Thomas Gorham is an Australian acrobat and circus artist, and co-founder of Head First Acrobats. Trained at Melbourne’s National Institute of Circus Arts (NICA), he combines hand-to-hand acrobatics, head balancing, breakdancing and physical comedy. His dynamic, high-energy performances have taken him to stages around the world.
Visit the Head First Acrobats website, and follow Thomas Gorham on Instagram and Facebook.
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Thomas Gorham: video transcript
Liam (ArtsHub interviewer): Is there a reason for the nudity in the performances?
Thomas Gorham: Oh, yeah – two words: sex sells.
Initially, the first time we did like a naked routine, we were very nervous. But after the very first time we did it, we realised it’s the opposite of what you would think is the feeling that you get.
What I’ve learned: Daniel Lamech, fight director & stage combat teacher
That actually, if you’re up there naked and the whole audience is in shock, they’re actually more embarrassed than you. They’re out with their friends being titillated by a bunch of naughty boys dancing around on stage. So it’s a complete inversion of the dynamic that you would expect and it’s very liberating and it’s very hilarious. It’s what people want to see.
You can’t deny them.
Liam: Is there a difference in how you approach it when doing a family-friendly show versus an adult-only show outside of wearing clothes or not?
Thomas Gorham: Yeah, I mean, there’s wearing clothes, but then there’s also the content of the skits.
What I’ve Learned: Merran Hamilton, animal wrangler
There’s the music choices that you make. In terms of the physicality of the acts, we don’t pare anything back when we do a children’s show. We do the same level of acrobatic tricks and we give them the same hard stunts that we would put in an adult show because kids are just as discerning as adults as to what’s difficult physically. We try to just try our hardest for both the kids and the adult shows.
The adult shows, generally they have higher production values and they have a lot more content and thought-driven narrative and also a lot less clothing.
What I’ve Learned: Kiana Daniele, Intimacy Coordinator and Director
We focus a lot on narrative performance so for us the story is important and we try to make sure that every single part of the show makes sense. Why are they doing a handstand. Why would they do they do a backflip?
Liam: What would be a narrative reason to do that?
Thomas Gorham: That is exactly the determining question that makes circus so difficult.
One of our main shows is called Return of the GODZ and it follows the Greek gods as they come down from Mount Olympus and they have riotous party.
What I’ve Learned: Anita Lester, courtroom artist
A lot of it is just displaying the gods’ abilities, and that was our key point – what is each god the god of? And how can we try to display, maybe not the meaning, but the aura or what is the pop culture sense of this character, and how do we push that out there and get people to feel the energy of that. And how do we do that with our physicality?
It’s a really awesome and difficult challenge.
