The Salford Star ran a competition to find The Maddest Thing In Salford, to celebrate the New Year for which the winner would receive a beautiful bottle of Sensi Prosecco Gold, courtesy of Kingsland Drinks in Irlam.
While we got plenty of suggestions, most involving Salford City Council and its politicians, there could be only one winner...Porcelain Delaney!
Porcelain is a sideshow artist residing in Langworthy and for a living she contorts herself out of glass jars, sticks pins in her cheeks and runs power drills up her nose, amongst loads of other stuff.
She's performed all over the world, originally trained by the Circus of Horrors who she still occasionally guests with, and does freelance events including music videos, nightclub, corporate and military shows...
"The Greatest Showman film led to a lot of work; everyone was having their workplace events themed as that; we all got sick of the songs but, yay, more work for circus people" Porcelain laughs.
But how did she get into sideshow? "I started out as a dancer and when I left dance college I started working for the Circus of Horrors" she recalls "After five years of intensive training I was like, 'I don't want to be a dancer any more, I want to do what they do, it looks like so much more fun'...and nagged them to death until they started training me."
And the obvious question is 'Why?'... "I find it the most expressive form of art" says Porcelain "The impact it has on the audience is amazing..."
Like, gasps of horror? "Yeah!...
"I don't look like the typical sideshow performer" she adds "I don't have tattoos, I'm not like a big rocker and I still use a lot of my old dance costumes; so I come out and people go 'Oh it's going to be a pretty little dance number, a bit boring'. And then seeing everyone's faces when they realise that's not going to happen. It's so fun!"
But sticking nails in your arms and stapling cards to yourself? "It's all in a day's work" she smiles "It's all real but it doesn't hurt."
For the future Porcelain is building more routines into her act and training in aerial routines as she continues performing all over before coming back to Salford 'normality'...
"I have lived all over the world including Dubai and India, but this is the first place I've gone 'This is my home', and I want to stay here" she says "I originally moved to Salford because my ex-partner was studying here and fell in love with the city."
So how does Porcelain feel about being, officially, The Maddest Thing In Salford? "Interesting" she laughs "I'm strangely happy about it!"
You can see Porcelain performing on the following YouTube links – click here and click here and click here and click here
Main photo by Louise Garman
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