Circus Pyongyang - A gig to North Korea

By Juha Kurvinen

Juha Kurvinen, chainsaw juggler and holder of two official Guinness World Records, gets one day an invitation to perform at a circus in North Korea organized to honour the birthday of president Kim Il-Sung. Joining Kurvinen is the most famous Finnish professional magician Jori A. Kopponen, who has always wanted to travel to an "another planet". 

The party is being held at the capital of North Korea, Pyongyang. The artists have asked two journalists to assist them on this trip. It is strictly prohibited for journalists to enter the closed country. Constant fear of getting caught, brainwash and culture shock hits on every member of the Finnish travel party, when they have to operate under constant surveillance. 

Circus Pyongyang is a true story of a trip made by a Finnish artist entourage to the most closed state in the world, which is being presented as a terrestrial paradise for its western guests. The truth is something else. It's a trip to another planet, Circus Pyongyang.

"Circus Pyongyang was an enjoyable read, hard to put down. The language flows nicely. Structure is well thought out. At times Circus Pyongyang reminded me of the odysseys of gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson and his linguistic gimmicks."
- Eero Karisalmi, Radio Melodia / Radio Auran Aallot

Translated by Tomi-Pekka Astikainen

• Language: English
• Publisher: Juha Kurvinen
• Release date: Sep 10, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386041733

Book preview

CIRCUS PYONGYANG – A GIG TO NORTH KOREA

The amount of control and persecution in the country is so vast that it reminded me of the Big Brother TV show. Only here the program begins at birth and ends at death. You're not even rewarded in the end of the contest and you might die before reaching half-way.

Juha Kurvinen

PROLOGUE

An employee of the workers' party and the arts festival, Mister Ri, is sitting in his office in the secret fifth floor of Yanggakdo International Hotel in North Korea, installing the receivers in the surveillance room and watching the official festival posters hung on the bleak walls. The commandant of the festival, together with the Minister of Propaganda, arrives at the door. Ri is startled by the prestigious guests in military attire. The commandant begins:

Have the microphones been installed and checked in every hotel room?

Yes they are, Ri answers nervously and stiffens at attention. Me and my team have taken care of everything and checked that the equipment works.

Is the two-week program and schedule ready? the minister continues.

Yes but we can still make changes of your liking. The reporters and TV crews have received the program.

The minister smiles:

Very well, let's send the invites to the artists tomorrow and put the world's biggest circus operation in motion. Our beloved leader Kim Jong-il will be very satisfied.

DESTINATION PYONGYANG

In mid-2000s, I received an interesting letter in my mailbox. The sender was the Embassy of North Korea in Stockholm. Juggler Juha Kurvinen, it said on top. I opened the letter anxiously. It was printed on quality paper and the coat of arms of North Korea was inscribed in the top corner. It stated:

Distinguished Artist,

We are happy to announce that You have been chosen among hundreds of candidates to perform in an Arts Competition that honors the birthday of our departed president and Great Leader Kim Il-sung in Pyongyang, the capital of our country. Day of the Sun is celebrated April 15.

You may put together the required group and assistants from Finland. The travel expenses are covered by the festival committee. Enclosed are the forms for participation and visa application.

Best Regards...

The letter was signed by the director of the festival committee and next to the signature was the official stamp of North Korea.

I had performed as a juggler more than a thousand times in Finland and abroad. Certainly, I knew where North Korea was and I had seen TV news regarding famines, nuclear testing, and the comical endeavors of Kim Jong-il. I got interested and decided to find out more about this mystical closed country. For the simple reason that they have no tourism whatsoever, I couldn't find a single travel guide from bookshops. But from the library, I found several books that reveal horrible experiences from the concentration camps written by people who have fled the country. I had to rely on the Internet to get more information. After hours of searching, I found an English-language Lonely Planet guide that I ordered instantly.

A North Korea website published by the US Central Intelligence Agency urges people to avoid traveling to this dangerous country. The site paints a horrific picture and portrays satellite images of concentration camps and power plants that, the Americans fear, produce not energy but nuclear weaponry. These scare tactics are often used by North Korea in international negotiations when seeking for aid after bad harvest. To get the aid, the country makes a promise to halt the program for nuclear armaments. Once the aid has been used, the program is re-initiated.

According to Amnesty International, human rights are systematically violated in North Korea. The citizens face death penalties, torture, and random imprisonment. Leaving the country, disobedience and public gatherings are severely punishable deeds. Fifty thousand refugees hide in China, scared of deportation back to North Korea and guaranteed death penalty. Work and concentration camps are inhabited by 200,000 political prisoners, including Christians, who, according to defectors, are constantly fighting for their lives. Public executions and molestations happen daily. It is customary for the government to punish those who fled by sending all their family members to concentration camps.

In the light of this information, I had to think long and hard whether I wanted or even dared to enter the country. My dad's colleague noted, How your son has dares? For sure he'll be boiled in a pot and eaten. I also learned from a few travel blogs that it's almost impossible to enter the country without time-taking visa application procedures and a travel budget of tens of thousands of Euros. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity and if I'd succeed in the arts competition, I might get more foreign contacts. I decided to go.

I contacted my partner, magician Jori A. Kopponen. He instantly agreed. After all, he had often envisioned a trip to another planet. Kopponen mentioned that he insists on performing as magic character Hans Rubel together with two female dancers.

North Korea is strictly out of bounds for reporters. Two American journalists had blown their cover and they had instantly been imprisoned. Even so, I wanted people to write about our journey and to get some pocket money. I contacted a magazine called Suomen Kuvalehti. The editor got so excited that in a matter of days I was having a meeting with reporter Susan Heikkinen. For security reasons, she would not be making any notes on the spot. Instead, she would draft her article on afterwards in Finland. We cut a deal. Kuvalehti would cover everyone's train travel and visas to Russia. From Moscow onwards, all the travel expenses would be paid by the government of North Korea and the organizing committee of the culture festival.

I was satisfied, but my ambition increased. I wished that we could be joined by a filmmaker and in no time, I sat opposite to a zealous twenty-something Arthur Franck. His father was a successful documentary director and he wanted to send his son to face a real challenge. We agreed that Arthur would play the role of our sound engineer. The reporter, in turn, would be the manager of the whole group.

When the departure was only a couple of weeks away I was in an after party of a show where I made acquaintance with Niina, a beautiful brunette from Jyväskylä. I had a bit of a crush and gathered my courage, Would you go to North Korea with me in a couple of weeks and be my assistant?

Where is that? Niina asked eagerly.

Well, it's in the Korean Peninsula.

Oh, well I don't know the place but, ok, I'll join you, she informed.

A week before the trip I had a gig in the festivities of the Finland-Korea Association in Kamppi Mall. A hundred-strong group of supporters of North Korea and its official Juche ideology had gathered there. The info stand was covered in books written by the great men of the country, both the father and the son, and walls plastered with pictures of military parades. After my show, a Finnish lady had stars in her eyes. You will win the competition for sure! Good luck! You are going to paradise.

The night before the trip, Kopponen and I prepared for the upcoming challenge. We had been invited to spend the night in a live chat room at the MTV3 TV station. The hostess, Lara, warned us, Boozing on the show is prohibited.

The warning was necessary because some musicians had appeared on the show clearly intoxicated and one had even passed out on the couch.

Being stage artists, we had no intention to be any worse than that. We bought two bottles of Jaloviina (a traditional yet vile cross-breed of brandy and vodka) and smuggled them under the studio table. While we were on air, we kept filling our cups, pretending it was only water. However, we got seemingly drunk. The viewers noticed, due to our energetic behavior, that we were wasted. We had some fun with the viewers.

At four o'clock in the morning, Kopponen prepared for his Grande Finale and asked the hostess to come sit next to him. He shuffled a deck of cards and said, Take any card from the deck. Look at it, show it to the viewers, but don't show it to me.

Lara did as instructed. After a brief shuffle, the card Lara had chosen had disappeared from the deck. Kopponen unbuttoned his jeans, took off his pants, and bent over to show his bare behind directly at the camera. Four of diamonds was drawn with a marker on his buttock and Lara was astounded, How the hell did you do that? My card was four of diamonds.

On the day of departure, I packed my juggling equipment, everything from torches to bowling pins, totally hung over. In my other hand, I carried a large hard plastic case that concealed my secret weapon: a STIHL 020T chainsaw. It was the same one that I had used when I had broken the world record by juggling with three authentic running chainsaws in the Guinness World of Records TV show hosted by Ressu Redford. Beforehand, I had sent a precise written list of needed equipment to the North Korean ambassadors in Stockholm and Pyongyang: chainsaw fuel, lighting fuel for the torches, and hand cuffs, as well as a beamer and a large white screen for Kopponen. Without those, the close-up tricks wouldn't show to the audience.

As I arrived from Turku to Helsinki, our anxious group met for the first time in its entirety in Cafe Eliel at the railway station. Jori introduced us to beauties from Turku, Maritza and Henrika, whose luggage was overflowing with show attire. I introduced my assistant, Niina, who had just arrived from Jyväskylä and was about to go abroad for the first time in her life. Our filmmaker, Arthur, was charging the