NBC has announced the stars participating in this summer's Celebrity Circus series, to be hosted by Joey Fatone.
The show will feature Brady Bunch alum Christopher Knight, former supermodel Rachel Hunter; soap opera star Antonio Sabato Jr., Grammy-nominated singer Blu Cantrell, Olympic swimmer Janet Evans and Jason ''Wee Man'' Acuña (Jackass). Stacey Dash was recently added as well.
The show, which debuts with a 90-minute premiere on June 11 , features celebrities learning circus stunts, like the high wire, flying trapeze, and fire dancing. After training, contestants will perform and then face the verdict of judges and viewers.
Last Friday, Monsters and Critics got to pose some questions with other news outlets to the president of Endemol USA, David Goldberg; executive producer Matt Kunitz; head trainer, Philippe Chartrand; and stars Blu Cantrell, anet Evans, Christopher Knight, Rachel Hunter, Jason "Wee Man" Acuña, Antonio Sabato, Jr., and Stacey Dash.
After a great demonstration of circus skills, Wee Man was asked if that was an indication of what the cast would be doing
JASON "WEE MAN" ACUNA: Yes.
ANTONIO SABATO, JR.: Yes.
MATT KUNITZ: That's a small indication because a lot of what we're doing is really high, death-defying up in the sky 40 feet, flying over the audience, trapeze, tightrope.
There's a lot of variety in the show. That's kind of one example that we could do in this small environment, but we have one of the tallest stages in L.A. So we're really getting the show up in the air and doing a lot of death-defying stuff.
For the celebrities, at what point do you just say, "Absolutely no way"?
STACEY DASH: Well, that is one of the challenges. It's overcoming or embracing your fear and finding that depth of force within yourself. For me, that is my greatest challenge, having that strength encompass me completely, mentally and spiritually.
BLU CANTRELL: I'm terrified of heights, so going in the door, I knew that I had to conquer it. So when I went in, I said, "I'm going to do this. I'm going to do it for me. This is why I'm going to do it, and I'm going to do it because I love the circus." And I went and I did it, and I got up there, and it was hell. It was hell.
How many hospital trips?
(Laughter.)
STACEY DASH: Not yet, tap wood, tap wood.
RACHEL HUNTER: Well, not hospital, but twice for me already.
(Laughter.)
BLU CANTRELL: She wants to go today too just to say hello to the doctors.
RACHEL HUNTER: Yeah.
CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: She wants to find a doctor who will say okay.
Can the celebrities describe the thrill you feel when you're doing these events?
RACHEL HUNTER: I would say it's sheer terror. There's no thrill right now, but it's getting there.
BLU CANTRELL: It's a mixture of terror and of wanting to overcome it, overcome your fear.
CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: There's wide-eyed -- it starts with wide-eyed amazement to just absolutely raging terror.
RACHEL HUNTER: Yeah. We're doing everything opposite that our bodies and our minds would do in a normal, everyday situation. And I think to be thrown into
STACEY DASH: Naturally --
RACHEL HUNTER: Well, maybe not you.
(Laughter.)
JASON "WEE MAN" ACUNA: I have to finesse it. I can't just go and do it.
STACEY DASH: I felt like I was going to another planet, another universe, actually. You're learning how to breathe differently.
JASON "WEE MAN" ACUNA: Again.
ANTONIO SABATO, JR.: We're training every day from morning to night, doing crazy stuff.
BLU CANTRELL: Six hours a day.
CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: We're happy to have this event today.
BLU CANTRELL: I have 40 bruises, 40 bruises. I'm wearing jeans for a reason. It's hot outside.
DAVID GOLDBERG: I think this is one of the things that separates this show from all the other celebrity shows that we've seen before is that those shows are about things that all of us kind of think we know how to do and we've done before, whether it's dancing or singing or hidden talents that we already have learned. These guys have never done the circus before. What they're doing is dangerous.
What they're doing is -- takes an incredible amount of practice. And we just hope they're able to do it. They're getting there, but this is not stuff that any of us sort of sit around -- it's much like when we did "Fear Factor." There were things we did that were just absolutely crazy, absolutely insane that people thought they wanted to do and wanted to push themselves but were not sure --
BLU CANTRELL: -- until they got there.
DAVID GOLDBERG: Until they got there. But I think that's what really separates this show from all the other celebrity shows that we've seen before.
MATT KUNITZ: We've had more hospital visits on this show in a week than we did on "Fear Factor" in a whole season.
ANTONIO SABATO, JR.: Just the physical alone to get on this show was long. It wasn't just --
RACHEL HUNTER: It was.
ANTONIO SABATO, JR.: They were checking everything.
STACEY DASH: They took an EKG.
ANTONIO SABATO, JR.: EKG, the whole bit. It was serious stuff. It was like joining the military.
Christopher, which one of these horrifying acts was it that did you in with your injury?
CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: My injury? I have a fear of heights, and unfortunately my injury was caused by the floor --
PHILIPPE CHARTRAND: The floor --
CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: No, the only apparatus that wasn't in the air, by a thing called the German Wheel. But you know, you gotta take your lumps.
PHILIPPE CHARTRAND: As the head of trainers, these events that happen early in the process are really good indicator of where we have to go because we have to achieve in eight weeks what usually takes eight years to learn. And not only one act, they have to build up at least three acts and then maybe four, maybe five, maybe six. All of that in two months, which is completely -- I don't want to say nuts, but kind of --
(Laughter.)
CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: Yeah, Philippe said to us that first day when he was introducing us to the environment that we're training in and all of our apparatuses -- at that point it's all just a wonder to us.
We're looking at it all, going, "Wow, look at these trainers on these things making this all look so easy and beautiful." He's saying that we're going to get there, you know, but these people that do this as a livelihood, to specialize an act takes one to four years. And we've got eight weeks to do five.
BLU CANTRELL: Yeah.
CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: So then our eyes got really saucerlike, and it's just a matter of, faced with utter humiliation, you bang yourself up and --
BLU CANTRELL: Keep moving.
CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: -- move forward.
PHILIPPE CHARTRAND: Because it is something that the normal population never did, ever. When you see a show or circus, Cirque du Soleil or Barnum & Bailey, it's like they come from another planet. This show achieves one thing and I'm sure is linking the normal population with the crazy circus performer, what it takes to get there, what are the good feelings, the sad feelings, the restriction, and all the equipment needed and the surrounding.
And this show will actually expose what we felt becoming circus performer because these guys will feel it in front of everybody. And when I was offered that as a reality show to actually share what it took me and all the trainers to become a circus performer, we can share that to the world that "Count me in." It's a huge challenge, but the team is an unbelievable group, really driven, some too driven that we have to slow down because physically they do have to acclimate, because to lift 200 pounds or bench-press 200 pounds is one thing. But to lift yourself 200 times, it's another thing.
CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: I think through us, the audience will get a vision that circus performers aren't freaks.
BLU CANTRELL: No, they're not.
CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: They're just well-trained, very dedicated. would work out so many muscles in my body. I swear to you I'm in the best shape I've been in my entire life.
CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: After two and a half weeks. every muscle in my body, and I feel wonderful. I'm sure everybody else does, besides the injuries. And everything that we get on is a different kind of fear that you have to overcome. It's not the same. Just because they're all high up doesn't mean that the fear is the same.
When you get up there, you have to conquer every one of those things differently because it's a different fear.
Rachel, could you compare your "Dancing With the Stars" experience to this one? Is there any trepidation on your part to kind of want to revisit that?
RACHEL HUNTER: I totally respect the "Dancing with the Stars," and it takes a lot of hard work to do what they do as well. This is just a completely different -- to be training six hours a day of lifting your own body weight is -- I mean, I couldn't even put my leg over the circle that's there right now. Just the things that you don't think you're -- you take it for granted every day.
But it's a completely different thing because you've got a lot of support from your partners when you dance. This, you're pretty much left on your own. And it's really intimidating when you're about 30 feet up in the air spinning with one hand or one leg or in a split upside down in a circle. It's pretty scary, and you've got no one there to hold you if you need to, you know.
So it's a completely different thing, but there's a lot of work that goes into "Dancing With the Stars" too. I have to be diplomatic on that one, for sure.
Jason - photo by April MacIntyre ©M&C
Jason, the sort of mandate of "Jackass" is it's funnier if you fail the stunt. So what is it like to successfully complete stunts?
(Laughter.)
JASON "WEE MAN" ACUNA: Yeah, this is -- it's black-and-white compared to what I'm used to. We usually show up to an apparatus, like you said, and just fail it. And it's funny; all the friends laugh. But here I have to sit there and train and be finesse and graceful, which --
CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: So, Jason, which hurts more?
JASON "WEE MAN" ACUNA: I don't know. It depends.
CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: He can't even answer that. That's how much it hurts to do it right.
JASON "WEE MAN" ACUNA: Yeah, it's painful. I've already had to, like, take days where I'm like, "I can't do this today. I'm so sore." And it's crazy.
How flexible are you now?
JASON "WEE MAN" ACUNA: I've gotten way more flexible than I used to be.
MATT KUNITZ: You guys saw Vladimir, the big guy. He lifts Vladimir now.
BLU CANTRELL: Get out of here.
You're not joking about that?
JASON "WEE MAN" ACUNA: Not joking.
MATT KUNITZ: There's going to be something where he's going to be lifting Vladimir.
JASON "WEE MAN" ACUNA: That's -- when I said he and I do that kind of stuff --
ANTONIO SABATO, JR.: We're doing it.
JASON "WEE MAN" ACUNA: -- we do that.
ANTONIO SABATO, JR.: He's lifting him for real.
JASON "WEE MAN" ACUNA: And I partner up with Vladimir.
MATT KUNITZ: He's (Antonio Sabato, Jr.) with a really sexy partner, and he's (Jason "Wee Man" Acuna) with Vladimir.
CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: Vladimir got the short stick.
What are the steps to get your body conditioned to do that?
ANTONIO SABATO, JR.: Like I said, we train -- we're there five days a week, morning to night. We don't leave. We have an hour of lunch, and then we just go
PHILIPPE CHARTRAND: And it's technique. Technique is very important because pure strength, as Antonio discovered -- the first week was a discovery of the nervous network. "How can you push this? I'm as strong as you?" "Yeah, but your body doesn't know how to push it. It was never trained that way."
So now everybody is discovering how to use their body as an artistic machine. And because the idea is to have a great show with very amazing performance so everybody that needs to vote won't be able to decide who to eliminate. And I think you guys are going to be stunned with the performance of these guys.
For the producers, would you compare this more to good old Barnum & Bailey or Cirque du Soleil?
MATT KUNITZ: It's a combination of both. We definitely are paying respect to the traditional circus. It's modern in the sense that we're using pop music, and it's going to be fast-paced and fun and exciting. And it should be -- kids should love it,
Are the stunts harder than -- do you remember the show "Circus of the Stars"? I guess it was in the '70s. Are the stunts harder than they had to do?
MATT KUNITZ: Well, the difference is that on "Circus of the Stars," they would train to do one stunt. These guys are all trained to do up to six stunts, because if they make it the whole way, they're going to have to do a different stunt every night. So the amount of training and what they have to learn is significantly more difficult.
CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: And it's more than just about doing the show itself, though that's the end result. I mean, it is really getting there. It's the journey to that end result.
Christopher, having done some reality shows that are very private and following you around, is there a certain distance a sort of competition shows keeps in that regard?
CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: Well, we haven't really started the competition component of this yet. We're still sort of rallying to each other's event right now because --
MATT KUNITZ: They still like each other.
(Laughter.)
BLU CANTRELL: Basically.
CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: We're sort of coming out of week two, which is sort of like survival, that we're still alive. We're happy about that.
BLU CANTRELL: It's a competition, but it's almost like you are surviving. You're rooting because you don't know what could happen when you get up there.
CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: I watch Jason do stuff or Antonio, and it's like okay. It just pushes you.
So you watch them do it. Do you all train together, then?
CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: Yes.
ANTONIO SABATO, JR.: Uh-huh.
Do you encourage each other?
CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: Yes, that's what I'm saying. Right now we're each other's cheerleaders.
BLU CANTRELL: A lot of trash-talking too.
JASON "WEE MAN" ACUNA: We're very family-oriented too.
PHILIPPE CHARTRAND: The goal of the trainers need to create a circus family.
Janet, have you acted almost like a mother hen, trying to help them train?
JANET EVANS: Oh, I think we're all just -- you know, I compare it to an Olympic team, where we're all competing against each other. But as a U.S. team, we're teammates, and we have to support each other. And then the next day you might be racing against that person, but it's that feeling. We're a team, and we're really just trying to help each other and make each other better. So it's very comparative.
MATT KUNITZ: One thing about Janet that's interesting is that she has four gold medals and a silver. Is that correct? And she's -- is that right?
JANET EVANS: Yeah. Thank you.
MATT KUNITZ: She's used to performing in the water, and for her to make that transition and now come out and perform out of the water -- you think, "Oh, she's
JASON "WEE MAN" ACUNA: Fish out of water.
JANET EVANS: A total fish out of water. Absolutely.
(Laughter.)
Because Blu always goes, "Oh, you're the Olympian." And I'm like, "Yeah, but I certainly wasn't a gymnast."
What have your loved ones said about you doing this show?
JASON "WEE MAN" ACUNA: We're all single now.
(Laughter.)
CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: I can't get my wife to come down and watch it. She's a little nervous about the whole thing. I keep telling her to trust me, and then she looks at me --
ANTONIO SABATO, JR.: Yeah, with the bruises.
(Laughter.)
BLU CANTRELL: My family thinks I'm crazy, so they're like, "You're nuts."
Are you all doing the same six stunts?
ANTONIO SABATO, JR.: No.
Are you all training for the same six stunts and then you're competing against each other for those stunts?
MATT KUNITZ: No. There's a huge variety of stunts. There will be some that -- in one episode someone might do one stunt that you'll see again, but throughout all the episodes, there's constantly different stunts.
CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: Just like in life, I would imagine -- like Vlad is literally built to do the things that he does in the circus as opposed to some things that maybe he's not doing because of the way he is built. We have natural proclivities or inclinations that we're trying to follow.
Christopher Knight - © Albert L. Ortega / PR Photos
downwarddogJun 11th, 2008 - 01:22:03
I can't wait till this show starts. It's been on my tivo list for ages, ever since I saw the commercial when I was watching my other NBC fav this summer, American Gladiators (or Am Glad for all those in the know). I hear Chris Knight breaks his arm and Stacey Dash breaks some ribs. Nice that they are injecting some reality into reality shows now. Cannot wait. I will be on my couch front and center tomrrow night (June 11) at 9:30 watching Celebrity Circus on NBC. Who's with me?
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