Local Acrobats Bang Perfect Score on ABC’s “Gong Show” Reboot

Rose City Circus leader Jon Dutch sat down with WW to discuss the act and secrets behind an appearance on the show:

ABC/YouTube

Jon Dutch was just months away from earning his chiropractic license before he decided to run away to join the circus.

The former University of Buffalo linebacker moved to Portland to study alternative medicine, but witnessed a life-changing performance by acrobatic troupe Kazum "that kinda blew my mind because I saw people on the stage who were more my size," he says.

"I'm a big boy—6 feet four inches, 250 pounds—and always thought of acrobats as ripped gymnast types. But seeing these huge dudes throwing people around, that looked super fun. I joined them less than a month later and hit the ground running."

In 2012, Dutch broke off to form the Rose City Circus, which quickly won an enviable reputation among vastly different segments of his adopted home. Not only has he attracted big corporate clients like Nike and Intel, the act has also appeared with beloved local performers like Pink Martini and been a vital contributor to shows such as Alberta Rose Theatre's White Album Christmas.

Still, a nationwide profile seemed unlikely before one cultural relic offered a spotlight.

The Gong Show's latest incarnation, which debuted June 2017 with improved production values and a heightened cache thanks to producer Will Arnett and a nearly unrecognizable Mike Myers, in-character as an elfin, elderly host who hails from the U.K. Other than that, though, the disco-era camp classic hasn't changed much since its heyday. A motley assemblage of sideshow savants, including Rose City Circus on an episode that aired Aug. 23, compete each week for a negligible cash prize.

Finally freed from the constraints of a non-disclosure agreement after his troupe's appearance, Dutch sat down with WW to discuss the act and secrets behind an appearance on the show:

"As a circus, we do a whole run of different acrobatics, but the act we brought kind of breaks ground I've not really seen anybody else in the country do. The bases stand on peg stilts—3-foot poles, basically, I'm almost 10-feet tall doing this—fling our fliers in the air and balance them over our heads. They do contortion and gymnastics. All of a sudden, they're 15 feet in the air bent over backwards upside down. The next minute, they're doing backflips across the stage. People are flying around. The 'wow' factor's high.

We went into it like, 'Let's just shoot to not get gonged.' That's kind of a victory, you know? From seeing the show, very dangerous acts tend to do well, and we're doing death-defying stunts on stage. Those aren't usually gonged off or made fun of—unless you mess up.

Generally, contestants all wait in the green room, but because we're on stilts, they stationed us next to where they were filming. There's a really wide variety of intense circus performers: silly human tricks, fun cheeky dance numbers, and, you know, finger-puppet people. Just by random chance, we were there with another Portland performer—Stefano Iaboni, a comedian and clown I'm friends with.

Going into our act, there was this guy, Sethward, doing a cow skit—just spraying milk everywhere and going bonkers. It was not like a circus act. He was just being a lunatic. He'd actually been gonged on the show before, but he had the highest score. And this was a big surprise. We talked to the other contestants and knew what other people's scores were. So, if we could just hit that number, we were going to walk out champions.

We're nervous, you know, but it's good. I love being on stage. It's my happy place. Those curtains opened, and it was just like any other show. I felt calm, comfortable—I was having fun. I mean, I've performed live in front of 30,000 people, so being in front of a studio audience wasn't terrifying. You don't feel the people at home.

We got on stage—big giant crowd, Mike Myers, the whole thing. We ran a great version of the act. There was definitely a bit of nervousness because we usually perform stuff we've done for years, but it killed. The crowds exploded. Then, it became time to be judged by these celebrities, and that's when the nerves hit. Usually, you do a show, you don't get judged. Nobody holds up a number after your performance to say you were good or you were crap. That's the moment of truth. And, you know, we're still on stilts.

So, the first number that came up was a perfect 10. All of a sudden, that raised the flag. They don't give out that many 10s. Then, the next judge gives us a 10. And then the last judge, who'd been giving some really low scores throughout the show, she gives us a 10. At that point, we're pretty much living on a cloud.

Of course, there was still the last act—this incredible piece set to classical music with dancers airbrushed to look like marble statues. It was hilarious, beautiful and I'm thinking: 'Oh my God, they could still beat us.' They didn't get the perfect score, though.

At that point, it was just pure celebration. The prize was $2,018, but there's a validation that comes from a small-town circus taking our art to the biggest stage possible. They saw what we do and said we were the top level of excellence. That's the real prize."

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