The narration has been my mental and emotional anchor point to connect myself to the show and be able to transmit and share the energy to whoever watches my show at that moment. It shifts my focus from what I do to how I do it.
Alvin Yong
Hi Alvin, how are you today?
I’m pretty calm and a bit lazy, but I had a great gym session and a nice lunch to make me feel good for the day. I actually keep this as the last question to answer, now I’m happy that I can finally write to you “Hey Margarita, thank you for your patience, I finally finished answering all the questions.”
I miss you and your sense of humour! Have you practised music since our last “jam session”?
I haven’t touched an ukulele since then!
Let’s focus on the circus then! What is your background, and what was your path to becoming a performer?
My background is diabolo, which I started as a school activity in 2002. It has been a huge part of my life, especially from my teenage time until my mid-20s, I was a hardcore player where I could spend any free time practising it, wanting to be the best at it. I used to compete and perform a lot as a group with my teammates at a very young age, probably from 10y/o, and also as an individual since 17 y/o.
I don’t know exactly what to consider as my starting point as a performer,
I always wanted to perform since I had my first experience on stage as a kid. It gave that naive me a sense of fulfilment and an idea of “I’m good at it therefore I’m performing on stage”, and it has been one of my biggest drives to be good at it. To show people how good I am doing it.
What is your busking experience, and why do you perform in the street?
I did my first busking show in November 2015, in Taipei, Taiwan. Then I became a full-time street performer from the middle of 2016 until the end of 2017. I considered it my job to support my life as a student in Taiwan.
The reason I wanted to perform in the street is because I saw a TV interview with a Taiwanese diabolo player that I admired, who spoke about street performing in Taiwan. It was time when I was about to graduate from high school and thinking about how I can keep my passion for performing.
It was the first thing I knew that I could perform whenever I wanted, and make money out of it. So I had this dream of becoming a street performer and then travelling the world to perform with diabolos.
So far, you are the only Malaysian performer I have met. What’s the circus scene like in your home country? Is busking popular?
To be honest, I can only talk about it as an outsider, as I wasn’t well-connected to any communities or groups in the country.
To me the circus scene seems pretty scattered, there are performers who perform circus skills in commercial events, and also people who do it as a hobby. However, these different groups of people seldom meet together, and they are divided according to the genres, like flow arts, aerials, juggling, diabolo, etc.
I used to work with a company and we mainly met for rehearsals and work, also went to some weekly jam that many times was just a small group of people. I think the most important is that there is no one else to practice the Cyr wheel with, so I mainly go somewhere near my house and train on my own.
I think busking is becoming more common, compared to my impression when I left the country in 2020 and returned for a visit in 2024. However, I don’t know much about how it works and if it’s good to busk there. As far as I know, there are mainly musicians there. I don’t think there is any other local performance act. After returning from Taiwan in 2018, I only tried once or twice to perform, but it wasn’t a motivating experience and I quickly realised I couldn’t do that for a living, so I eventually didn’t focus much on it.
Combining circus technical skills with expressing yourself
Can you tell me more about your shows? What’s your process of creating them? How do you come up with your routines? Do you modify them often? How would you say your acts have changed since you started?
This will be a big story to tell!
I will start with a competition that I attended at the end of 2018, called “Artistreet”, and we can look at it as a street act competition. I passed the preliminary round with a Cyr wheel act and went to the final round, but I had a very bad elbow injury more or less one month before the final day.
This accident was an enlightening point in my life as a performer that eventually led me to a more artistic path. Before that, my mindset about the performance was always “showing how good I am”, from performing with diabolos on the street to how I approached the Cyr wheel. It was very technical and I was obsessed with tricks. I still remember what I did for the preliminary round – a typical skill-based act that was basically me doing seemingly the same as other performers I saw in real life and YouTube videos. With a much stiffer body.
Back to the preparation for the final round, knowing that I couldn’t do anything on the wheel forced me to do something that was not based on tricks. At this time I remembered a song that I listened to a lot and was touched by the meaningful lyrics, then I decided to use it for the final and I wanted to express my gratitude to the people who watched my performance on that day (not knowing I can barely perform anything). It was the first time I expressed myself through performance instead of showing tricks, in the end I won the competition and received big cash prizes, and then it became my travel fund to Europe the next year.
The next year in 2019, I got an invitation to perform at a festival in South Korea, also I was planning to have a tour in Europe to perform at festivals. It pushed me to create a 30-minute show, which was the minimal requirement (as I knew) for the street festivals. Inspired by the experience of injury and winning the competition,
I realised being expressive was a breakthrough in my journey, and then I decided to use it as something I wanted to tell through my show. From showing how good I am to expressing myself to the people. That’s how “Soul to Show” was created.
The show has some changes from the year it was created to how it is now. I call it the version before and after circus school (or pandemic), I created and performed in 2019 and then took a long break until I finished circus school in 2022. Even though the structure and story I want to tell are the same, from skilful diabolo to expressive Cyr wheel, the version after circus school is definitely more complete and I’ve been keeping it since then. I have made some minor adjustments in the way, I interact and connect with audiences over time and repetitions when I got to perform more each year and realised what works better.
Sharing dreams with an audience
Does your culture, background, and experience influence your shows? How would you compare the performers’ style in Taiwan where you started performing to that of other countries? I would describe the shows I have seen as poetic.
In my opinion, these are the factors that shape me and my show today, to me life and show are mutual influences therefore it is inseparable.
I think performance or performer styles can be a reference of “how the show can work at the particular place”, in addition to the format of how a street show is usually structured. For example in Taiwan, the street performance/busking culture is relatively common in many cities, people are aware of what is happening and what to do.
The people in Taiwan are very kind and supportive, they will be touched by the performers who tell them their dreams, stories or how much effort they put into their craft to make themselves (or the country) be seen. For this reason, the shows perhaps naturally tend to be sharing dreams or being ambitious and proud.
I suppose it also varies when we have to balance between doing it for a living (relying on the hat) or fulfilling a passion/artistic view. I think Taiwan is very friendly to have different styles of shows in this regard.
P.S: This is based on my experience in Taiwan until the beginning of 2018. It may not be the absolute truth of how it is now.
How important is it for you for your show to have a narration?
I think the narration has been my mental and emotional anchor point to connect myself to the show and be able to transmit and share the energy to whoever watches my show at that moment. It shifts my focus from what I do to how I do it.
Your show is silent. Does the audience’s reaction change depending on the country where you perform?
This is a tricky question because I feel like the reactions I get are always similar, which is good energy together with the audience at the end of the show. Maybe it’s because of how I structured my show or the mental setting I had in performing my show, the first reaction I received from the audience was just a starting point to eventually arrive at the end of the show.
There might be some not-so-good or lower-energy shows when there is a smaller group of audiences or factors that are out of my control, but I wouldn’t say it is because the audience in that particular country reacted in a certain way. I can tell more of the differences in reactions when the audience knows what is happening and what they are expecting. Perhaps the context of where the show happens does the key work, I’ve never done my full show in a raw street set-up, I suppose it will be more challenging for me.
“In circus school I’m not alone in doing what I like to do”
You are a circus school graduate. What did the school give you, and how would you compare yourself to self-taught performers?
The circus school gave me the experience of what professional circus training and lifestyle are like. It’s so intense that I have to be disciplined and take care of my recoveries from the training and be able to train consistently, also an environment of “I’m not alone in doing what I like to do”. Most importantly, I got to go deep in my circus discipline (Cyr wheel) and realise the possibilities of finding my own style and identity in it. I would say it makes me a more versatile performer and broadens the spectrum of what kind of performance I could and want to do.
I think it is very much subject to the question of what kind of performer we want to be and how we learn. I progressed a lot in school compared to the time when I was training alone. Through the experiences from school I also collected different tools and practices that I could train better on my own to keep growing.
You have recently done a residency. It is not something common in Poland. How does it work?
It’s usually done by applications or open calls when an artistic space offers different conditions as a form of support to a project. Normally we have a space for a certain amount of time for research, creation or any other purposes related to our project, and other conditions subject to the agreements for example support of funding, accommodation, technical needs, etc. It provides an environment where we can focus and dive in on the project or work. It also was something new to me when I entered the circus school.
What does your typical day look like? Do you have daily routines for the time when you don’t perform?
I always try to have a routine or plans and tasks, so I can feel grounded and organised in my life. Right now I am mainly looping between morning meditation, going to the gym, long sitting at computer work, cooking, eating and sleeping. I do wheel training and dance classes whenever it’s possible.
“I always like to wave my hand to people as the first interaction.”
What are your tricks to build the crowd?
Most of the time I will play the music and do something to get myself present in the space, for example, a little bit of physical warm-up, checking the floor conditions and the sound volume. Once I have done my internal work and am ready to face the external world, I will put on my costume (sometimes without this part) and start to have eye contact with who is watching me at that moment to begin building the connection. I always like to wave my hand to people as the first interaction.
I guess it’s the common process of “showing people I am about to start a show here”, maybe we could call it to make myself be visible or present, not sure if it’s a trick though.
What have you learnt over the years about performing in the street? How has your busking experience changed your life and the show?
One major thing I have learnt performing in the street is probably to face the fear of failure, trust in my ability, just try and see what happens. Celebrate the good days and accept the bad ones. I am still constantly working on it though.
Then, it would be realising the necessity of having different skills. It was one of the main reasons why I started Cyr wheel, back when I was still very focused on diabolo but felt a sense of bottleneck as a performer. Since then the Cyr wheel has gradually brought me to the journey of entering the world of contemporary circus and contemporary dance, connecting to how my show was created, who I am today and what I am pursuing.
What has been the most terrifying moment in a street performance and the best crowd reaction you have ever seen during busking?
I think I’ve done a lot of street performances to see something but probably not that much to be able to see everything.
So far one incident that I have a strong memory of was during Busker Tour 2023 when we performed in Wrocław. One festival performer got interrupted by the loud volume from a local busker not far from his during the show, then he confronted this local busker by bringing his crowd with him to their spot. After they settled, he returned to his spot with the crowd and continued his show until the end. At that moment I was very surprised that everything happened and escalated so quickly, but the performer handled it in an impressive way that I could never have imagined.
For me the best crowd reaction has always been the hyped and engaging connection between the performer and the crowd, there are too many to be remembered.
What has been the best show in your life?
I have had some shows where I was touched by the crowd’s reaction and engaging energy, and I held myself not to burst into tears during the performance.
The ones that I remember clearly were at the festival in Vevey 2022, Busker Tour Zielona Góra 2023, AltstadtZAUBER Soest 2024. I think these are the shows that reminded me of why I love what I do.
I remember well the one in Zielona Góra. The security told me it was the biggest crowd in my festival’s history. I was happy to experience how you connected with the audience. I had a feeling that nobody moved during the whole show. It is one of my best memories as well. And it happened on the pitch that buskers often complain about.
What are your favourite and the most challenging places to busk?
To be honest, I don’t have a favourite place to busk, as I don’t do it regularly nowadays. But I do like one spot that I occasionally go to in the city I live in now, it has a very beautiful river view that I always enjoy watching while I’m on break between shows. At the same time, it also is a challenging spot, I can’t do the wheel comfortably because of the floor inclination, and it wasn’t easy to have a decent crowd, plus I can’t be so loud that the residents might call the police.
What shows make you stop and stay in the street?
Most likely it would be Cyr wheel or diabolo shows, then it would be some performers that I know and circus-related shows. I think it doesn’t happen much because I always hide in my cave when I don’t perform.
Who are your favourite buskers and the best shows you have ever seen?
There are too many great performers and shows to name, Funny Bones from Japan is one that I keep in mind since 2017, Garagthy & Thom from the UK is my recent favourite. I didn’t get to watch the entire show, but I love the finale of Andrea Farnetani’s show.
Do you think that busking should be regulated? If you had to decide, what would be the best busking rules?
I think certain rules to maintain the organisation and have a common agreement of how the spot works would be beneficial for the community. Not sure if there are any “one fit for all” rules, but being friendly and respectful shall be one of them.
You have performed in various Polish towns at Busker Tour. What was your experience, and how would you compare the Polish audience to the others?
I would say the Polish audiences are very enthusiastic and engaging, some might look a little cold at first but they are very sweet once you are connected with them.
In general, I felt good about the shows I did in Poland, although the hats may not be high after the conversion to euros, it is certainly an experience to understand life in different countries. Also, I found the artist fees are reasonable to compensate for this matter, so I’d still like to perform in Poland whenever possible.
What kind of advice could you give to young performers?
Have somebody that they look up to, take it as a reference or motivation. Ask someone to watch their show and give feedback and advice, if possible, also ask for mental and emotional support to build confidence in the first few shows if needed.
Over time I think it is good to reflect on why they choose to be a performer, what are their short-term and long-term goals, where they want to be, these kinds of basic but important questions.
Lastly, I would say to not be heavily attached to the hat (taking street performers as an example) in the beginning or even in general, it is important and necessary that we are able to be sustainable in what we are doing, but the hat (of a particular show) shouldn’t be the absolute measures of who we are as a performer.
What are your plans and dreams and what should I keep my fingers for?
I want to have different opportunities and experiences as a performer, for example by joining a circus/dance production or doing group shows. As a creator, I want to create a show that I could perform in Malaysia one day to share with the people what contemporary circus is and show a different aspect of circus and performing arts. And lastly, a solo piece that marks a new milestone of my journey as an artist/performer in the coming years.
Thank you, Alvin! I can’t wait to work with you again and see a new show.
About Alvin Yong
Alvin Yong Kin Hoe is a Malaysian circus artist. His circus journey began with a dream of becoming a diabolo performer and travelling the world. He gained his first experience as a busker in Taiwan, followed by professional training at INAC – a circus school in Portugal.
His street show “Soul to Show” is a story-telling act that includes circus movements and life reflections, based on Alvin’s journey as an artist. From sharing his enthusiasm towards diabolo to his discovery of the artistic world through the Cyr eheel. The story behind Soul to Show is to search for the “lights” that connect Alvin and his apparatus, called “Cahaya” in Malay.
Alvin performed for the first time in Poland at Busker Tour 2023.
