Learning How To Embrace Change and Running Away With The Circus with Keri Kelsey

Keri is currently hosting the longest running open mic in Los Angeles. She hosts the singers that perform on stage and helps ensure the crowd is having fun and sticking around. She took over the gig more than 10 years ago.

[2:45] Keri came from a background where she didn’t do much of anything on the spur of the moment, but she had always wanted to live in New York. After having serious panic attacks for some time, she packed everything up and moved there, where she met a trapeze artist and within 6 months married him and began travelling with the circus.

[4:00] Keri went to college for years with a friend who turned out to be from a family of trapeze artists. When she first encountered the circus, she quickly fell in love - not only with Richie, the trapeze artist, but also the whole lifestyle.

[7:15] Keri describes the moment she met Richie as not quite love at first sight, but something along those lines.

[8:40] Keri knew there was something special with Richie right away, but she had always wondered how much of their relationship was because of her falling in love with the circus as well. Seeing Richie and his family perform basically sealed the deal for Keri.

[12:50] When Keri had moved across town she found herself in a situation that wasn’t what she had in mind when she first made the move. She was extremely lonely. It’s possible to see hundreds of people each day in New York without ever saying hello. She was on the brink of returning home to Florida when she met Richie and it just seemed like an opportunity that she couldn’t pass up.

[16:00] Surprisingly enough, Keri’s parents were supportive of her choice of being with Richie and spending time with the circus. It turned out that, contrary to popular belief, not all circus performers travel all the time.

[19:40] Keri didn’t really settle down until the birth of her son. In a lot of ways she got the best of both worlds traveling with the circus, a familiar living space and a unique landscape everyday.

[21:00] Keri never really performed in the circus, although she did give the trapeze a shot. Once she accomplished her goals, she decided she didn’t need to keep it going. Her son is now working in a show in Las Vegas as a trapeze artist himself.

[24:00] The circus has evolved, the classic circus with animal performances are pretty much extinct, but there are still shows traveling the world today.

[24:45] If Keri hadn’t run away to the circus, she imagines herself working at a department store somewhere in Florida. Being in the circus, Keri had to embrace change and she would never have eventually moved to California and landed her job as a literary agent.

[27:20] Keri recalls a time when Tom Cruise came to the Big Apple Circus and was invited to try the trapeze out. In many ways, being in the circus was being a part of a large extended community/family.

[30:45] Keri no longer seeks change, but she accepts it. Life changes and there’s not much you can do about that.

[32:00] Keri and Richie turned out to be quite different, especially once Richie’s brother was no longer traveling with them. In many ways they were both quite different in terms of personality and that wasn’t obvious until several months into the marriage.

[34:35] Keri knew her life in Florida was not the life she wanted, and intuitively knew that if she returned to it she wouldn’t be able to escape. Avoiding Florida and not doing the same old thing was a major component of her decision to leave.

[38:35] Keri describes the emotions and experience of meeting Richie for the very first time. There was something about him that was vastly different from anyone else she had met until that point.

[42:10] The charisma of the family the first time Keri saw their performance was the moment that sealed the deal for her. That was what had sent her on the path that would lead her to California and her future career as a host.

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