PLATTSBURGH — A back flip off of a unicycle, pedaling while balancing on a narrow ledge — all while his eyes are focused on an enthralled audience.
These sound like the talents of an experienced professional. Well, they are. He just happens to be 18.
Taylor Wright-Sanson is a unicycle prodigy. Or at least, he would like that title.
"I would like to be the best unicyclist in the world," said the part-time Wilmington resident.
Wright-Sanson is about to start his fifth and final tour with Circus Smirkus, a nonprofit traveling youth circus that comes to Plattsburgh July 2 and 3.
Why the unicycle?
Wright-Sanson's parents gave him one for Christmas a few years ago; he learned to ride it in the kitchen, as snow kept him from practicing outdoors. He put it away for a while until he saw online videos of people doing tricks.
"I thought I could definitely be able to do some of the tricks I saw," he said. "I started trying them and realized that I learned them pretty fast."
MANY TRICKS
Wright-Sanson, who first discovered the circus as an audience member in the summer of 2004, decided to audition and subsequently went to one of the weeklong training camps the following summer.
He said the first time you audition, you have to send in a three-minute video.
"In the first minute of the video, you say why you want to be a part of the circus," he said. "For the other two minutes, you show off your talent."
From those videos, 50 applicants are selected for live auditions and then 28 are chosen to go on tour.
"Well, when I first joined, I had a repertoire of tricks, but since then I have added new things," he said. "I can juggle, tight wire and other tricks."
Wright-Sanson is especially known — as seen in his many YouTube videos and his performances with the show — for his ability to do a back flip off of his unicycle.
"It took me, probably, a little over a year to learn," he said. "I have never broken a bone."
During his first show, Taylor said, he wasn't "super nervous" but more thought it was "cool" to be performing onstage. His friends and family are very supportive of his desire to perform, he noted.
"They just don't understand it," he said jokingly.
BENEFITS KIDS STATION
Wright-Sanson explained since Circus Smirkus is a nonprofit organization, the performers have to pay $5,000 to go on tour, which covers their food and room and board.
"It is a lot of money, but I have never had a problem with it," he said.
He doesn't know if the big top will be a part of his future but acknowledged that he may want a career in the performing arts. He is planning to study computer science and performance in college in the fall.
"I am just really enjoying what's going on now," he said.
Circus Smirkus, based in Vermont, performs there, in Maine and upstate New York.
The profits from the Plattsburgh show will go to the Champlain Valley Transportation Museum, allocated for the renovation of the Kids Station.
The show presents a variety of acts from jugglers to the high trapeze and, of course, clowns.
"This is the first time it is being presented in Plattsburgh," said Stuart Friedman, volunteer treasurer of the museum. "Most people don't know about this circus on this side of the lake."
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