Yasen the Skomorokh

Long, long time ago in the lands of the Slavic kingdoms, there
was a group of wandering jesters better known as the
Skomorokhs. They travelled from one village to another and
earned their bread by showing their skills at acrobatics,
juggling, illusion and animal-taming. Lucky was a homeless
child or a youth in need who'd met the Skomorokhs on the road,
for he'd be fed and welcome to join them.

Of course, none of the Skomorokhs, young or old, had an easy
life. Everybody worked and trained very hard to be able to do
things amazing enough to attract people's attention but with
effortlessness and a smile to ensure people won't be terrified
and run away, would watch the whole show AND pay. Learning to
snap your back in half backwards while balancing on a shaking
piece of wood took years of practice, but learning to do all
that with a foolish smile took even longer.

One day when this group of wandering clowns was crossing a
large forest, they suddenly found a crybaby left under an Ash
tree. They took care of it and named the child Yasen, which
simply meant "Ash tree" in the Slavic language. He was almost a
newborn, left in the forest for dying but he had the health
enough for five children and survived there for long hours, if
not days.

The Skomorokhs were really amazed to find such a young child.
Children joined them quite often, but at a much older age. The
thought that this one could be trained since his very infancy
was so promising, but what kind of skills should they teach
him?..

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Sixteen long years passed. It was a big festival and of course
the Skomorokhs were a huge part of the celebrations. After the
animals and jugglers there came clowns who brought a scarecrown
on a stake, took it off and began to twist and bend the
straw-stuffed doll in every possible way. The doll seemed very
firmly stuffed, one could say it had the firmness and weight of
a real human, but the way it was folded, turned, squished and
tied in such sophisticated knots... The crowd only laughed,
thinking the clowns are fooling around with the doll way too
much and look a lot like big and cruel children who'd do
everything with the doll except maybe ripping off its limbs.

After folding and packing the doll into the tightest knot, the
clowns sat on top of it and finally relaxed, pretending to have
fallen asleep, when the doll's arms suddenly came to life and
the doll slapped the clowns asses so hard they jumped high in
the air in surprise! The crowd laughed like crazy, most people
still didn't realize what just happened when the doll began to
move on its own, it stood up and started running away from the
clowns, doing cartwheels, somersaults and rolling on the ground
in the most incredibly flexible ways.

The clowns finally managed to capture the doll and started
pulling its two legs each in his own direction when the doll
suddenly threw off the gloves and took off the mask to reveal
the handsome face of a teen boy who grinned at the crowd,
spreading his arms in the air while hanging in the split
between the two clowns who lifted the bendy boy in the air for
everybody to see him better. The crowd sighed and stood there
with all their eyes popped out while the clowns let the boy's
feet land on the ground and he performed a playful dance to
show he's not only not injured, but not even slightly tired
after all the bendings, and could easily go for ten more rounds
of stretching and twisting!

The introduction part was over and now Yasen could finally show
off his skills to the fullest. He did several cartwheels around
until he stopped by an improvised prop consisting of two wooden
logs placed on top of each other. The boy began by doing a
handstand upon the top log and bent himself until his body
folded and his feet landed upon the log right next to his
hands. He moved the balance on his feet and climbed his hands
upward by the ankles until he managed to grab his legs above
the knees. After getting stable he pulled on the knees and
tightened his fold to the max, then smiled cheerfully at the
crowd, waiting for his well deserved applauds.