When the lights fall on him and his stomach flips as he leaps off his platform, the entire world falls away. It's like having the most beautiful kind of tunnel vision, the lights bright as they streak by and his hands sting a little from being wrapped around the metal bar. When he swings and flips back in forth in sync with the other performers, he wonders if he even breathes. He's not afraid of heights anymore, not since the first time. If anything, it's a rush that keeps him from letting go of the bar and flying through the air every time, very aware of the fall below but confident the second bar will be there for him to grab. He kicks his legs hard and flies, the other trapeze artists flying and synchronizing with him in what looks like a dance in the air. It's unreal, Kurt knows it is even though he's doing it. The swing on the way down is always the worst, the weight of his body pulling on his arms and his shoulders. It's painful, but it's also a rush; a delicious spike of pride in knowing he's made it and he hasn't made a mistake. 

Vaguely he can hear the audience applause, but it's more of a booming bass echo in his ears. He tries to listen to the music in order to keep time as he leaps and grabs a set of hands that hold him as they both swing through the air. He swings back and jumps, flips upside down and his partner grabs him just under the knees and holds him as they soar back across the stage. Kurt wonders if there is any greater trust than this. The next swing has him with his knees wrapped around the bar, reaching out and grabbing his partner as they swing. His partner flips end over end before reaching and grabbing Kurt's hands, his back arching stiffly as he strains to hold the weight of both of them at the heavy speed of the swing. The weight of the jump propels them clear across the stage every time. Kurt thinks this is the closest he could get to really flying. 

The crowd cheers and marvels as they flip and spin through the air before the conclusion of their act, where each of them jumps down into the safety net, spins and poses. The crowd always cheers loud, claps with an enthusiasm that Kurt has come to expect. 

Kurt never gets tired of the applause; he lives for it. Lives for the screams and the admiration that he gets from perfecting his craft. It's all he's ever wanted; to be a performer. A star. Back in high school he had big dreams of Broadway and musicals and somehow, sometimes even he doesn't know how, he'd ended up here: with Cirque du Soleil touring the world. And he loves it. He's been on almost every continent, checking off his list of all the different countries he's been to. It's always the same; the cheers, the crowds, no matter what the language barrier may be he stands posed on the stage each night, the lights blinding and his chest heaving with exhaustion and truly, things have never been better. 

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Kurt was a highly trapeze artist. He was one of, if not the best trapeze performer in Cirque du Soleil’s show La Nouba. When Kurt graduated high school he had always intended to become a performer. Performing was in his veins. He joined the Cirque du Soleil family quite quickly after graduation, becoming a background characters in La Nouba in which he danced around behind the main characters.

He landed his trapeze role only when the artist before him left the company, as Kurt was more of a risk as someone who had more professional training. The training he underwent was gruelling. Their training schedules at the Cirque headquarters were intense but necessary for the safety of everyone involved. He came home daily in complete exhaustion and sore hands, often bloody and mashed in a hundred different blisters and calluses. In the end, Kurt had mastered his trade quickly and joined the La Nouba troupe in touring the world at only 18. 

His debut had been terrifying. 

His nerves were overbearing and his hands sweated profusely, no matter how much chalk he coated them with. His hands eventually lost grip on the bar and he fell to the safety net below. He was fine physically, but he could never forget the gasp of the audience and the horrid sense of failure as his body jostled and bounced against the safety net. Since then, he'd never fallen again. 

Kurt worked tirelessly towards perfection in each show, but over time he began to miss the thrill of acting. He loved performing and flying through the air, but as he watched the show from the sidelines when he was not performing, it always struck him how much he wanted a character role. As to be expected, character roles were highly prized and hard to get, and they only went up for auditions when people left the company or new shows were created. 

3 years later when Cirque du Soliel began planning it’s new show, Kooza, Kurt was immediately on top of it. He moved back to Montreal and auditioned for lead role of The Trickster, the most iconic character of the show, and hoped for the best. Unbeknownst to Kurt, he was the perfect person to play The Trickster. The casting director had been floored by Kurt's audition and almost consider skipping all the other auditions just so he could bring Kurt onboard immediately. However, he politely sat through the remaining auditions, silently comparing each one to Kurt's body, his movements, his poise and character.

None measured up. Kurt landed the position easily. 

There was an excited call back home to his father and step-mother when he'd been told he had gotten the lead role. Training was to start in a week and Kurt couldn't be more thrilled. He knew he would miss the trapeze and the high-flying, but this is what he truly wanted: his dream role. His stepbrother Finn had also called him and told him he landed the role of the King, the main clown in the new show and Kurt couldn't have been more happy for him.
Kurt and Finn moved into a small apartment together so they had a place to stay during the training months before the show went live. Kurt's training was less physically demanding, but required much more acting walkthrough. The show director David Shiner had a very specific look and walk that he wanted portrayed in The Trickster; somewhat cocky and mysterious, The Trickster worked as the other main characters' guide through the story. It wasn't until the first day of duo rehearsals that the two lead roles finally met each other.