SC: Do you still get nervous playing with fire/knives?
AH: Yes indeed, as the old saying goes – you play with fire – you get burned. Thankfully, by the very nature of what I do, it requires me having an incredibly high pain threshold. Stapling things to yourself can go wrong on several premises, one being the very fact that you’re stapling things to yourself. Two being – if you’re not properly cleaning your puncture woulds before and after, which I’m always meticulous about. I’ve had several puncture wounds on my back from bed of nails, after having people stand on me that are quite heavy, which is something you can’t actually avoid, much like the constant little burns from fire.
SC: What are some of the more serious injuries one can endure on stage?
Well this brings me to my most important point – the recent influx of terrible club performers and models deciding they’re “fire artists” and simultaneously getting severe injuries. It’s no joke – without the proper training you can literally cause yourself horrendously serious injury and furthermore fatality – these are literally death defying fetes. You’re using knives, power tools, live flames, exotic animals with sharp teeth and things like bull whips (not your awful PVC Ann Summers kind, but the genuine cracking, shit your pants watching the Passion of Christ kind of whip), but the key is, no matter how much experience you feel you’ve gained, respect the art. The moment the fear stops, that’s when things can go wrong. Sometimes there are things you can’t account for that go wrong also, aside from you, the venue you work with has a pretty large responsibility to be competent.
SC: What about yourself personally?
I had the worst injury of my career, which meant I couldn’t work for nearly three months and was hospitalised because someone had left the air conditioning on at a venue I was playing, and it blew back some paraffin vapour left in the air after I fire breathed. I pretty badly damaged my oesophagus, and it wasn’t even the flame! Just the fuel in the air! I’ve had sword swallower friends cut their wind passage open, trapeze artists tear muscles constantly, I’ve managed to whip my back to within an inch of its existence when rehearsing whipping, and all the aforementioned little burns and puncture wounds, bruises constantly etc. Even if you’re a really well honed circus or cabaret artist, your body is generally in a constant state of healing!
SC: What are some things about you people might be surprised to hear?
AH: Well I think a common misconception about me is that I’ve the IQ of an amoeba. Yes I’m blonde, yes I spend most of my life brazenly parading my naked self around the stages of the world, but I also happen to have a classics and philosophy degree from a red brick university, privately used to tutor english literature to A-level students, and am an avid science enthusiast, culminating in the eventuality of my career as a stage siren ending in exchange for re-entering the educational system and becoming a dentist (yes a dentist… bizarre fascination with teeth from a very young age, and an absolute closet science geek). I’m also a professional fashion and beauty photographer, and a MAC trained make-up artist… so nerrr.
