The campers gathered in a huge circle in the social hall to a hysterical performance by The Twins From France (one of them, anyway). After a few unicycle warm-ups, he called up campers to lie down in the center of the circle, more than a foot apart, and he proceeded to jump over one, then two, then four of the campers in one shot. Then, on the unicycle, he bounced over each of them.

Next, he brought out a small high table, a cylinder and a small wooden board. Placing the cylinder atop the table and the board on the cylinder, he pulled a striped woolen hat over his face and stood on the shaky board. Then, he pulled out three gigantic sword-like knives and juggled them while comically maintaining his balance.

For the next act, he brought out an old-fashioned looking bike, with a very high, backed seat and ram-horn handlebars. He performed several bike tricks, such as riding on the back wheel with one hand, jumping on one pedal with only his hands on the handlebars, riding backwards with no hands and other fun stunts. Then, his bike “broke,” and he called up the campers to help him fix it, attaching the seat upside down and the pedals sticking up in the air – and then he rode the new-and-improved edition.

He went backstage, and then emerged from behind the black curtain in a colossal suit, at least six feet in diameter, with at least one hundred balloons stuffed inside. As he performed somersaults and cartwheels, the balloons popped nonstop. He somehow managed to mount his unicycle and he spun on it dizzyingly before jumping off.

Then he brought out a giant unicycle, at least ten feet tall. And after a few comical attempts to mount it, he rode around the room, almost in reach of the ceiling beams. Afterward, we turned off the lights and had a short dance party accompanied by a multihued pulsing strobe light. Then, the campers returned to their seats and the Twin lit and juggled three burning torches in the darkness. After letting campers fan the flames, he blew fire across the room as the heat danced across our faces, eliciting gasps from all sides. Thank you Twins from France for the riveting performance!

-T