Good news! The trial is finished! I’m free!!
But seriously, my first experience with jury duty is officially over. I’m glad it’s done, but I also think it was a good experience for me to have.
Back to Faneuil
In any case, after I finished with jury duty, I hit up Faneuil Hall once again to check out the performance scene. Once again, there was only one performance going on, and it was the escape artist I saw the first day I went out (who I learned is named Jason Escape). This time around, I decided to have a chat with him.
Jason Escape after freeing himself from his straitjacket
Jason was kind enough to take some time and chat with me over drinks. Or rather, he drank and I just asked him questions. Understandable since I had already eaten and he had just finished two long performances in the hot sun.
Jason was a pretty down to earth guy and talked with me freely about his street performance work. He said he’s been performing in Faneuil Hall for 6 years now (which is why I recognized him originally), and doing street theater for even longer. Besides working in Faneuil, he also does a number of other events, parties, and shows around the world.
I was curious to know from him just how and where he practices hanging upside-down in a straitjacket and getting out scot-free. He said that there is no way you can really train for such a performance other than just doing it. He’ll try some new things out right there in his show and if he gets the response he was looking for from the crowd, he’ll keep it. If not, it’s gone.
That made a lot of sense to me. With street performance, the audience is an integral part of the whole experience. You can’t practice certain key aspects of a show without the audience there watching and interacting. In a lot of ways, escaping from a straitjacket is the easy part.
Now that jury duty is over, I’m wondering what to do now. Jury duty was a nice excuse to get into the city for the day. I’m not keen on making the trip to Faneuil Hall just to see if there will be new performances.
I don’t know at this point. But I must say it has been very rewarding while it lasted.
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