The French foot jugglers are itching to kick off, the Spanish hand balancers are smothered in anti- bac and the contortionists are bending over backwards to be ready.
Paulo Dos Santos the Brazilian acro-bat is flipping his 3ft 6ins frame around the ring and the aerial artists are hanging about high on pre-show excitement.
I, however, am standing against a white board gouged with deep blade marks, trying to stop myself shaking. “It’s important you don’t move,” says Toni Novoltini, the High Speed Knife Thrower from the Czech Republic, stating the bleedin’ obvious. “My wife is my usual assistant and I’ve never hit her – but I did pin her dress to the board once.” Before I can ask if he has practised much recently, a huge metal knife whistles
Read more on mirror.co.uk