Potter really was that talented at tightrope dancing—he was good enough to draw notice from the otherwise jaded London crowds in 1801. Quoting one newspaper on Potter’s tightrope performance:
He balances, while on the wire, 100 full wine glasses; will also pass seven times through a small hope, and, what is still more astonishing, he balances seven common chairs at one time … He balances on his face a common wine glass, on the edge of which is a small sword. He tosses up oranges and eggs, while on the wire, plays on the violin, and goes to his knees.
Potter and a more experienced tightrope dancer named Signor Manfredi toured France and England, performing in Paris during the 1802-1803 Peace of Amiens and then making their way to America. Potter eventually teamed up with and trained under John Rannie, one of a pair of traveling Scottish ventriloquist-magicians, and then teamed up with and trained under Charles Durang, the oldest son of John Durang. (Spending his youth being trained by masters in various fields—Richard Potter sounds like Batman).
Potter married a freedwoman, Sally Harris, in 1808. In some ways, it was a dream match for him: she was beautiful and from a well-to-do family of freemen. He wasn’t famous yet as a performer. But he knew people—important people—and they ensured that the marriage was mentioned in the matrimonial notices of several Boston newspapers, a recognition almost unheard of, possibly unprecedented, for blacks in the city at that time.
Boston, at this time, was a center for protest and reform activities affecting Blacks, especially the antislavery movement. Potter never played a public role in the movement, in part because he was touring so often, in part because he was in personality a private, reserved man, and in part, because he didn’t want to alienate any of his potential audience. But Potter was a member of the African Lodge of Boston, which eventually became known as the Prince Hall Grand Lodge, the first Black Masonic lodge in America. The members of the Lodge were prominent members of the Black community in Boston. The Potter marriage newspaper notices may have been a favor done by these men for a junior member.