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Pregnancy in the Circus with Comedic Acrobatic Duo Poppy Fairbairn & Zion Martyn- Circuspreneur Podcast Ep.80
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On this episode of the Circuspreneur Podcast, host Shenea Stiletto interviews Comedic Acrobatic Duo currently headlining the sexiest show in Las Vegas, Rouge, at the Strat, Poppy Fairbairn & Zion Martyn. Their Pointe Adagio technique is very rare and not performed by any other acrobatic couple in Australia and very few others around the world! Watch in disbelief as they pull out all the tricks in their fast and dynamic Icarian act, it is guaranteed to get your heart racing! They are married and have performed for many exciting events and companies, including: Circus Oz, Circus Rio, Papua New Guinea's Independence Festival, Pink Flamingo & Alexander Kunz Theatre. They were also featured in the 2020 Ripley's Believe it or Not! Currently, they're performing nightly during the length of Poppy's pregnancy. Poppy & Zion have also gone viral with one of their circus pregnancy videos amassing over 100k views on instagram.
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Transcript
Introduction to the Circuspreneur Podcast
00:00:03
sheneastiletto
This podcast is also available via StageLink.com, the groundbreaking new platform for live performing arts.
Meet Zion and Poppy: Circus Innovators
00:00:10
sheneastiletto
My guests on today's Circuspreneur podcast are comedic, acrobatic duo, Zion and Poppy. Welcome to the Circuspreneur podcast, you guys.
00:00:20
Poppy _ Zion
Thanks for having us.
00:00:23
sheneastiletto
Absolutely. I'm so excited to have you on the podcast and to discuss like all of the amazing things that are going on for you guys right now. You're just doing the most incredible things right now, so I can't wait for the podcast for listeners to listen to your story and what's going on for you and just like all of these feeds that you're achieving right now because it's really groundbreaking, I think. and I think that you have a lot to share that'll be super helpful to help listeners ah learn about an aspect of the industry, about the circus industry that I don't think that we talk about enough.
Zion and Poppy's Unique Performance Style
00:00:56
sheneastiletto
So I will go into a bit of your bio.
00:00:56
Poppy _ Zion
Mm.
00:00:59
sheneastiletto
ah Zion and Poppy are a unique duo from Australia who are known to have audiences in fits of laughter with their ridiculous, goofy, slapstick humor. To top it off, they have a few crazy tricks up their sleeve, which you will have to see to believe. Their pointadagio technique is very rare and not performed by any other acrobatic couple in Australia and very few others around the world. Watching disbelief as they pull out all the tricks in their facts and dynamics at Carry and Act, it is guaranteed to get your heart racing. Sian and Papi met in 2015 and it was love at first sight. They are now married and have performed for many exciting events and companies including Circus Odds, Circus Rio, Papua New Guinea's Independence Festival, Pink Flamingo, and Alexander Kunst Theater. They were also featured in the 2020 Ripley's Believe It or Not, and are currently the MCs for the sexiest show in Las Vegas, Rouge at the Strat, where you are currently like eight months pregnant.
00:01:50
Poppy _ Zion
yeah
Performing While Pregnant: Poppy's Experience
00:01:51
Poppy _ Zion
this is absolutely ah
00:01:53
sheneastiletto
is currently eight months pregnant doing acrobatics, I mean, performing the entire show because, I mean, essentially, Rouge is, you know, for listeners, it's your show. I mean, you are you are the headliners of the show. You lead the show. You guide the show. You are phenomenally funny and very interesting. And you're also one of the most unique acts, I think, in the world because you are amazing MCs and you do really high-level acrobatics, which is super, super, super rare.
00:02:14
Poppy _ Zion
Yeah, this is an absolute yes.
00:02:21
sheneastiletto
for listeners and also super rare to do while very pregnant and starting a circus family.
00:02:27
Poppy _ Zion
that um that's fish
00:02:30
sheneastiletto
how How have you been you know performing? how have you like you know How did you kind of work up to this moment? I'd love to go in a little bit into both of your you know your history and your past and how you kind of started off and then we'll go into how you got Do I think decide that you wanted to perform a pregnant, you know, you wanted to start a circus family um and then making the best decisions for yourself as performers because we are in a very unique and niche environment and we don't hear a lot sometimes about ah entertainers and performers starting a family.
00:02:57
Poppy _ Zion
I'm sorry.
00:03:08
sheneastiletto
how they're able to continue to work and kind of balance or juggle like all of those different commitments that come with you know a very, very, very big change in our careers and in our lives. So either one can start off.
00:03:23
Poppy _ Zion
um Well, we met in 2015 at the National Institute of Circus Arts and we did our bachelor degree there. And I think it really sort of started ah for us there because our coaches that we had, one of our coaches would tell us how she was, would perform pregnant on high wire up until like a week before giving birth. And then she was back again, like a week after giving birth. I think a month, she had one month off altogether, but she was doing unbelievably dangerous, like high-wire, just just so dangerous. She would always laugh and say, I was in a lunge, but my husband, if he falls, he's in trouble. She thought it was so funny to say that.
00:04:11
Poppy _ Zion
um And I think all all through our career, um like post schooling and working in different shows, we were always surrounded by ah all these women that had had children and had kept performing through their pregnancy. And it was very inspiring, I think. So it was kind of ingrained in in me definitely from like my whole career that when you get pregnant it's not the end of your career it doesn't mean that you have to finish it just means you you know you have to change things a little bit you have to you know work with your medical professionals obviously make sure everything is going normally and there's no complications yeah that was very inspiring
00:04:58
Poppy _ Zion
Yeah, we spent a lot of time with the Ashton's family and infamous and stuff in Australia and they I mean their family they've all had kids and then the kids go on the show and stuff So there was some friends there who were performing seven months, you know, mostly she was a dancer in the show but you know, they just did what the mother felt was right and because and we found it in our experience the mother can feel she can feel feels a little bit off, feels a little bit sore, feels a little different. If you've done it for 10 years, you know, every day you do the same trick. You can feel when something's different. You take the trick, you get rid of the trick. But we found that for her, it's for Poppy, it's been the same as all these people we went to school with and all these people we worked with who you just really listened to yourself.
00:05:46
Poppy _ Zion
And I think we were um extra lucky with the job that we have now. They've been very supportive ah with the pregnancy and everything. They're giving me full control if I need to take things out or whatever. But our boss, Hanok, his brother is a famous gynecologist in New York and he's
00:06:08
sheneastiletto
Wow.
00:06:10
Poppy _ Zion
Yeah, he's seen
Ikerean and Gender Norms in Circus
00:06:11
Poppy _ Zion
the show and he sent him a whole video of the show and he looked through it to make sure that and from his experience if there was anything unsafe that we were doing we had a big chat to him on the phone which was amazing to get his view and he's read case studies on gymnasts that have continued doing gymnastics whilst pregnant as well and he he said that blew his mind personally you know seeing what is possible when your body is used to doing such a high level of acrobatics
00:06:27
sheneastiletto
Hmm.
00:06:45
Poppy _ Zion
um like what you can continue to do so yeah we were very lucky in that way as well to have such a professional be able to guide us yeah so but when we started in circus school and not just with the baby but our coaches were very big on you've got to find something that seems impossible and you've got to make it possible that was his whole thing so if we were like oh we saw this trick on instagram or whatever it was but you know we want to learn this and he would he would literally point
00:07:08
sheneastiletto
And.
00:07:16
Poppy _ Zion
and say here's four other couples at the school doing that same trick are you sure you want to learn that trick because everyone finds something more interesting and it was really big that had a big influence on us absolutely yes yeah yeah and yeah
00:07:33
sheneastiletto
What a cool challenge. Could you explain a little bit of what a carrion is for listeners that maybe are unfamiliar with it? Because even though you know it's it's still, I would say, pretty rare still in in the circus industry to see a lot of a carrion, and that's because it's so hard. I think it's hard.
00:07:51
Poppy _ Zion
Absolutely. Yeah.
00:07:53
sheneastiletto
As someone who has flipped a lot in their life, I mean, you know God bless the fact that you do a carrion.
00:07:54
Poppy _ Zion
yeah
00:07:57
Poppy _ Zion
Yeah.
00:08:00
Poppy _ Zion
I carry.
00:08:01
sheneastiletto
It's not easy.
00:08:02
Poppy _ Zion
So it's foot juggling, it's foot juggling another human.
Adapting Acts for Pregnancy
00:08:05
Poppy _ Zion
So I lie down and I put juggle her. And that's where it's different from everyone's heard of acro yoga, everyone knows acro yoga, we came from sort of acro yoga. And that's more Like one trick at a time, you know, but the difference for us when it goes from acro-yoga or L-basing to ichurian is that it's foot juggling. You got to think of your partner as a, it sounds bad, but this is what our coach said. You have to think of them as a prop, as an object. Yes. Which you have to objectify your partner, which sounds awful.
00:08:39
Poppy _ Zion
But if you know it, you get scared and you hesitate and that's when it gets dangerous. It's actually not that dangerous if you just think of it.
00:08:44
sheneastiletto
Mm.
00:08:46
Poppy _ Zion
So you learn with the props, not everything, but a lot of the skills you learn with the props and then you translate that to the person. And that way you, you catch them before they touch the ground, just instinctively, like you would a juggling club, or if you throw something and you catch it. Yeah. So it's a very fast moving, fast paced, flip, flip, flip, flip, boom, boom, boom, boom. Um, that's the distinction in our mind between, you know, the more common acro-yoga and Ikerean. Yes. Uh, and it is quite a, an old circus art as well, actually, which I think is why we were drawn to it. Cause we really liked the like old traditional sort of style, um, acts, uh, the, the other act, oh yeah.
00:09:29
Poppy _ Zion
I was going to say, there's like old Chinese paintings from, I don't know what year, but a lot, like thousands of years ago of people foot juggling. So, and then you always find people, who oh, that was invented by my great cousin.
00:09:38
sheneastiletto
Yeah.
00:09:42
Poppy _ Zion
And you're like, I don't think it was. I've seen the pictures, you know, but it's such an old one, but usually now it's brothers. Yes, it is quite uncommon to have a female, um, yeah, doing IQ and we've actually met people and they don't mean anything by this, but they won't teach, they won't teach their daughters like hearing because they think it's too aggressive and they think it's too.
00:09:52
sheneastiletto
Yes.
00:09:58
sheneastiletto
Yeah.
00:10:08
Poppy _ Zion
Whatever. And I cannot stand that because. I mean, she's excellent at flying. I carry it's great.
00:10:15
sheneastiletto
Yes!
00:10:15
Poppy _ Zion
Women are great at flying. I carry on. And if you teach two brothers, they grow and then they become the same size and they become so much harder. It's kind of easier away, but the play has to do more.
00:10:26
sheneastiletto
Yeah!
00:10:27
Poppy _ Zion
yes you know But there is a little bit of a stigma of it, because it's such an aggressive discipline.
00:10:30
sheneastiletto
Yeah
00:10:33
Poppy _ Zion
It is aggressive. You have to be. Definitely learning as well. um I got a lot of bruises. You fall on the floor a lot. it's not like something nice, you know? Like it is quite hardcore to do at the beginning, but then once you get through that, it is really, it's one of the most enjoyable things I've ever done. It's a lot of fun to and of be flying through the air. Actually, apart from some of the higher level skills, it's actually really safe once you get through that barrier.
00:11:06
Poppy _ Zion
Cause you're not as high from the ground as you are with standing acrobatics.
00:11:08
sheneastiletto
Hmm.
00:11:10
Poppy _ Zion
You're actually much closer to the ground and I don't know. I'm looking straight at her rather than when you're standing here. I find that I can catch you. Once you learn, it's a steep learning curve and then it's really enjoyable. Yes. This is true.
00:11:27
sheneastiletto
I think that's a really great way to describe it, Zion.
00:11:30
Poppy _ Zion
thank
00:11:30
sheneastiletto
It's a steep learning curve. For sure, we can't downplay that or diminish that.
00:11:32
Poppy _ Zion
Yeah.
00:11:35
Poppy _ Zion
Yes.
00:11:36
sheneastiletto
But it's also too putting it into perspective.
00:11:36
Poppy _ Zion
What's the same? Yeah. It's same as the point on shoulder we do. The first nine months is the worst thing you've ever done.
00:11:42
sheneastiletto
e
00:11:44
Poppy _ Zion
And that's why no one does it. Cause it's just bleeding shoulders and pain and it's awful and it looks ugly because the light is like this. But then it's really fun. Once you get over the first nine months or so. Yeah. Yeah. IKirian's funner, let's be honest, but it's still fun. Yeah. it
00:12:06
sheneastiletto
And you adapt. I mean, you guys do several of your acts inside of Rouge, which is, again, a lot. And I'm kind of killing the show for folks that haven't seen it yet. But this kind of like compiles and then is like your finale, which again, like saving up and using all of that energy in the show.
00:12:18
Poppy _ Zion
Yeah.
00:12:21
Poppy _ Zion
yeah Yeah.
00:12:25
sheneastiletto
I'm trying to imagine it's now eight months pregnant. Poppy, you're so amazing. But like you carry the show for a very long time and then you're the whole finale. This is when you're doing your yeah your point, you're a carrion.
00:12:35
Poppy _ Zion
yeah
00:12:38
sheneastiletto
like you know And not easy to do. You have to wait to warm up. You have to like preserve your energy. I mean, how is it to build that and do that when you were not pregnant? And then how does it feel for you both to be able to do that now? you know
00:12:55
sheneastiletto
and kind of having to like weigh you know like that amount of time and kind of gauge in what you need to do because we go through so many processes in prepping for a show and then in prepping for an act and most of us want to get but that hard part over with quickly and you can't because you're the finale.
00:13:08
Poppy _ Zion
Hmm. Hmm.
00:13:12
Poppy _ Zion
yeah Yeah, absolutely. Um, yeah, so the, the first kind of, um, the first reason we had to sort of start taking things out of the show was actually being pregnant. I have to pee a lot. So we needed to have more patients in the show. So yeah we actually had to take the acro act, um, out of the show, the point act. um for that reason because i wasn't having enough spaces because we were on stage so much to have a break so that was um that was pretty funny that that was the big reason for that one but um
00:13:52
Poppy _ Zion
with the with the ichurian and even with the point before we took it out is quite obvious ah for me and my body with the relaxin things were a lot more ah because when you're pregnant you produce this hormone called relaxin which softens up your hips, softens everything to help um for when you're gonna give birth and I really struggled with any um the acro moves where I had to stay really still because my hips would still be shifting a little bit so it made it difficult for Zion to balance me because I was moving so much so that was uh definitely like the first kind of thing that needed to be taken out of the show
00:14:33
Poppy _ Zion
um And with the Icyrian, I'm still doing Icyrian in the show today. We do like three skills in our act now and we normally would be doing like 10 or something. So it's very cut down ah because we do comedy as well. We've sort of been replacing the tricks with more comedic moments in the act and being so big now having such a big belly that has just been hilarious being able to put you know like pregnancy jokes into the show as well.
00:15:08
Poppy _ Zion
um So yeah it's been easy to sort of monitor.
00:15:10
sheneastiletto
Thank you.
00:15:11
Poppy _ Zion
One thing we found because she was still doing pretty much the full lycurean act until I think it was 22 weeks we started to really cut it back um because now she's still doing some front salts she's still doing the spins at the end and stuff but like backflips continuous at about 22 weeks we took that out just because that's when the abs start to get the risk of separation so we took it out just because we didn't want her to have the separation that then makes it hard to heal afterwards
00:15:43
Poppy _ Zion
Yeah.
00:15:43
sheneastiletto
I see you, great call.
00:15:43
Poppy _ Zion
So anything like actually for me, I, and I could feel as well. It was, it just didn't feel right. It was kind of like, okay, this, this has got to go out now. 22 weeks pregnant doing, she was still doing six. So she wasn't doing any more, but six backflips. It was pretty wild. It was pretty wild. But she was feeling fine with it. And actually, she had a small spine injury before we met. So 10 years ago, she had a small spine injury and there was still scar tissue and her back every now and then would play up.
00:16:18
Poppy _ Zion
But the relaxin from pregnancy fixed it.
00:16:22
sheneastiletto
Oh!
00:16:22
Poppy _ Zion
I've had less pain than people had in my life.
00:16:23
sheneastiletto
How about that?
00:16:26
Poppy _ Zion
yeah yeah Yeah.
00:16:27
sheneastiletto
Oh my God!
00:16:29
Poppy _ Zion
Yeah. Only pregnant woman that has less back pain.
00:16:29
sheneastiletto
Who knew?
00:16:32
Poppy _ Zion
oh
00:16:35
Poppy _ Zion
So that was, that was why yeah, very marketable.
00:16:35
sheneastiletto
That's very, that's very marketable.
00:16:39
Poppy _ Zion
Yeah. Yeah.
00:16:40
sheneastiletto
I'm doing this, Logan.
00:16:42
Poppy _ Zion
Yeah.
00:16:43
sheneastiletto
Pregnant, no bot pain.
00:16:43
Poppy _ Zion
Right. pregnant No back pain, three secrets doctors. don um but
00:16:51
sheneastiletto
You're breaking all the myths, Poppy.
00:16:53
Poppy _ Zion
Yeah.
00:16:53
sheneastiletto
You're just like, you're just breaking the ball, all the records.
00:16:55
Poppy _ Zion
Yeah. But it's, I think so for sure.
00:16:57
sheneastiletto
I mean, this has got to be a record, you know, some kind of, I think, like, full-on Guinness record. yeah It has to be with what you guys are doing right now.
00:17:04
Poppy _ Zion
ah go Yeah. Well, well we had a reporter come to our show and he wrote an article saying, uh, cause he's been in Vegas a very long time, uh, Johnny Katz. And he wrote an article saying this is the most he's ever seen a pregnant woman do in Vegas ever. So i was and i was that was quite cool. i was Like 10 weeks ago, there was pregnant then. So, but yeah.
00:17:30
sheneastiletto
like the bell It's like you're it's like you're everything
00:17:33
Poppy _ Zion
Yeah.
00:17:36
Poppy _ Zion
People still don't believe it's a real belly. This is true, actually. So in finale, she just wears the bra and underwear because she wants to show it off. And we've had a few people say, hey, do you want to wear like a body suit to cover up? Like, no, we want to show it off. We want to show that it's real. It's a natural part of the human body. It's a natural part of everything. And it would
Future Hopes for Their Child
00:17:58
Poppy _ Zion
be weird if it was fake. If she was wearing a fake belly the whole show, that would be so weird. We want them to know that it's real, it's real. And it's been really well received that moment at the end where people are like, if they're unsure that moment where they're like, Oh, wow. And people have been very supportive. It's been really nice to, um, cause I wasn't sure. if people were going to be angry or you know what what the reaction is going to be and people have been really supportive and inspired and I've had people coming up to me because we do photos at the end and they said that they were in tears because you know they'll say like back in their day that was not something women were real like you weren't like an old woman came up to me and she was like that is not something we were
00:18:44
Poppy _ Zion
allowed to do really back in the day is continue working while while you're pregnant and everything so she was really touched by that which is nice to give that to people you know yeah i like it when we have pregnant audience members because they take bump to bump photos with Poppy at the end yeah very know yeah no it's
00:19:04
sheneastiletto
What is the baby slipping in utero I Mean I'm assuming that you guys but I'm not gonna assume that you what your baby do you want your baby to do circus? Have you thought about it?
00:19:18
Poppy _ Zion
Um, yeah absolutely. like We're not like, if, if he decides he wants to do something else, that's fine. We're not going to force them to be in circus, but definitely we're going to give them those like skills and knowledge.
00:19:26
sheneastiletto
Mm-hmm
00:19:30
Poppy _ Zion
And I put it this way. I like to put it this way. I don't think anyone's ever been like, damn, I wish I didn't know how to do a back flip. I just wish I didn't know that. You know, I get bullied at school because I know how to back him. I feel like I hate him. And if he just wants to do it for fun on the side, that's fine. If he wants to do it professionally, awesome, you know, yeah whatever he decides with it. He might as well teach him. Absolutely. Yeah. yeah
00:19:59
sheneastiletto
Yeah, I mean, he's already flipping in there anyway, so you might as well just keep this, keep up the practicing, keeping up the skill.
00:20:02
Poppy _ Zion
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. we We are joking that up because he he's quite active in that, but he always sort of like sleeps whenever I'm doing acrobatics. It kind of, it seems like it soothes him. So we were saying that when he's born, we're going to have to get his bassinet instead of just rocking it gently. We're going to have to spin around in a circle to get him to sleep. Yeah.
00:20:31
sheneastiletto
I'm telling you, I have rocked a mini a baby backstage during during acts of other like circus artists.
00:20:35
Poppy _ Zion
Yeah. yeah
00:20:38
sheneastiletto
And it's just been like one of the funnest experiences of my life and my career.
00:20:41
Poppy _ Zion
Yes.
00:20:43
sheneastiletto
I was literally taking such like a newborn and being like, okay, mommy's coming back soon. And like keeping them entertained. And they do, they're like, don't be quiet around them. They love a lot ah around them because they've been in a show since we had them. like you know Keep everything really alive while we're on stage.
00:20:56
Poppy _ Zion
Yes.
00:20:59
sheneastiletto
We don't want them to wake up.
00:21:02
Poppy _ Zion
yeah
00:21:02
sheneastiletto
It's been great, circus babysitter.
00:21:02
Poppy _ Zion
yeah it You don't realise how, and it's so loud in the womb as well. You don't let people like, oh, quiet for the baby. But everyone and that I've experienced is like, no, like the more noise is better to kind of soothe them. Yeah. well And it's been really interesting because one thing we do get a lot is people, you know, of course, people who don't realise that the tricks we're doing now for us are so easy. It's like so easy.
00:21:27
sheneastiletto
a
00:21:28
Poppy _ Zion
they We've done them for 10 years together and every day nearly. And they're like, so easy and it looks it looks crazy but it's not that crazy really what we're doing for us and especially now i activate zero muscles i like squeeze my bum and that's about it zion does like 90% of the work his the legs are getting much stronger well like and i no you know clay we call it a front sole but it's more of a front layout because she can't really tuck
00:22:04
Poppy _ Zion
but um But my point was going to be that actually all the things that are like when she has kind of like hurt her belly or it's like the dog jumping on her. The hardest part of the show for her is putting the tights on, you know, going over a speed bump, driving to work and going over a speed bump too fast.
00:22:14
sheneastiletto
a
00:22:23
Poppy _ Zion
So that is way more force going through her than when we do this. Literally sneezing is like, oh. Like if I go on a corner a little fast, she'll be like, whoa, because she doesn't have the ab control. When she's on my feet, it's fine because it's way more controlled.
00:22:40
sheneastiletto
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:22:42
Poppy _ Zion
She knows what's coming and it's not that much force. You know, my eye legs are nowhere near as strong as a car.
00:22:48
sheneastiletto
Mm hmm.
00:22:50
Poppy _ Zion
So it's been, that's kind of funny to us where people are so like, but look how much force, you look how fast you're going. And I'm like, I mean, actually it's not that fast compared to when you're in a car or when you, even if your dog jumps on you and you sit up really quickly. Yeah, absolutely.
00:23:10
sheneastiletto
It's so great that you're able to like just teach from your experience and educate because you know I talk about on the so on the on the podcast from time to time, we don't talk about pregnancy enough in the circus.
00:23:11
Poppy _ Zion
so it
00:23:21
sheneastiletto
and you know When people ever ask them, well, how do you think they got circus generational families without having pregnancy in the circus?
00:23:27
Poppy _ Zion
yeah yeah
00:23:29
sheneastiletto
so There's obviously some people having a lot of babies because they've carried on these circus traditions for hundreds of years sometimes in you know in a lot of families all over the world. So it is a typical experience. like We do have babies. We do have families. We do figure out ways to support ourselves. And we do have to get creative. You're not always in a long-term contract or like you know or this center of the show where you can kind of balance, um you know, your needs and make things a little bit easier or whatever.
00:23:57
Poppy _ Zion
Yeah. Yeah.
00:23:58
sheneastiletto
So you have to get creative, obviously, but a lot of careers, a lot of professions, people have to get creative with their pregnancies and can't maximize or do the exact same thing.
00:23:59
Poppy _ Zion
Yes. Of course.
00:24:07
sheneastiletto
Take off time and then come back, um you know, but it's obviously, it's such an important quest for for people that choose to do this. And there are a lot of pregnant circus people in the circus art.
00:24:15
Poppy _ Zion
Yes.
00:24:19
sheneastiletto
So I just love, I love this. I think it's so, so informative. And then it also shows like the needs. We have special needs, you know, like our pregnancies are not the same. They require a lot of creativity and experimenting and it's It's wonderful that you're in the environment that's really supporting that. I think I'm the happiest to hear that they're really game with you guys and they're letting you use it like in the show, they're letting you, yeah.
00:24:45
Poppy _ Zion
yeah because that's an important point because there are a lot of companies we've heard of that are like you're pregnant out you're fired yeah we've heard of that as well but it's never the traditional more
00:24:54
sheneastiletto
Yeah. Yeah.
00:24:59
Poppy _ Zion
company, ours is not really a traditional circus guy at all, but it's, it's like a lot of really corporate companies, you know what I mean? And it's, they're just like, no, we don't want anything to do with that. You're out. Yeah.
Circus Life and Parenthood
00:25:11
Poppy _ Zion
Whereas we, we've fought really hard to have it her control.
00:25:13
sheneastiletto
Yeah.
00:25:15
Poppy _ Zion
Yes. And we, we did have to sign something to say that it is our choice to be continuing. And you know, if any, just to cover the company, if anything happens that they're not like liable and And all of this, of course, to cover them. But I think a lot of, yeah, like you said, a lot of companies just don't want to deal with that. And they're like, yeah, scared with it. Well, we know of people, uh, some of our friends who, when she got pregnant, they had companies canceling their contracts or gigs that were coming up and they were like, why?
00:25:46
sheneastiletto
Yeah.
00:25:47
Poppy _ Zion
And they said, Oh, cause you got pregnant. And they were like, yeah, but I'm only going to be. Like I'm not going to be pregnant when that happens, but they're just like, Oh, we just, while you were pregnant and assumed you would never be doing it again. Yeah. That happens as well.
00:26:00
sheneastiletto
a Yeah, that's right.
00:26:02
Poppy _ Zion
It's like, you know, especially, I mean, however long she takes to recover and come back into the show is however long, but she will come back into the show. She will recover from it. You know what I mean? Yeah. And I've seen, I've seen many women, um, you know, especially if you've gone your whole life being very active, very, you know, um, higher level acrobatics and, and, you know, your body changes so much in pregnancy and then you can get back to that point. I think some people think that, Oh, your career's over. Your body's ruined. You can never be the same again, but it's, it's not the case. You know, you can.
00:26:45
Poppy _ Zion
you know, retrain the muscles. It's all there. You've been doing it for so long. It's something that's so natural to your body. yeah um And I've seen multiple people come back sometimes with bigger and better abs, you know? Multiple of the multiple of the girls in our show have kids. Yeah, it's true. Yes. There's a couple of girls that are phenomenal in what they do is amazing. And yeah, they've had multiple kids. and It's possible.
00:27:16
sheneastiletto
Yeah, I, yes.
00:27:18
Poppy _ Zion
Yeah. And I think that a thing we've been learning with it is everything is you might as well just enjoy every step of it. And when the hurdles come up. We'll deal with them, you know? Maybe if she didn't feel good, we would obviously stop, but she feels good.
00:27:35
sheneastiletto
Right.
00:27:36
Poppy _ Zion
We do what she wants to do. Yeah. You were just kind of going with the flow with it a little bit.
00:27:39
sheneastiletto
Right.
00:27:41
Poppy _ Zion
It was,
Reflecting on Pregnancy Journey
00:27:42
Poppy _ Zion
you can't plan too much, you know? You can kind of make a plan of what you want to visualize for, you know, your own mind. You want to have like a nice, healthy, happy time, but if something comes along, you got to be a bit flexible and yeah. change with it for sure. I mean it took three years for her to get pregnant. We were trying for three years and then we actually we paid for IVF yeah and then the week the week before we started treatment she got pregnant naturally.
00:28:05
sheneastiletto
Wow.
00:28:15
Poppy _ Zion
Yeah.
00:28:16
sheneastiletto
um my god Did you get your money back?
00:28:18
Poppy _ Zion
yes We got our money back. It was crazy.
00:28:20
sheneastiletto
Did they return the
00:28:23
Poppy _ Zion
It was so expensive. Oh my gosh. We paid full amount in cash because it was cheaper to do it that way. And we were like, I think that our baby might've heard that and been like, all right, I'm getting some good points right now. Good baby. You're getting the fancy stroller. You're getting the fancy disc.
00:28:48
sheneastiletto
Chanel!
00:28:48
Poppy _ Zion
mr
00:28:49
sheneastiletto
Louis Vuitton!
00:28:50
Poppy _ Zion
Yeah, exactly.
00:28:51
sheneastiletto
Nothing but the best!
00:28:52
Poppy _ Zion
find it now
00:28:53
sheneastiletto
It's all the IVF money!
00:28:55
Poppy _ Zion
um my gosh seriously but seriously it's a
00:28:58
sheneastiletto
It's a miracle!
00:28:58
Poppy _ Zion
yeah and crazy
00:29:00
sheneastiletto
What a miracle!
00:29:01
Poppy _ Zion
I just feel like we're really appreciating every every step of the way even the good and the bad feeling nauseous feeling you know a little bit of pain here and there it's I'm feeling very thankful and very grateful because it took us so long you know to get here. yeah That might be a part of why we're so positive about everything with it.
00:29:26
sheneastiletto
Dangit.
00:29:26
Poppy _ Zion
He'll be kicking and I'll see the foot and kicking like this and Poppy will just be like, oh, I better do some doubles and I carry and I've got two guys kicking me. He just loves it, is doesn't complain about it, but it's it's just because I think taking so long to get pregnant, now we're just so appreciative of everything. It means
Conclusion: Gratitude and Community
00:29:49
Poppy _ Zion
he's healthy if he moves a lot, so that's good. exactly and
00:29:53
sheneastiletto
No, I'm so happy for you both. And we are going to wrap up the podcast. Zion and Poppy, I'm so happy for you both. You're both amazing. You're so inspiring. Everything that you're doing right now at Rouge in this show.
00:30:07
Poppy _ Zion
I'm
00:30:08
sheneastiletto
And thank you for educating on what it's like to carry a pregnancy throughout a circus show and also two to give a little bit of contrast between your experiences and other experiences that you've heard also to within the industry. Like, again, like we know that not every experience is like this. Not every experience is the same. But I just love that you're in in a supportive environment, and that's the most important thing, especially because it took you so long to get to this point in your journey. So happy, healthy baby, and I wish you both all the best.
00:30:39
sheneastiletto
And then I'm so excited to see your little yeah little acrobat when he comes out.
00:30:40
Poppy _ Zion
and
00:30:45
Poppy _ Zion
Thank you.
00:30:46
sheneastiletto
What he's going to do.
00:30:51
sheneastiletto
Thank you for taking the time.
00:30:51
Poppy _ Zion
Thanks so much for having us. Thank you. I really enjoyed being on here. Thank you so much.
00:30:57
sheneastiletto
Absolutely, and I'll close the podcast with this Surfacepreneur podcast is also available on stagelink dot.com. S-T-A-G-E-L-Y-N-C dot C-O-M, the groundbreaking new platform for live performing arts that provides unmatched access and connection to this vibrant world of shows and entertainment. If you're a professional in the performing arts, visit Stagelink dot.com slash pro S-T-A-G-E-L-Y-N-C-P-R-O offers industry professionals, higher visibility, networking opportunities and tools to support and enhance their careers. Until next time everyone, I'm your host Sinead Stiletto. Stay tuned for the next episode of the circus manure podcast.