Roaming acrobat aims to take his art across the world
Stabroek News
April 21, 2007
Going after specific targets is a special gift realized by those few who eventually love and are rewarded for what they do, such as acrobat David 'Marcel' Marcus.
The tenth of 11 children, Marcel grew up in Guyana as he lived a number of places because of his father's occupation as a policeman for 34 years. He was therefore fortunate to experience life in many different locations, Bartica, Mahaica, North West and many others, before settling in Georgetown with his family.
The idea of acrobatics as a profession began to take shape for Marcel in his early teens while he was a student at North Georgetown Secondary in the late 70s and early 80s. "There were some Chinese acrobats who came down and did a show at Queen's College. My aunt had bought me a ticket" and there he was amazed by the tricks and stunts as well as impressed with their marvellous works.
Incidentally, at the time the late president Forbes Burnham's connections with nations such as North Korea among others led to a set of instructors coming to Guyana who were based at the Multilateral High School on Mandela Avenue. They could not speak English but Marcel recalled "they could tumble pretty well indicating bad with their little finger and good with their thumb."
Though not a student of that school, he was able to take advantage of the newly built gym facility fitted with parallel bars, rings, trampolines, mats and all the necessary equipment for gymnastic training. The team of Koreans were teaching an acrobatic group and "I got involved with those chaps though I could not do a back flip at the time just the basics - hand stands, cartwheels, front flips. But these guys inspired me I came home one day after going there did a back flip on my bed, then on the grass, then on the concrete, then I started getting better doing one, then two, then three."
Everything began coming together for Marcel as the Ministry of Education at the time had physical education teachers at various schools. "There was this guy Earl Payne attached to the ministry, and fortunately for us he was a professional gymnast," competent to deliver the finer subtleties of the trade, he carried on a class in the Botanic Gardens next to the band stand so Marcel spent a few years with him, "perfecting my act. Some guys probably did not take it as seriously as me but I wanted to keep it as a profession."
He and some friends who are now overseas: Clarence Chester with "whom I did marvelous work, is in the US, he has worked on American Idol, The Steve Harvey Show, he's worked with Arnold Schwarzenegger in Denver, Colorado as an extra…another friend is Carlyn 'Bulby' Kennedy, right now he owns a circus," started doing school shows.
They then moved on to shows at discotheques as well as government promotions in the National Park, Sophia, Banks DIH and other places. "But I had bigger dreams and always wanted to take it to a higher level coming from Guyana, so the first place I took this stuff was Venezuela in the mid 80s."
Once there he started working in the streets, worked in the television industry, discotheques, clubs, on big shows and university campuses such as Mirida attended by students from around the world and where he picked up a certificate for acrobatics.
Learning the language came easily because of his inclinations and fascination with the sound of the Spanish language, the people, and the music, "I wanted to get involved really involved."
He spent a significant amount of time working the length and breadth of Venezuela "it's a big country and a lot of places you can work.
"You're never finished since you may stop somewhere, jobs start coming, you begin to get a hang of the place, rent a place to stay for a while, then you get involved with people are looking out for you to perform at there hotels or clubs." Marcel told The Scene. However, as trouble loomed around the failed 1992 coup planned by Chavez, Marcel left Venezuela and ended up in St Maarten where again he spent an extended period. This was because the French and Dutch sides both provided a multitude of venues for work but he hungered for more.
He subsequently started his US career in New York from where he has visited Miami, Mardi Gras in New Orleans, the Bob Marley Festival in Houston, Texas and the Rainbow Festival. In addition, he has seen Santiago, La Santo Monica Pier, Venice Beach and Arch County. Then, "my visa ran out and I had to leave but within that time I had met an American and got married so I came back to Guyana got my paperwork done and flew to London where I started another career over there which went down pretty good."
But after two years in London he ruptured his Achilles Tendon as a result of stepping onto the stage just out of a car in temperatures that change dramatically. "I learned from that experience working there meant warming up was important." He was rushed to the hospital where he did major surgery, discovered it would take about a year to heal and involve learning to walk again. This was 1997, so he left for New York and stayed with a sister who is now a qualified nurse and was able to assist him with obtaining good therapy. "I got back in shape and now everything is streamlined as a stage performing artiste there is so much demand, so my work takes me basically everywhere and now I have a British passport which makes it easier."
Still there are ports he would like to touch, but hasn't, such as Africa which has produced many acrobats who Marcel has worked with from Ghana, Tanzania and Morocco. "I wanted to go to Africa some two years ago," he said, "I was preparing to go to the Bob Marley festival in Ethiopia, there were a lot of people going over, the only thing I had to do was take my jabs [vaccinations]. But I called home and spoke to my Dad and he said 'you got to come see me because I may not be around when you come back from Africa and all that'…when I came here it was more than worth going to Africa."
Marcel, who is now on one of many jaunts to his homeland, may be glimpsed performing around Georgetown, on national holidays or at any major event until he decides to hit the road again. He has been married once, has eight children of varying nationalities. He resides with a Venezuelan son who is being groomed for the European Soccer leagues. Having made it himself, he is hoping that his son can get a breakthrough too.