Juggling machetes? That’s kid stuff

As a kid, people told Stephen Michael’s not to play with knives, but he didn’t listen. And it paid off.

Now he does it for a living. Michael and his dad travel around California juggling machetes, climbing on wobbly structures, and wowing audiences with other unsafe activities.

Michael and his father, Edward Russell, have been wowing audiences at the Orange County Fair for over a decade now. “We’ve done circuses for 16 years,” Russell said, “but we do different circuses each year.”

But Russell still gets a kick out of making his audience blink “My favorite part of the show is [seeing] the look on kids’ faces when they’ve been taken in by the illusions.”

More of this story and fair coverage in general to come.