Magmanus, a circus duo made up of an extra-large juggler and a petit acrobat, will be opening the 2015-16 Skirball Center season on September 25 and 26 with their gravity-defying contemporary circus, Attached. The contemporary circus performers Magnus Bjøru and Manu Tiger combine circus, theater, interactive elements, and lots of Velcro to explore the idea of attachment; the performers’ Velcro-suited bodies make contact and are torn apart with the recognizable rip, demonstrating that everything and everyone is attached. Packed with humor and jaw-dropping stunts, this event is perfect for families and children of all ages.

I spoke with both Manu and Magnus, or as Manu explained to me, “the small one” and “the big guy.” Even their voices and styles of speaking are indicative of their on-stage personas. Manu is quick and to the point, while Magnus is a bit more laid back and takes his time to tell a story. They talked about their years of work, explain what happens when they make mistakes, and even tell a story about performing their comedic strip tease when an eager audience member wanted to join them.

Can you tell us a bit about how Magmanus has grown over the years? 

Manu: At the beginning, we created a street show that was 20 minutes long. We saw that we had a good response from the people on the street so we decided to create a bigger show. It was a one-hour outdoor show called The Magmanus Show. Then, we wanted to do an indoor show too. That’s when we created Attached.

Magnus: We put together [the first] show really fast, in like two weeks. Then, we went directly to performing it in the streets, so there wasn’t really a big plan behind it. We just took it to the streets to see what happens. And it did work well, so we continued to work on it as it got bigger and bigger. Then we got the idea for the show we’re doing now, Attached, which was quite a different process because we thought about it for several years and took much more time with it. We wanted to [include] new circus disciplines. It was a process of researching to create something completely new — not just using what we have but learning completely new skills. We became much more complex with this show.

What keeps you excited about your work? 

Magnus: For me, it’s to be on stage and have good reactions from the audience. If every time I felt the audience was bored or not enjoying it, I could not do it anymore. It’s a lot of driving and traveling, sleeping in bad hotels and eating cheap fast food — things that are not very positive aspects. But then, it’s nice to do the show and fun to perform.

A big reward at the end of all the hard work, right? 

Magnus: Yes. After the show, you feel it was worth it.

What keeps you excited about your work, Manu? 

Manu: There are so many things. First of all, I love to be on stage. I love to give to the audience, and I love the response from the audience. Every time we travel, I like to travel to different places and meet new people — going to different countries and seeing how people live in different places. This is what keeps me going.

Where does the comedy come from? 

Magnus: First, there is the physical difference so people think it’s funny that we’re very different in just how we look. I’m big and tall and slow; Manu is small and fast. That is a contrast that we play with.

Manu: When we first started creating our shows, we wanted to present what makes us laugh. So when we are rehearsing and we have funny moments, we think maybe that will make the audience laugh, too. Then when we see the audience laugh, we know we can keep it.

Magnus: We also don’t take ourselves too seriously. If something goes wrong, we just accept it and try to do something out of it instead of pretending that it didn’t happen. If I drop a ball, everyone is going to see it. I’m not going to be like, maybe if I pick it up really fast no one will see it. (Laughs) That’s not going to work because there’s 500 people looking at me. It doesn’t have to be super funny, but you have to do something to be like, okay, I saw it, you saw, we all saw it… we’re going to continue now.

Manu: The show is always changing. It’s not the same as the first time we did it. We like improvisation and including improvisation during our show. Sometimes we make mistakes on stage and people laugh, so sometimes we realize that’s a keeper. Next time, it’s not a mistake anymore, but we use the mistake with purpose. So sometimes [the comedy] comes from us and sometimes it comes from the mistake.

Magnus: For example, we have a catapult in the show. Manu is across the stage in a velcro suit and the wall is covered with velcro, too. The whole thing is that he flies from the catapult and sticks to the wall. We have this quick-release system so when you pull the rope, a weight falls down to pull another rope so that the catapult is ejected. We were in England, I think almost two years ago. So Manu is pulling the rope and nothing is happening. The weight is dropping, but it’s not releasing the catapult. First, we checked with each other to make sure it’s not dangerous, then we took a look at the audience and asked “should we do one more try?” And it takes a while to rig the whole thing: take down the box, put the weight up, pull the bar down, put the bar back up again. So it’s a few minutes of re-rigging, but everyone was like “yeah, do it again!” So we do it, we take the box down, put the weight up, pull the bar down, put it up again. Now we were thinking that is has to work because it took a lot of time to rig this. Manu pulls the rope, the weight falls down, and nothing happens again. (Laughs) So then, we look at each other and everyone knows he’s supposed to fly because they know it’s a catapult. So I picked him up, like the Dirty Dancing move, straight up in the air with his arms out. We’re faking that he’s flying, he’s doing these slow motion moves in the air, and I throw him onto the mat. (Laughs all around.)

That was a really good way of saving it because we couldn’t just go to the next scene — it would be a failure. But people were laughing and some even thought it was a part of the show.

So over the years I’m sure you’ve found many ways to recover if a mistake happens. 

Manu: What people say to us when they see either show, is that they don’t really care about the mistakes because we manage, 90 percent of the time, to make it where people don’t even know if it is a mistake or not. That’s what people say is one of our strengths. We also bring people on stage, which gives difference every time, because you never know who’s going to be on stage. It gives us opportunity to improvise.

What is your most memorable or interesting moment with an audience member? 

Manu: Well, we have so many moments, but I would say that one of them was in our outdoor show where at the end we have the audience participation as a [mock] strip tease. But, we dress them before with a dress and a boa. Then we have [the audience member] take off the dress and the boa together. One show I remember, the woman… she took off the dress, she took off the boa, and was ready to take off her clothes. We we like no, no, no, no! We had to stop her! (Laughs)

Magnus: Yeah, I remember this one. We were in Germany. In most of our shows [the audience] kind of does what we expect them to do, but then there's things that can happen, and we have to deal with it and try to make the most out of it.