My burlesque connections have yet again provided me with an opportunity to work with an extremely unique and talented individual.

It would be a serious understatement to simply say that Satori Circus is a performance artist. In truth his work is hard to describe without actually seeing it in person (which I strongly recommend). Based in Detroit, with over twenty years of experience under his belt, SC is truly an original. Definitely not your standard circus clown.

I hadn’t previously had the pleasure of seeing him perform in person before now, and what I saw was only a small sample of what I know to be a wide array of acts that seem to range from extremely dark butoh dances to whimsical & upbeat children’s songs (that the adults love). I can only hope I’m fortunate enough to catch one of his solo stage performances in Detroit as soon as possible.

SC was kind enough to arrive a bit early to one of his recent gigs in Grand Rapids (as a model for Grand Rapids’ chapter of Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School, and a performer for Shimmy Shack Burlesque) to do a bit of modeling for me. He was extremely great to work with, and my only real regret is that we simply didn’t have more time.

Here are my favorites from our session, as well as a few outtakes from his individual sets from Shimmy Shack.  I was slightly worried that it would be a bit cliched, but man, when I asked for “angry clown”… boy did I ever get it.