About Me in 500 Words or Less

I am not a big fan of run on bios, but I also don’t it to sound like a twitter post. So, written in an effort to have my cake and eat it too and with the Shakespeare quote “brevity is the soul of wit” ringing in my ear, what follows is a 500 word bio. Brace yourself for over simplified prose in 3rd person.

Early Life

As a young child Hendrix was the nerdy poster child for extra curricular youth voluntarism (aka the legal form of child slavery), growing up in Calgary, Alberta. Throughout her youth she worked with all sorts of community groups, won leadership awards and seemed on the fast track to a life in the social services feeling pleasantly superior.

The image to the right is photographic evidence of my being a poster child for youth voluntarism

So how did this sweet little girl, become the sequinned, fire eating entertainer weirdo we know today?

Well, at the age of 16 Hendrix’s interest in sideshow and showbiz was sparked by a chance encounter and the support of a school chum. After only a few months of training she was already doing small shows and had been bitten hard by the showbiz bug.

After Hendrix graduated high school, she took a job a program leader for a not-for-profit teaching children K-12, but it was too late. As rewarding as teaching was, the alure of the stage was just more shiny and unavoidable.

Though she managed to keep both careers alive for years, booking relatively regular small local gigs, eventually the juggling act became too much. She was pushed to make the hard choice between her to two passions and resolved o leave teaching and dedicate her life to the art of entertainment.

The image to the right is 24 year old me holding a picture of 11 year old “awkward phase” me. It is from my elementary school graduation display. Written beside the image are the words “unique” and “kind”, this is because the class was suppose to pick two atributes that described each student and those were the least offensive. Elementary was rough.

Education

Carisa was fortunate to work alongside a long roster of talented artist and entertainers early in her showbiz career, these individuals opened her eyes to a variety of different performative styles and disciplines. She studied acting, dance, comedy, circus, prop manipulation, vaudeville, burlesque, modeling and magic. Being accepted to ACAD (the Alberta College of Art and Design) in 2007, Hendrix had the opportunity to further her studies in performance art, design and multimedia. She started doing gallery shows and began to merge the genres of art and entertainment in her work. This varied education is responsible for the signature style that makes Hendrix’s shows unique and engaging. A style that won her the title of “Sideshow Darling”.

Click the image to the right to see the installation I did for the Marion Nicoll Gallery durring my time at ACAD.

Making it…. Medium

In 2010 Carisa was nominated for best actress in a short film at the Maverick Movie Film Awards, featured for her sideshow skills on Alberta Primetime and re-engaged her teaching muscles with the release of her instructional DVD “How To Eat Fire”. She spent the year traveling all over Canada and the United States offering fire eating classes to the brave souls who wanted them; which happened to be every one from soccer moms to business men. The teaching system Carisa designed allowed every participant to learn the necessary skills to eat fire in only one class, and her 100% success rate holds strong even after over 300 students.

In the first few months of 2011, Carisa took home the Miss Alt Calgary Modelling Award, landed thecover story for Avenue Magazine (see photo bellow) and founded Firepedia, an online resource for prop manipulation and fire arts.

She is an adventure and gadget junkie, an actress, a circus sideshow performer, an educator, an alternative model and recently a product designer for Hoop Gear. Carisa’s interests seem to span far and wide, but actually center around 3 main passions. Creativity, Expression and the pursuit of happiness.

In 2011 Hendrix began bloging about her adventures and passions and working on the a couple book concepts.

Some of Carisa’s other accomplishments include: