Meet Joshua Waters | Circus Variety Entertainer, Acrobat, Fire Performer, Juggler, Business Owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Joshua Waters and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Joshua, is there something that you feel is most responsible for your success?
There are many factors that contribute to my success. 1 is my focus on diversity and uniqueness. I target the skills and aesthetics that are under-representing or interesting, I never try to compete in over-saturated environments and rather try to create my own opportunities in under-saturated environments. This gives me a lot more control, and removes a lot of the luck factor behind booking work. 2 is focusing on offering an above-average product and creating an exceptional user experience. I always go above and beyond in my performance, try to be a joy to work with and focus on communication, clarity, and make the experience so good that it is a no-brainer to re-hire me. I also hold to high levels of professionalism so there is no chance of errors that would make the client look bad, and I have all of my paperwork in order and am usually ahead of the client in this way. 3 is networking and focusing on people, and genuine authentic connections. I almost always leave my events with lots of new friends whether it be in the cast or the clients themselves. I love people and take the time to connect and get to know people which works in my favor for re-hires and makes working way more fun and is something I genuinely really enjoy doing. It’s a really small world in circus and entertainment, and you tend to work with the same people a lot, so it’s way better if they are your friends.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I love to create and build and make. I love life and the many wonders in it. And I want to inspire people to dream big, live more fully, and show people how much beauty and wonder is out there to explore. My friends call me a serial learner, because I love to learn, cant get enough of it. I have mastered over 20 disciplines within action sports, circus, acrobatics, and juggling/manipulatives, and I am trying to become the most diverse specialty performer in the world.

I have a background in acrobatics and have always been gifted physically but performing was the hardest thing I had ever done, and I was not good at it. When I was young I hated being in front of people, hated public speaking, meeting new people, even talking on the phone was hard. Teaching acrobatics as a older teen really helped open me up as well as making youtube videos about things I was passionate about which I did for over 5 years. But I wanted something to do with my talents and teaching was getting old. So there was really only two avenues to pursue, pro athlete status, performing, or stunt work. So I tried all 3, I was competing in high level parkour at the time but there were very few opportunities to really make a career out of it and it was taking a toll on my body. I started performing small gigs and started feeling like I was capable of being on stage even though it was difficult for me. I also went to stunt school and enjoyed that. But at the end of the day, I started falling in love with performing. I fell in love with the challenge, with the attention, with the reactions I would get and the inspiration I was sharing. I fell in love with the person it was forcing me to be, someone I always hoped I could become. Someone more confident, more charismatic, more capable than ever before, and once I got a taste of what I could be, of this person I become that was inside of me all along that only came out when I performed, I wanted to figure out how to be that person all the time. I went full time as a performer in 2021 and was uniquely positioned to take advantage of the surge in entertainment following covid. I started building my business and had been working on the business side for a year or two and started to learn how to develop my network and had attained a sizable client list, especially for the area in northern California where I was in. I had to create a lot of my own opportunities. I started surpassing all of the local performers, and people started coming to me for advice on how to get work. I was 1 of only 2 or 3 full-time performers in the area. Eventually, I did all I could there and started traveling to LA and Vegas and ended up moving to Vegas where my career really started taking off. I stared touring and doing theme park shows and performing in arenas and theatres and doing corporate events on the Vegas strip for some of the biggest companies in the world. I am most proud of my whole journey. Of learning all of this from scratch, of going from really bad at all of this to one of the best at what I do. I created a whole new life for myself in 5 years and learned a completely new industry, and hugely pivoted my life. I am incredibly proud of all that I have learned, and am excited to tell my story, and to encourage people to dream big, and to tell them that everything is a skill that can be learned. From people, to juggling, to networking, to business, money, and relationships, its all learnable. And I am a walking testament to that. I am also really proud of how successful I have been in such a short time. I set it as my goal to conquer vegas as quickly as possible and I am already (a year and a half in), one of the more regularly booked performers here and in LA in a quite competitive market, and I set myself apart from everyone with my detailed strategies, market research, networking skills, and professionalism and diversity. I am almost universally the youngest person in the room on any gig that I do, and get in rooms and am being offered opportunities that only veterans of the industry normally get.

I am proud to have a licensed LLC at 24 and to be one of the few people in the area with all of my licenses and paperwork, and to be one of the few who know how to file corporate fire permits and the like. This definitely sets me apart from the majority of the entertainment community.

Its all about the people. Life, and work. Its all about who you know. The people you surround yourself with are the people that make your life what it is, and I surround myself with amazing people and that benefits my personal and work lives.

My art stands apart for it’s uniqueness and simplicity. I have a good eye for what sells, and I don’t try to overcomplicate things. My acts are hard hitting and impactful, with a heavy focus on dynamic visuals and personality, showmanship, and musicality. I am constantly innovating and looking for new visuals, skills, and tech that can increase the entertainment value.
I have been developing this style of performance for a while and I am just getting started. I also pride myself on being very engaging and fun in corporate settings and believe that showmanship and connection is key to entertaining people and drawing them into my world of fun.

I am excited about the opportunities that are starting to open up for me in the next year or two, new collaborations, avenues of work, and business connections. i will be pursuing cruise ships, NBA halftime shows, learning some new disciplines, exploring film, tv, and commercial work, and fostering connections between companies soon.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I love skateboarding from santa monica boardwalk to venice and grabbing a drink or visiting the shops there, hanging out on the beach, going to the acro and slackline jams at muscle beach, going to fire jams at ocean beach in san diego or LA burn club, I love seeing friends, and riding my electric board around downtown.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Gotta thank Elle Beyet and The Parkour And Performing Arts Center for giving me my first performance gig and getting me started in this world, to Fire University Davis and my friends from that community who pushed me to spin fire for the first time, to Zebediah from Necca who got me started in tramp wall and juggling, to the Las Vegas Circus Center for providing such an amazing training space, to the junk tramp crew and acrobat houses that facilitated my tramp wall training and helped connect me with jobs, to off-axis athletics for giving me my first acrobatic contract, to the weed events and fire up esports in California that gave me my first recurring fire gigs, to Grace Good for inspiring me and showing me what was possible, and to the entire Vegas circus community for being frigging incredible and helping me and inspiring me every day.

Website: https://linktr.ee/fireninjaentertainment

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joshuadwaters/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JoshuaDanielWaters

Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/fire-ninja-entertainment-roseville-3

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@fireninjaentertainment7024

Other: https://fireninjaentertainment.com/ https://www.instagram.com/fireninjaentertainment/

Image Credits
Shane O’Neal, Anne McDade