By Billy Clarke
Although Macau is known for its flamboyant casinos and high stakes gambling, last week a different kind of gambling took place, with a bunch of hardcore daredevils hitting the Special Administrative Region to launch themselves across massive mega ramps on various contraptions. This was Travis Pastrana’s Nitro Circus Live at The Venetian.
Although Macau has the second highest life expectancy in the world, this was held at stake as talented maniacs (and, in one stunt, some of the crowd) were thrown across ramps that reached 50 feet into the air. Think Jackass meets X Games, but live.
As well as your run-of-the-mill extreme conveyances (BMXs, rollerblades, skateboards, motocross bikes and scooters), there were also some unorthodox wheeled devices rolling and whizzing by. Highlights included a rocking horse, a couch, a wheelbarrow, a Barbie™ car, a bath tub, an old-school tall bike and more.
There were also all sorts of physics-defying flip variations (triple back-flips, triple body rotations anyone?) plus an insane four-person backflip which was performed by a biker and three audience members, as well as the ‘hole-in-one’ during, for which riders proppelled themselves into a human-sized hamster ball (also known as a Zorb).
One of the stand-outs came courtesy the wheelchair-bound Aaron ‘Wheelz’ Fotheringham, who performed a crazy frontflip on his customised wheelchair, complete with rear-firing rockets.
Nitro Circus began as a small-town ‘don’t try this at home’ television series with a crew of guys throwing flips in Travis Pastrana’s backyard.
As a World Freestyle Champion and action sports star, Pastrana has been defined as a modern day motorsports Renaissance Man. With the help of his reputation, the show soon got picked up by MTV and the guys instantly became associated with Jackass.
However, where Jackass stunts are designed to fail, with Nitro Circus, the riders have to succeed or die. That didn’t stop Jackass frontman Johnny Knoxville joining as producer, however, after which the show went from strength to strength before spawning a movie (involving the likes of Channing Tatum and Rob Drydrek) and a super-successful live tour, which finally landed in Macau last year and again this year.
We can only wait with (extreme) baited breath for their next return.
By Billy Clarke
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