Per Janson wouldn’t mind doing something stupid in grand fashion. Where? In a “really cool dangerous place, like the Empire State Building,” he said. Why? To commemorate “some sort of meaningful occasion.”
More specifically and as of yet less dramatically, Janson can do what he unabashedly labels a “stupid human trick”: he can support his body horizontally on a vertical pole, e.g. a tree trunk or a street sign.
Janson said there are two methods to his suspension madness, and that his is “the easy method.” He wraps his arms around the support in a configuration that he said appears as a “complicated knot.” Then, instead of supporting his full height and weight, he actually rests on his hip and therefore supports just up to his waist or shoulder area.
Janson has been doing this and other stupid tricks for quite some time: he said that a passion for the acrobatic and lithe primate family was a “really defining part of [his] childhood.” Janson said he went to zoos, collected Wildlife Treasury cards, and knew all the names of the different species. Gorillas were his main focus, but also, he said, “sometimes gibbons.”
Sometimes, Janson said, he toys with the idea of working in London as a street performer next year. Though he said he “wouldn’t go so far as to call it a skill,” his performing talents have already been put to frequent public use.
With Nick Wagner ’02.5, Janson worked as a Greenshow perfomer in Iowa City, entertaining audiences prior to outdoor theatrical performances. Three summers ago, he and his best friend worked for the Experience Music project in Seattle performing for people waiting in line to entire the museum.
The Experience Music project “had an unlimited budget,” Janson said. He then paused to preface the list of entertainment provisions with “make sure to get this down” – what Janson and his crew got were tennis balls, Fisher Price microphones, and trivia cards. And, Janson said, they got hats.
But Janson doesn’t harbor any ill will toward filling roles, like the one in Seattle somewhat removed from the limelight. “I thought it was cool” he said. “Usually with the stupid human tricks I do, I’m not doing it outright as a strict performer.”
Janson is not looking for strictness in his future career. “I don’t want anything terribly routine, boring … not like a service to people that’s just a service to my bank account.”
Though Janson brought a glimpse of his whimsical skill to the Grinnell community through his Titular Head film, “Belfry,” he said Grinnell has not been a great aid in cultivating his horizontal hanging skills. “It hasn’t provided many platforms for me to perform,” he said, “But that’s not what I would expect from a liberal arts college.”
Yet it’s true that today, circus performers graduate from very specific schools of training. “These days it’s more or less a myth that you can just run off to the circus on a whim,” Janson said. One must, according to Janson, be “seriously talented.”
At this semester end’s senior talent show, Janson said he is considering performing some sort of chair act. He steadfastly refuses, however, to place any value on his gymnastics, physical or mental. “I don’t think I’ve accomplished anything of any great worth,” he said. “There’s a lot to be covered yet.” Regardless of humility, Janson covers more ground - or hangs above more ground—than many people can claim.
—Elisa Lenssen