Flyin' Bob rolls into Morinville

Bob Palmer has discovered the secret to staying young – live honestly, laugh often and climb a 20-foot-long high-wire every couple of days.

The perpetually young-at-heart circus performer likes to joke there’s a 10-year-old kid inside his head.

“I got into this because of my lack of ability to hold down a real job,” he laughs. “There’s always something new in what I do. I have a short attention span and I’m always looking for new things. There’s no end of excitement and fun and interesting things to do.”

That’s why, more than 25 years ago, Palmer scotched a business suit in favour of 10 different circus skills that range from riding unicycles and lumbering on stilts to clowning and comedy.

A hot ticket item at Western Canada’s street festivals, Flyin’ Bob is dropping by Morinville’s Light Up the Night Christmas Festival on Saturday, Nov. 30.

Palmer’s performing career took off after he picked up a guitar at 15 and envisioned his life as a rock star.

“I was in six or seven different top 40 rock bands. But at 21 I saw somebody juggling and I thought it was pretty cool.”

He borrowed a few juggling books from the local library, grabbed three oranges and closeted himself in the house to practise. Within a week Palmer had mastered the art.

“I was completely hooked. That’s when I discovered I had an obsessive personality.”

At the time Palmer was living in Saskatchewan and was working for a book buyer in a dusty warehouse. Should he stay at a boring job that paid the bills? Or should he risk his future as freelance circus artist?

By the time he was 28, Palmer had taken the leap, never regretting the decision. He’s travelled to 17 countries on every continent except South America and Antarctica.

Back in the late ’80s he visited Japan as a disco street performer and discovered a special bond with the country.

“Japan welcomed me. Everybody told me of how reserved and quiet everyone was and not interactive. It was the opposite. They totally get what I do. And the audience knew how to make the show better by interacting and me not always leading as what typically happens,” he said.

The Sylvan Lake resident even married the internationally-renowned Japanese face painter Mia, a longtime staple at Edmonton Street Performers Festival.

Palmer has taken part in the bizarre subculture of the Street Performers World Championships in Ireland. And in 2008 at Extreme Highwire in Seoul, South Korea he walked the longest tight-wire in the world. The one-kilometre wire was strung between two 22-metre towers on either side of the Han River.

“It was about 72 feet high – that’s about seven stories. It was really a competition for the fastest circus performers to run across. I was just doing it to get across. It took 43 minutes and a lot of control.”

Closer to home the adrenalin rush is a bit tamer. But through his work as artistic curator for Red Deer’s decade-long CentreFest street performers festival, and as an ongoing instructor at Sherwood Park’s Under the Big Top, Palmer is feeling the satisfaction of living his dream multiplied many times over.

Flyin’ Bob is slated to perform at the Morinville Community Cultural Centre this coming Saturday with two free all-ages shows, at 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m.