Brandon Kilbury prepares to go down the 50-foot high Nitro Giganta Ramp during practice Friday, June 3, 2011 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in preparation for the North American premiere of Nitro Circus Live. Photo by: Justin M. Bowen
A Motocross rider pulls a back flip during practice Friday, June 3, 2011 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in preparation for the North American premiere of Nitro Circus Live. Photo by: Justin M. Bowen
Lyn-z Adams Hawkins takes flight after hitting the 50-foot high Nitro Giganta Ramp during practice Friday, June 3, 2011 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in preparation for the North American premiere of Nitro Circus Live.. Photo by: Justin M. Bowen
FMX and BMX practice at Nitro Circus
Catching air at Nitro Circus
What’s great about “circus” is how it enlivens the name or title of just about any entertainment vehicle.
“Monster Circus” was a fine title for a rock showcase that nonetheless tanked at the Las Vegas Hilton. The original members of KISS reunited (supposedly) with “Psycho Circus.” Of course in Las Vegas, the French variation of the word boosts Cirque du Soleil, and one of the Strip’s most famous hotels uses the noun twice.
Saturday night at MGM Grand Garden Arena, we’ve got us another circus: “Nitro Circus Live,” it’s called. This is a high-wired exhibition of choreographed aerial acrobats who star in such extreme competitions as the X Games, a sport in which 30-year-old competitors are graybeards, and many stars are not old enough to even drive legally.
Based on the MTV reality TV show “Nitro Circus,” the explosive exhibition is one of the many productions that storms into Vegas claiming to offer a collision of Cirque du Soleil and something else.
“We’re like Cirque du Soleil on steroids,” says Michael Porra, managing director of Global Action Sports, one of the tour’s presenting companies. “At the end of the day, we want to do something that is off the hook. Our show is a party show.” A partying crowd of 10,500 is expected. For tickets, go to MGM Grand’s Web site or Ticketmaster.com.
The most famous figure in all of extreme sports, 17-time X Games medalist Travis Pastrana has his own term for “Nitro Circus Live.”
“It’s a lot of shenanigans on random equipment,” says Pastrana, who at 27 is one of the wily veterans of Saturday night’s performance. The spectacle is being recorded for a 3-D movie to be released in February. The crew that brought us “Jackass 3-D” is involved in the project, though Porra promises “Nitro Circus Live” will be far more dignified than watching guys do nutty things with staple guns.
For the uninitiated, and that is a considerable lot considering this is the North American debut of “Nitro Circus Live,” the event unites athletes who perform high-flying stunts in FMX (freestyle motocross), BMX (bicycle motocross), as well as on skateboards and, in one instance, a wheelchair.
Indeed, one of the show’s “big wow” moments is the much-anticipated appearance by Aaron “Wheelz” Fotherington of Las Vegas, who suffers from spina bifida and has been in a wheelchair since age 13. It’s tempting to say “Wheelz” has been “confined” to the chair since that age, except that in October 2008, he became the first person to ever execute a back flip in a wheelchair. His feat was given the stamp of approval by the Guinness Book of World Records. Two months later, he made news again when he received a $20,000 check from Salt Lake City entrepreneur Greg Haerr on the Fox reality TV show “Secret Millionaire,” in which a rich person goes undercover to find a subject worthy of an unexpected cash windfall.
Even if the show were merely a showcase for “Wheelz” to flip his way into our hearts, that would be enough. But there is more, of course, in the form of a never-attempted stunt in which Pastrana and three other FMX stars -- Cam Sinclair, Scott Murray and Josh Sheehan -- perform a four-man, double back flip “train.”
Considering that only three men have ever executed the stunt successfully -- Pastrana was the first, in 2006 -- and that Sinclair was nearly killed last summer in a failed attempt in Spain, the quartet’s attempt should be rather suspenseful.
“The biggest concern, always, is serious injury or even death,” says Porra, who notes that even a show so painstakingly choreographed is, at the core, highly dangerous. “There is a very high chance of serious injury, and you see it very commonly. Some of these guys go 55 feet, for a double back flip, and the injuries you can sustain are quite serious. You hate that, because this is like one big family, like any circus.”
“It’s not something you can practice together,” Pastrana adds. “Not many guys have ever done it at all. But this is a sport where we’re always trying to do something new, that no one has ever done. (Thursday) I was watching the skateboarders practice, and they were doing things in practice that had never been done before, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. they were out here.
“How they were able to walk today, I have no idea.”
When asked what his most severe injury has been, Pastrana said only, “Concussions.”
How many?
“I have no idea,” he said, chucking.
Guess that makes sense.
Asked when he’d finally leave the circus, he paused and said, “When the injuries bother you because of the pain, not because you’re frustrated that you can’t get back out there. And when you’re in the seventh hotel room in a single week and you think, ‘This is not for me anymore.’ ”
Has he come to that point?
“Not even close,” he says.
As long as the star is performing death-defying feats, the circus will never leave town.
Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow "Kats With the Dish" at twitter.com/KatsWithTheDish.