 SCOTT OSGOOD “If I can do it with a rope, I'll do it with a rope rather than a piece of sophisticated equipment. I like simple.” Scott Osgood grew up in Sarasota, FL, in an environment where circus people from all over North America wintered. Sarasota High School offers a well-known and highly respected extra-curricular course called the Sailor Circus. The students are trained and supervised by faculty and parents, and it is officially known as "The Greatest Little Show On Earth.” At the time Scott Osgood took part in the program, it was operated as a traditional three-ring circus in a tent. Scott picked up many skills at Sailor Circus, including ladder, teeterboard, clowning and juggling, and in his first year with the program, at the age of 15, he was picked for his first professional job as part of a high wire act that toured theme parks in United States. Soon after, he accepted a job in a flying trapeze act instead of going to college, and has never looked back. There was no formal training in circus rigging as such. Scott picked up his knowledge of acrobatic equipment and rigging design from veterans in the business. He soon found work in the worlds of theatre and rock music, where his rigging expertise was in demand. At the same time, he continued to work around the world as a performer, appearing with many circus companies including Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey. He also worked as an acrobat in theme parks including Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Scott’s first contact with Cirque du Soleil was a video he sent the company of a comedy aerial act he had created, called The Old Man. “It had some innovative equipment design and some innovative acrobatics,” he says. “I sent them my CV as a performer, but I included my credits in rigging. They offered me a job in a flying trapeze act, but I turned them down because I wanted to pursue my comedy aerial act. When the Cirque show La Nouba was being put together in the spring of 1997, I received a call to work on the rigging design, and I actually turned them down three times before eventually taking it.” For ZED, among his many innovations, Scott has invented a device called the Bungee Yo-Yo Finger, which automates bungee acrobatics, gives maximum control and eliminates acrobat fatigue. “ZED is a fully charged acrobatic show,” he says. “It is all about acrobatics: flying trapeze, high wire and trampoline pole. The systems we put together are extraordinarily complex and sophisticated. But my whole goal is to break it down to be as simple as possible. If I can do it with a rope, I'll do it with a rope rather than a piece of sophisticated equipment. I like simple.” Scott Osgood was born in Sarasota, Florida, in 1962. For further information please contact |
