Interview El Circo Cheapo goes for broke on Get Rich Slow tour

El Circo Cheapo aptly bills itself as a "poor man's Cirque du Soleil," and for a variety-show circus that can somehow fit clowns, silk acts, aerialists, and more into a single loft for the past five years while only charging $10 admission for its monthly shows, it's hard to argue with that descriptor. Every first Saturday of the month, Artistic Director Shayna Swanson has led her motley crew of performers through two shows featuring acrobatics, clowning, and yes, even a freak show.

And yet, El Circo Cheapo has decided to leave the comfort of its loft after its Sept. 5 show by embarking on what it's cheekily titled the Get Rich Slow tour: a five-week, seven-city outing that marks its first such excursion. Before performing her last show in town before leaving to tour in a "stinky van," Swanson talked to The A.V. Club about the tour, douchebag magicians, and the red tape involved in running an underground circus.

The A.V. Club: You've been around for five years, but it seems like El Circo Cheapo is only picking up steam in 2009. Is that fair to say?

Shayna Swanson: It totally is. Partially it’s because we are doing a cheap/free show every month, so people really like that. And also when you do stuff for cheap or free people tend to write about it more, especially now. And we’ve moved to a new space. Our old space was this alleyway in Humboldt Park and it was really sketchy and there were like rats and dirty mattresses and gang-bangers and drug dealers. People didn’t really want to go there. When they did want to go there they couldn’t really find it. So now we’re in a space that’s a lot easier to find and it’s beautiful and it feels relatively safe even though there are still prostitutes hanging around.

AVC: The free monthly shows are depicted on your website as being a grab bag of performances.

SS: We use circus performers and variety performers from all over the place. Anybody that wants to perform is totally welcome for the most part.

AVC: What would never make the cut? Is there anything you’ve turned down?

SS: Well we’ve turned things down because there’s been too much of one thing in the show. In our first show we had four silks acts and now I’m trying to get away from that. I’m trying to get more variety into the show so what I almost always will put in is a ground act. Something that’s not in the air because we have so many people who want to do aerial acts. It’s much harder to find someone who’s a magician or a bubble-blowing extraordinaire. I look for really bizarre, quirky, vaudevillian talents. I don’t know what I wouldn’t put in. I wouldn’t put in someone I didn’t like personally. I’d be like, “Eh, you’re creepy.”

AVC: Have you run into creepy magicians?

SS: A few. A few creepy magicians. [Laughs.] There’s not a lot of people like that in Chicago, but in other cities I’ve run into people where I’m just like, “I don’t want to work with you. You’re a douche.”

AVC: Would you do animal acts?

SS: Yeah. Sure. Obviously we can’t fit an elephant in the space but a dog act would be awesome.

AVC: What’s the audition process like for El Circo Cheapo?

SS: People send me an e-mail and they’re like, “Hey, can I do your show? Here’s a video of what I do.” And then I’m like, “yes,” or “no.” For El Circo Cheapo it’s really easy. As long as we have a space in the show people can do it. A lot of the performances at El Circo Cheapo I haven’t seen until they’re performing [in the show]. Yeah. So a lot of times it’s like a surprise for me, too. Which can kind of be a risk. I think that’s what makes El Circo Cheapo different from other shows. You never know what you’re gonna get and I never know what I’m giving you. [Laughs.] It’s sort of chaotic and unorganized but then it comes together to culminate in something really beautiful and worth the wait. That’s what I like to think, anyway.

AVC: El Circo Cheapo has this air of being very underground—how regulated are performance spaces like this? Is there a Cook County Trapeze Oversight Committee?

SS: No, but in some places they tried to put through ordinances that trapeze artists had to wear helmets or safety lines at all times and this and that. And that doesn’t work. Safety lines will actually screw you up more than they will help you. On a lot of things. Not on everything but some stuff. You get tangled in it. You don’t need a net. That’s for things like flying trapeze and that sort of thing. Doing rope, the rope acts as its own safety device most of the time.

AVC: What's the goal of the tour? Or are you just doing it because the thought popped into your head?

SS: Kind of. But the goal is also to get our name out there to other places than Chicago. We’re performing at a lot of other circus schools and circus venues and we’re going to kind of be performing for our peers rather than the average Joe. Which is a lot scarier because your peers know what’s good and what’s bullshit. Whereas the average Joe is like, “Oh my God, you’re doing the splits! You’re so amazing and strong!” Whereas we’re like, “Oh yeah, the splits, everybody does that. Cool.” So it’s a bigger risk but I think the payoff will be more gratifying.

AVC: You’re calling it the Get Rich Slow tour. How big a financial risk is it?

SS: Everyone understands that we might not make any money and that the most amount of money that we’re going to make is likely pretty paltry. So I don’t think I’m going to lose money. I think I’m going to lose the trust and friendship of the people that are coming along. [Laughs.] If it doesn’t go well they’re going to be like, “Why did you drag us into this?” So that’s sort of what’s motivating me more than money. It’s making good on the name. Having a fun time. But it’s not a huge financial risk.

AVC: What advice would you offer for people wanting to embark on your path and start their own underground circus?

SS: Don’t do it. I don’t need the competition.