This was an interseting out for the Fanzini collective to the center of Ireland. Also an interesting trip in that the premiership is back in action which means that for the Fanzini boys the obsession that is Fantasy Football. Oh yes Mr Frizz the champion from last year going up against the might of the Trappist Ale 11. Bring it on. This was also the weekend when Kerry took another mighty step on the road another All Ireland Football championship. You will also see from the state of the photos that the weather was to put it mildly changeable.
Oh well we ploughed on.
As for the gigs themselves we will start with Roscommon as it was the first. Roscommon may not at first seem like the nicest town in the country but you know the place kind of grows on you.
We were working for the crew with Corvienos entertainment a great crew to work with as Val and her hubby are as pro as they come. Both come for a circus background and do sections of performance Val does really good foot juggling while her hubby does unicycling and magic and fire eating etc great stuff and really interesting to see the circus style which is very different to our own style. A lot of people slag off the circus as it exists today (in fairness a lot of it deserved) i really like the circus though and have seen many great acts on my visits to the circus. I go to the circus whenever i can. The best circus i have seen so far is the Chinese State Circus which i saw years ago. While it may be fair enough to slag off the from this attitude does an immense disservice to the many great acts clowns etc that can be seen.
So we did a show and the Corvineous crew did a few sections and to be honest the crowds were not great due to the dire weather. We also did some presence walking about in character with Ronaldo on stilts and Guido on the mini bike.
There followed another gig for Ronaldo who was whizzed away in true rock and roll style but not in a helicopter but a van. He went to Sligo Rovers home ground for more walkabout. I checked out some professionals playing football in the form of the premiership instead.

We took off late in the evening in the direction of Birr the venue for the gig next day. We stayed in this great guesthouse in a fantastic row of houses. The guesthouse was called the stables and it was very picturesque and after a hearty breakfast we got the see Ossie Bennet unloading his steam engine outside our front door. I gave full freedom to the camera and got some great shots of the tackle on display at the Birr heritage week parade. Great stuff. I love this old tackle vintage kit. Proper.
The parade was great and colourful and the people turned out in force and we really enjoyed ourselves. We already had the most of the show already set up in front of the viewing platform.
After the parade we got back there sharpish and got the kit out ready for the show.
It was all perfect the crowd was there we were there, they were pumped we were pumped it was totally Transvalllllllllllllllllll! And then just after the first trick a trickle from the sky and then a stream and then a torrent and not the ones that let you download movies a rainy one.
It bucketed as we say.
We all performers audience got wet. And there is a certain level of rain that people are prepared to deal with and will put up with but this went way beyond that.




So the audience ran and the stuff got soaked. In situations like that you cant just leg it you have to stay there and sort out the kit which got wet. So we broke down the show and got the kit back in the van to dry out and then in a hint of irony that was not lost on us the sun came out. And so it was.
At least Kerry won.