Sylvia Théron, Hamburg, 1950

 

The Ghosts of Circus Past - a spooky song for Halloween

A ghostly seaside circus

In a ghostly seaside town

A bleak wind blows backstage

Ringmaster wears a frown

It’s here I met an acrobat

Who loved the travelling life

Turned down her boyfriend’s ring

She didn’t want to be a wife

She thought she had another ten

Years in the lights at least

The next day she slipped and fell

A fatal 30 feet

Now she haunts the dressing rooms

Clowns shiver as they pass

They know they’re in the company

Of the ghosts of circus past

They’ve swept away the sawdust

On which the show was made

Swept away the history

Of the elephant parade

But horses were the reason

That the circus ring is round

And they couldn’t sweep away

Their hoofprints in the ground

A former lion tamer

Sells teas and souvenirs

No tigers in the ring today

There haven’t been for years

But she can still feel their breath

Her skin still bear their scars

Forever in the company company

Of the ghosts of circus past

The clowns are still called Joeys

After Grimaldi, King of Clowns

A sad depressed Victorian

Whose makeup hid his frowns

Today they don’t wear whiteface

Or even a red nose

But they know Grimaldi lingers

Still watching over shows

With a hundred long-dead acrobats

For every living one who soars

While outside in the windy night

A ghostly lion roars

So as you find your ringside seat

Keep an eye on those you pass

For you’re surely in the company

Of the ghosts of circus past

 

Come Alive! The Greatest Showman - Run extended to 30 March 2025

 

Philip Astley, the Father of the Circus in This England

The autumn issue of This England features a page by yours truly on how the Father of the Circus, Philip Astley, is being rediscovered in his hometown of Newcastle-under-Lyme, thanks a 40 year campaign by a family of magicians.

The piece also looks into why modern day circus ushers and ringmasters often wear 18th century military style tunics, dripping with gold braid, and the influence Astley had on the development of the fairground carousel.

It's out now.

 

The Greatest Showman is coming to a Big Top in London

 

Come Alive!, a new musical circus show inspired by the film, The Greatest Showman, will be coming to a 700-seat big top at the Empress Museum in London’s Earls Court, beginning performances on 23 September 2024.

The production, created by Simon Hammerstein (grandson of Oscar) will feature all the songs from the movie in a completely new story, and be performed by a mix of circus artists and West End singers.

Gravity Circus UK tour preview

Circus thrives on the new: New tricks, new spectacles, new blood. The first visit to the UK of Italian show Gravity Circus brings all those things, to refresh once again the more than 250-year-old wonder of a circular ring in a big top.

The show that first turned me on to circus was the Summer Spectacular at the Yarmouth Hippodrome. No small part of what captivated me was the water finale in which the ring was transformed into a pool of synchronised swimmers while an aerial straps artist flew through the surrounding fountains.

The transformation dates from the Hippodrome's construction in 1903, when it was first performed by gaslight. There is a similar attraction at the equally venerable Blackpool Tower Circus.

But surely you couldn't stage a water show in a travelling tent?

The answer is that you can do ANYTHING in a big top!

And while Gravity Circus doesn't run to a swimming pool, it is bringing to the UK a circular ring surrounded by fountains that jet small and large streams of water over the performance space, while a fountain erupts from the middle of the stage.

The visual effect as Amanda Togni flies through the gushing water gives Gravity Circus a look that you won't find in any other UK circus outside of the permanent arenas in Yarmouth and Blackpool - and it's that thrill of the different that a travelling show needs.

Among the stars is Silke Pan, a Swiss artist who embodies the tragedy and triumph of the circus. In 2007, Pan fell from the trapeze, broke her back and was paralysed from the waist down. The devastating injury could not rob her of her circus spirit, however.

Making her UK debut this year, the 50-year-old acrobat enters the ring in a wheelchair and is carried to a pedestal by her partner Didier Dvorak. There, accompanied by the moving playing of an onstage violinist, Pan performs an elegant hand balancing act followed by walking on hand stilts.

Elsewhere in the show is a high-wire troupe, rola-rola, cyr wheel and chair balancing, plus an aerial silk routine accompanied by ground-based ballerinas, wafting sheets of fabric to create an ocean-like effect.

 

The show's finale is a refreshing change from the ubiquitous Globe of Death. There is the thrilling roar of motorbikes, yes, but instead of circling inside a cage, they enter the tent on a ramp, leaping over a ring full of dancers and jugglers and passing through the central fountain while fire erupts in rising balls of flame, from around the edges of the stage. 

Gravity Circus begins its UK tour in Lancing on 26 July and will be touring until 1 September.

Don't miss the chance to see a circus that looks like no other.

 

Barnum is back... in Newbury

The circus is back in town in Newbury, where the Watermill theatre is reviving Cy Coleman and Michael Stewart’s 1980 musical, Barnum.

With circus stunts arranged by Amy Panter and dancing choreographed by Strictly Come Dancing’s Oti Mabuse, the show stars Matt Rawle as America's most famous impresario.

The show runs until 8 September.

 

New book from Showbiz David

David H. Lewis, also known as David Lewis Hammarstrom and the blogger Showbiz David, is America's most diligent and penetrating big top-watcher.

His studies of the sawdust circle include Behind the Big Top and Inside The Changing Circus, both of which are essential reading.

He has also penned captivating memoirs such as Big Top Typewriter, which chronicles his lifetime of circus writing, and Hopelessly Hollywood, the story of his efforts to write a musical hit on Broadway.

Out now, is his latest book, Keep That Day Job! in which he details the no less than 50 occupations he has juggled to pay the bills while chasing his circus and musical theatre dreams. They include:

- Cleaning out rental cars in Oakland, and dining high on Park Avenue a few days later, with New York literary agents Bertha Klausner and Clare Booth Luce. 

- Walking a rail yard by night recording box car numbers, and the next, meeting with French mime Marcel Marceau to discuss a Mother Goose screenplay. 

- Typing out letters for a chemical company in Hollywood, and being handed by the office manager a rave review in Variety of his new musical Those Ringlings.  

He's also viewed the American circus from the inside, as a clown and a press representative, and travelled the globe to critique rings in Russia and China. 

David has a colourful writing voice that zings off the page, and his latest book promises to be every bit as thrilling, insightful and revealing as its predecessors.

Keep That Day Job is available from Amazon, here.

 

Coming to London this autumn...

 

I Ran Away With Cirque du Soleil

How gymnast Lucie Colebeck joined the world’s biggest circus and set a dizzying world record.

The modern circus is a place where sport and show business collide.

While some performers graduate from circus schools, many come to the stage from the upper echelons of competitive gymnastics.

That was the case with tumbler Lucie Colebeck (pictured above) who won world and European medals before joining the cast of Cirque du Soleil.

When the world’s biggest circus company brought its show Alegria to the Royal Albert Hall at the start of this year, Lucie stepped into the spotlight to set a world record for performing 36 continuous back handsprings in 30 seconds. 

The decision to go for the record was sprung on the 27-year-old, who normally does only five of the back flips in a row during the show.

“Guinness World of Records contacted Cirque and said, ‘Do you have anyone who would be interested in breaking a record?’” Lucie remembers. “Our publicist said, ‘I think you could do the record for the most back handsprings in 30 seconds.’ I said ‘Yeah, why not? Let's give it a go!’

“We call them ‘spotters’ and, funnily enough, when we were in Japan, just for fun I decided to see how many spotters I could do, and I got 25 before I stopped. So I knew I could do the minimum that they wanted. But when I did 36 I really surprised myself.

“On the day, I was really excited, and my nerves were going crazy. When I started and got up to ten, I thought, ‘Yeah, I have a good pace.’ 

“I counted to 25 and thought, ‘Great, the lady with the stopwatch hasn’t said stop yet, so I’ve got the minimum that I need.’

“After that, I tried to count, but my body was just going and going and going. I had no control of it.

“When I stopped at 36, the room was still spinning. It took me a good five minutes to sit down and relax and get my head around it.

“To say I have a Guinness Record title is incredible. It’s something I never thought I’d have. To do it in the Royal Albert Hall… as a British person, you can’t get any better than that.”

Lucie began taking gymnastics classes when she was nine. Her potential was quickly spotted.

“I was playing around on the trampoline when a coach said, ‘If you join my tumbling squad I can make you the next best tumbler.’ I trained with him for the next fifteen years.”

Lucie was just 11 when she first competed in her age group in the British championships. She went on to compete at European and world level, winning bronze and silver medals.

All the while, she nurtured a dream of running away with the circus.

“I saw my first Cirque du Soleil show at the Royal Albert Hall in 2009, and it was so cool,” Lucie recalls.

“I’d heard that some tumblers go into Cirque du Soleil. But it wasn’t until I watched Alegria a couple of years later, and there were some tumblers in it, that I thought, ‘Maybe this is something I could do.’ That’s when my dream of joining Cirque came alive.’”

Lucie auditioned for the company in London in 2017.

“I wasn’t ready to retire from competitive sport but I’d heard it was good to get your name on their books,” she says.

The following year, she got a call to say Alegria was being updated for its 25th anniversary, would she like to be part of it?

“I said yes right away. It was an offer I couldn’t refuse,” Lucie grins.

Joining the circus meant moving to its headquarters in Montreal, which the young gymnast found hard.

“I’m a real home girl and it was the first time I’d moved out of my family home.

For the first six months I hated it!” she admits. “I loved what I was doing every day, but I hated being so far from home.”

After a long winter of rehearsals, her happiest moment was when her mum and nan flew to Canada to watch the premier of the revamped Alegria.

“My mum is my biggest fan. In my whole career, she only missed one competition. So to have her at my first show was really emotional,” Lucie says.

Since then, Lucie has travelled throughout North America, South Korea, Japan and Europe.

“I’ve been able to travel to places that I didn’t even dream of going to. The beauty of it is that when I went abroad competing, I wouldn’t see anything apart from the gym and the arena. Now, with a month or more in most venues, we have so much more time to explore the cities we go to.”

Although she is travelling 50 weeks of the year, her homesickness was alleviated by having her partner Amy join her on the road.

“In the beginning, Amy was flying back and forth to see me, but half way through the North American tour she managed to get a job with the show, working front of house, so we’re travelling the world together and having a great life.

“Not many people can say they’ve got their dream job,” Lucie concludes. “I’m able to, and I couldn’t be more grateful.”

(Lucie Colebeck picture credit: Ollie Colebeck)

For more tales of life in the circus, read Circus Mania - The Ultimate Book for Anyone Who Dreamed of Running Away with the Circus.

When Circus Stunts Go Wrong

A YouTube video of Gandeys Circus' latest production, Hollywood, has captured a moment when a flying trapeze act went wrong.

A flyer's fall to the net is followed by a loud crash as the net appears to become untethered from its anchor point.

It clearly wasn't the scheduled end of the act, but instead of making a second attempt at the somersault, the flyer quietly exited the ring, followed by the rest of the troupe, who descended from their platforms via rope ladders instead of the traditional drop to the net, which had apparently been disabled.

Nobody was hurt, and the show continued without any mention of the incident. But it was clearly a near thing that could have been a lot worse - and a reminder of the danger involved in every circus act.

Big top accidents are rare, thanks to the skill and practice of the performers and their scrupulous attention to safety.

But when things do go wrong, it can be fatal.

My book Circus Mania was inspired by my interview with aerialist Eva Garcia, just days before she fell to her death during a performance at the Great Yarmouth Hippodrome.

It was the start of my journey into a canvas-covered world of sword-swallowers puncturing their throats and tiger trainers mauled by their animals as I sought to discover why circus artists risk their necks twice daily for our entertainment.

Circus Girl Power!

What an iconic picture this is, capturing the strength, pride, optimism and exhilaration of the circus performer and the circus itself! It looks like the Rosie the Riveter of the circus world.

In fact, it is strong-woman Aoife Raleigh, one of the stars of Daring Dames, Europe's only all-female circus festival, which takes place on Achill Island, off the coast of County Mayo in Ireland from 24 - 26 May.

Promising a packed programme of indoor and outdoor, day and evening performances in a variety of venues, including a trapeze rig set up beside the ocean, plus talks and discussions on issues affecting women in the circus, the whole event is completely free to attend.

For more information Daring Dames visit www.circus250.com 

Happy World Circus Day!

To me, this picture of British Cirque du Soleil star Lucie Colebeck (taken by Ollie Colebeck on stage at the Royal Albert Hall this January) really captures the wonder of the circus.

I recently interviewed Lucie for a forthcoming magazine story, and what a story it is! Part sports drama, part theatrical tale and part love story, mixed together with the Montreal magic of the world's biggest circus company.

Stay tuned!

 

The Circus Funtasia Story

From knife-thrower's assistant to ringmaster, Tracy Jones reveals how she ran away with the circus as a teenager and set up her own Big Top.

There aren’t many jobs in which the new girl gets knives thrown at her by the boss. But standing in front of a target while circus owner Phillip Gandey threw blades that hammered home within inches of her was Tracy Jones’ baptism of fire into life in the big top.

“I trusted him completely,” says Tracy, who ran away with the circus as a 16-year-old and today is ringmaster of her own show, Circus Funtasia. “I think because I was young, I didn’t have much fear. I’d try anything.”

Growing up in a tiny Welsh village, Tracy had no idea that a life of spotlights and sequins awaited her.

When she was 15, she took a weekend job looking after the horses of local stunt rider Gerard Naprous, who went on to work on films such as Rob Roy and TV series Game of Thrones. 

One summer, Gerard announced that he was joining Gandey’s Circus for a short engagement and Tracy went with him as horse groom.

“I didn’t even know what a circus was!” she laughs. “We were meant to be there for four weeks, but I loved it so much that I went home and said, ‘Mum, I’m going to join the circus.’ Mum was mortified. She tried to talk me out of it, but my heart was set. I packed my bag, they put me on a train and off I went. Later on, once my parents had visited the show and seen what it was about, they loved it.”

One of Tracy’s first jobs was parading around the ring with a snake draped around her shoulders.

“I was a little bit scared of snakes,” Tracy confesses. “But you get used to it. Then people start to teach you things. I learned a bit of trapeze, and trick riding on horses.”

Her speciality became twirling and throwing poses on a vertical rope called the corde lisse.

“Now I'm a ringmistress and stay firmly on the ground,” Tracy adds.

As well as travelling all over the UK, Tracy performed across the globe in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Dubai.

In 2000, Tracy was touring with Gandey’s sister show, Circus Starr, a non-profit organisation that gives all its tickets away to ill or disadvantaged children as well as raising money for hospices and women’s refuges.

It was there that she met her partner Julio, a member of a visiting Bulgarian acrobatic troupe.

The danger with circus romances is that couples will be separated at the end of the season as work takes them to different shows and different countries. Tracy and Julio decided that wasn’t going to happen to them.

“As soon as we got together, I knew that wherever he was going to go, I was going to go and vice versa,” Tracy says.

At the end of the season, Julio joined the circus full time as a tent master, so they could stay together.

Julio’s skill at building and moving the big top came in handy when he and Tracy decided to start Circus Funtasia 10 years ago.

“We said if we can get a loan from the bank we’ll open a circus and if we can’t, we’ll carry on working for other people,” Tracy recalls. “We got the loan, and that money went very quickly, buying seats and a few vehicles.”

Their first show was in the Staffordshire village of Penkridge and was a box office disaster.

“We died!” Tracy laughs. “We didn’t do very much business because we didn’t do the postering right, we didn’t do the publicity right. We were very naive, but we learned as we went along and it gradually picked up.”

Tracy’s daughter, Nia, has been part of the show since she was four.

“She’d go in the ring with her dad’s troupe and dance with them. Then he’d pick her up and do a jump with her. She loved it,” says her proud mum.

Now 19, Nia is the show’s juggler. She also edits the show’s music and programs the lighting effects.

Nia’s most daring feat is standing inside the Globe of Death while a motorbike loops the loop all around her, missing her by inches. 

Travelling from town to town with a circus is unlike any other branch of show business, says Tracy, who lives beside her big top in a 52-foot-long wagon that she likens to an apartment on wheels.

“We all do everything. We’re in the ring one minute, selling popcorn the next, then pulling down the tent in wellies and overalls after that. The worst things are the rain and mud. The best thing is the audience. You can’t beat the feeling they give you at the end of the show.

“It’s a way of life, but it’s a wonderful and exciting way of life. It’s very sociable, like one big family. Especially in the summer. Everyone sits outside together. We have barbecues. It’s lovely.”

Her plans for the next 10 years? “Just to keep going and enjoy every minute of it.”

For more tales of life in the big top, read Circus Mania - The Ultimate Book for Anyone Who Dreamed of Running Away With The Circus.

Click here to buy from Amazon.

 

Alexis Gruss, 1944 - 2024 - Farewell to a Knight of the French Circus

Alexis Gruss and wife Gipsy in one of his final visits to the ring

The death of French showman Alexis Gruss on 6 April highlights the difference in how circus is viewed on the other side of the Channel.

No English showman has ever been knighted. The Victorian impresarios Sir Robert Fossett and Lord George Sanger adopted those titles themselves.

France, by contrast, made Gruss a Knight in the Order of Arts and Letters and a Knight of the Legion of Honour.

When he died, his contribution to the arts was praised by French minister of culture Rachida Dati.

I don't recall any member of the British government marking the recent passing of English showmen Phillip Gandey and Gerry Cottle, despite their huge contribution to entertainment worldwide.

British circuses, meanwhile, have all but completely removed animals, including horses, from their rings - Giffords Circus being a rare exception in preserving the equine spirit of Philip Astley's first circus, 250 years ago.

Gruss, by contrast, built his fame on horseback.

In 1974, he founded Cirque à l’ancienne – ‘the Old Fashioned Circus’ – to mark the bicentenary of Astley’s first circus in Paris.

Eschewing the wild animal acts that had come to dominate circuses elsewhere, he returned the circus to its roots, with a focus on horsemanship, clowning and acrobatics.

The latest edition of his family's show, les Folies Gruss, is titled 50 Years in Paris, and is as dominated by horse acts as it ever was, with no less than 50 horses passing through the ring.

Among the artists are Gruss's grandsons, Charles and Alexandre, who won a Gold Clown at this year's Monte Carlo Circus Festival with their juggling on horseback.

Astley, who was buried in Paris, would be proud.

Horses and sawdust at les Folies Gruss in 2024

 

Big Kid Circus presents Europe's only all-female Globe of Death

"For the first time ever, in any circus in the UK..." Those are the words you want to hear, bellowed through the air in a big top. 

The new, the original, the unique. Those are the commodities that the circus has always thrived on. That is what will get you rolling up to a big top to see: something you can't see anywhere else.

In this case, ringmaster Kevin Kevin (yep, he was so good they named him twice) was introducing this year's new season attraction to Big Kid Circus: Europe's only all-female Globe of Death riders.

The globe of death is itself nothing new. In some recent reviews, I complained of seeing too many of them, with one closing almost every circus.

But there are ways to refresh the act, with bikes leaping over the globe at Circus Extreme, Circus Zyair and Planet Circus (read my review here).

The all-female trio at Big Kid provides another welcome twist, and one likely to generate something that circuses depend on: news coverage.

My preview of the Daring Dames Festival - Europe's only all-female circus festival looked at how some circus disciplines such as clowning and strongman have traditionally been almost exclusively male preserves - and how a new generation of women is now venturing into those areas.

The Globe of Death is definitely one such male dominated arena, making Big Kid's women motorcyclists remarkable.

The troupe comprises Julia from the UK, Vanessa from Brazil and Ronica from Iraq.

You can see their death-defying display on Big Kid Circus' next stop in Brent Cross.

 

RIP Fred Van Buren and Greta

Fred Van Buren and his wife and assistant Connie Greta (pictured above) put the magic in the circus - literally.

Performing in the circus rings of Gandey's, Fossett's and Chipperfields', Van Buren developed a style of illusion that could be viewed from any angle in-the-round. There was no back to his props that the audience couldn't see.

His most famous stunt was the Vanishing Motorcycle and Rider, while completely surrounded.

Van Buren's fame led to TV appearances including the David Nixon Show and Seaside Special. He was personally chosen by Walt Disney to create magic effects for Snow White on Ice at Wembley, and was an adviser on The Muppet Show.

Since Fred and Connie's retirement from the stage in 1997, the family tradition of spectacular illusions has been continued by their son, Andrew Van Buren.

Fred Van Buren was 91 when he passed away on 6 March this year, Connie having predeceased him in 2020. 

 

Philip Astley Centre opens in Newcastle-under-Lyme to celebrate the Father of the Circus.

More than 250 years ago, Philip Astley invented the circus as we know it today. Two and a half centuries later, on 9 March, a Philip Astley Centre opened in his hometown of Newcastle-under-Lyme to celebrate his legacy as the original greatest showman.

Giving new life to a formerly derelict shop, the Staffordshire visitor centre will host exhibitions, talks and circus workshops.

Astley was born in the town in 1742 and fought in the Seven Years War before using his equestrian skill to establish the first circus ring, in London in 1768.

The 42-ft diameter circle in which he performed tricks on horseback became the standard size of a circus ring throughout the world to this day. He also added acrobats, strongmen, clowns and novelty acts to his equestrian displays to create the variety show nature of a traditional circus show.

The Philip Astley Centre is the brainchild of magician Andrew Van Buren, who described it as "a necessary and long awaited addition to the town infrastructure, providing a chance for visitors to learn about and experience the Astley legacy through access to exhibitions, archives, and related physical skills."

For more information, visit www.philipastley.org.uk

 

Cirque du Soleil breaks world records in London

Setting world records has long been a way for circuses to gain publicity, whether it was the Chinese State Circus balancing the most performers on a bike or the Circus of Horrors suspending the most people over the Thames in a 'human mobile'.

Cirque du Soleil took time out from its current run at the Royal Albert Hall to clock up two new entries into Guinness World of Records.

The UK's Lucie Colebeck, above left, set a new record for 36 back handsprings on a trampoline in 30 seconds.

In the show, she normally does five in a row. Doing so many continuously "felt like flying," she said.

Mongolia's Oyun-Erdene Senge beat her previous record of 21 with 24 contortion roll push-ups in 30 seconds.

What's a contortion roll push-up? First you get yourself into the position in the picture, above right, then you do push-ups!

Easy, right? Well, it is for Senge who said, "I've been doing these push-ups since I was six-years-old. It's part of my daily life."

Cirque du Soleil's show Algeria is at the Royal Albert Hall until 3 March.