a big show, building cool props. The Mutaytor puts on gigantic shows. You should check them out.
Brady is also in Cirque Bezerk, a vaudevillian, burlesque, visionary circus. They are performing a series of shows titled Beneath in Los Angeles in the month of July. These kinds of circuses are the best kind to see right now as the vision hasn't been adulterated or watered down.
The Bindlestiff Family Cirkus, Circus Contraption, the Yard Dogs and many more perform in a collective organic manner that allows the audience to appreciate the time, effort and personal money that go into such works. These are earnest endeavors in performance art and you should see them before they disappear.
How long have you been working with fire?
I have been breathing fire for 19-20 years, I did it the first time when I was 16.
Do you use white gas?
I use white gas only on my torch.
Did you teach yourself?
I did teach myself, but later some pros offered pointers.
Have you had any bad accidents?
Yeah, I had a really bad accident once, doing something really stupid. I won't bore you with lots of details but I was in the burn unit for two weeks, got skin grafts and everything. Sometimes when you do something dangerous for a long time you become fearless of the actual danger behind it. It becomes second nature so the natural thing to do is see how far it can go, how far you can push it, and I pushed it right into the hospital.
Where did you start performing?
I did it at parties just to make people uncomfortable, and in a few parades, but my first actual performance was for a friends weirdo art thing in downtown Norfolk (Va.). I had thought I wouldn't make it in time, so I put on my stilts just outside and came in blowing fire like a maniac in a room way too small with way too many people. Totally dangerous and out of hand. No one got hurt thankfully, I'm not even sure we were supposed to be in the building having a party.
Are you still in Mutaytor?
Mutaytor is my first project, I will always be in Mutaytor. Everyone in the band (mutaytor) takes time out to do other projects. There are several people who are in CB who are also in Mutaytor.
How long has Cirque Bezerk been around?
I'm not real sure, I think 2005 was the first big show at Burning Man, so I guess 4-5 years.
When did you join them?
I think I was there from the beginning, Kevin and I had been playing together w/ Mutaytor for a few years, and I'm sure when they said "We're making a circus" I said "OOHH ME! ME!" I'm honestly not really sure how long. Probably between 3 and 5 years?
Cirque Beserk seems to be breaking into a mainstream audience? How did you do that?
I think it's just the right kind of exposure. As artist we tend to start advertising to artists, mostly people we know, and needed to find a way to target audiences which weren't our friends. A good PR team helped us get to a lot of the demographic we were looking for.
What are you currently reading?
Oddly enough (being an evil clown in the circus) I'm reading "IT" by Stephen King, I read it when I was younger and wanted to re-read it, and I'm also reading a book about Los Alamos and Robert Oppenheimer.
What are you currently listening to?
CORN MO! And a lot of stuff, lately I have been listening to Wanda Jackson, some old Garage rock stuff, I just discovered Clifford Brown, jazz trumpeter. Just a whole lot of different stuff all the time.
What inspires me is when someone makes a piece of art that I saw in a dream. It's a little weird b/c sometimes I will dream an image or a song, and see it soon after. Coming from someone elses mind. And also the drive my girlfriend has, if I were 1/8th as driven as her I'd be happy. She is always making her art ...always.
