Limelight

A warm Freakshow Welcome

“So, have you spoken to your performers about this? I don't want to just turn up with my camera crew and give them a nasty surprise.” Adeline Newman asked, scribbling a few notes down onto her pad of post its, the phone held precariously between her ear and a raised shoulder. There was a deep baritone laugh from the other end of the receiver.

“Yeah, they all know, they've all signed the waivers.”

“That's good, One less thing I'll need to do, thanks Todd.”

“Uhuh, now we've got a special event coming up soon, it's the two headed breaded dragons' birthday. Poncho and Lefty are gonna be three.”

Adeline smiled to herself, a special event would be an excellent way to kick the series off. It would be big enough to draw some serious ratings and get her producers to put more money into the project. She had come up with the idea of following the lives of the members of Venice Beach Freakshow after bumping into an old friend of hers who spouted nothing but praise for the place and dragged her along to witness a few of the shows. She had to admit, it was impressive.

“That's great, a special event like that is just what we need to get started. I know my bosses are going to love it. When are you hosting that?”

She could hear Todd flipping through the pages of his diary. She made a noise of confirmation and scribbled down the date, drawing a dark ring around the numbers.

“Ok well, I'd imagine it'll probably be best if we arrive a few days early, to get to know everyone. Get the right atmosphere with everyone.” she opened up and email, hoping to get the go ahead from her bosses as fast as she could, the date of the special event was a little too close for all the producer's normal dilly dallying. “I'll just speak to the head honchos and hopefully I will see you in a week or so. I'll let you know the plans and everything.”

“That's great Adeline. I should get going, we're just going to start getting ready for the show. It'll be nice to finally meet you.”

Adeline smiled, she really hoped everyone at the freakshow would be as nice as their ring master, they all seemed to be nice in the shows she had visited with her friend, but that could just be the performing persona, in her short expanse of a career she had seen several actors who appeared to be nice, become the biggest ass holes the moment the lights and camera were switched off.

“I'm looking forward to it too. I'll let you go get ready now, and I'll speak to you soon, have a good show.”

“Bye Adaline.”

She hung up the phone and finished signing off her email, smiling happily to herself as she pressed the send button. She was originally from England and hadn't been living in America long, and she had started to wonder whether she had made a mistake in leaving the BBC to pursue the directors position that AMC had offered her. For the first time she felt like she was on to something, something she'd actually enjoy, rather than the run of the mill shows she had been a part of since joining the company.