Magic Circus of Samoa

      Last weekend the Magic Circus of Samoa was in town!  It travels all over the Pacific, this year with a 2 week run in American Samoa.  Cyndi and I went, together with a group of palagi friends and colleagues.  It was small, friendly, and a whole lot of fun.

     It was, sadly, forbidden to photo the acts.  We got a couple videos surreptitiously, and several photos of the attendees.  I'll have to give you a summary.  The acts started with two acrobats, Samoan girls who were able to walk a large ball up & then down a ramp.  They were followed by trapeze artists, a hula hoop twirler, various gymnastic stunts on poles and high wires, and of course a juggler.  He juggled all sorts of objects, many of them, all with speed and dexterity; quite a good act.  Interspersed with the acts was appearances by Toetu the midget clown.  He was quite a character and literally stole the show.  One of the videos shows him doing an audience participation skit with bells; not his best, but fun when seen.  There were magic acts by Bruno the Master of Ceremonies, trampoline acts and much more. 

     Here are some photos and a couple short videos, mostly complements of Jeremy and Ashley Dubyak but also from Steph and Kelly Smith, my fellow PD's:

Rick and Cyndi

Awaiting the opening act

The crowd

Jeremy (AG) and Ashley

Steph and Chris

Genrietta, daughter of law clerk Genevieva

Shawn and Meg

Lainie and husband James Zarones (AG)

Lights dim in anticipation

Bruno - owner, MC and magician; with Nate

 Here is all I have of Toetu the Clown:

Next there is a short video of the Samoan firedancer;

The Magic Circus of Samoa was a very entertaining, and rather inexpensive, night of entertainment.

      The rest of last weekend was devoted to a return to old favorites: Larson's Bay and of course Tisa's.  We learned that "Larson's Bay" is tapu to a real Samoan; it should be Fagalua (Rocky Bay) as it traditionally was.  They don't seem to recognize this Larson fellow, whoever he was.  A low-light of that expedition was the return to our car.  It had been rummaged through by some locals, and was dead as a doornail when I tried to start it.  A look under the hood explained that - no battery, it had just disappeared.  That's how we got to meet the sympathetic local lady who owned the nearby land, and became friends - she gave us bananas and pineapples from her land.  We called Steph and Chris who lived nearby for a ride home.  On the way, Chris and I encountered a small group of guys whom we suspected; as Chris was bold enough to stop, one of them walked over with our battery!  Back into the car it went, and we left with a new determination to be far more careful.  This faa Samoa (Samoan Lifestyle) seems to tolerate what we call "theft" quite readily.

    Steph had a birthday pool and barbeque party thrown by Chris on Saturday eve, the highlight of which was a truckload of Samoan flowers with which he filled her apartment. It was the night of the Super Moon; it is far closer than usual, so seemed very large.  Here's a photo of the moon over American Samoa on a beautiful March evening, courtesy of Kelly Smith:

Super Moon

All for now, who knows what will come next?