It has been said that circuses thrive in a recession. They offer a comparatively inexpensive night out and, since they come to your town, they bring little of the travel and parking problems/expenses associated with many other forms of entertainment. When times are hard, though, they have to provide value for money and plenty of bang for your buck.
Circus Extreme, from the producers of the Circus of Horrors and Continental Circus Berlin, does both in spades. Although ringside seats are advertised at £32, concessions mean you can get into Britain's biggest big top for as little as £9 - and for that you will will see what I reckon must be Britain's most spectacular circus in terms of the number of thrilling acts.
The finale is actually the most stunning act I have seen in a big top. The Globe of Death, in which motorcyclists race around inside a spherical cage, is in itself a far from unique act and in fact has become somewhat passe - you can see one in many big tops this year. Even the fact that the Circus Extreme globe splits into two hemispheres, with bikes circling both the top and bottom halves is not a unique innovation. Zippos and Santus have globes that do the same trick this year.
What makes Circus Extreme stand out is the way the stunt riders jump Evel Kneivel-style over the globe at the routine's climax. The bikes come roaring in through the front of the tent, hit a ramp and leap into the very top of the roof space, crossing the whole ring and the towering globe at its centre, before landing on an inflatable ramp and careering out through the back doors.
As the bikes fly through the air, the riders leave their mounts - bodies and legs flying high above their machines - hanging on to just the handlebars or saddles. The last two riders, following each other in quick succession, perform death-defying somersaults above the globe, before landing safely.
Prior to this act, the most high-flying daredevilry that I have seen in a circus is performers taking flight from a Russian swing - an act that can make the flying trapeze look tame. The stunt riders go every bit as high, if not higher, than a Russian swing troupe, however, and the fact that they are on motorbikes (and in an indoor venue) adds its own high-octane thrill.
The motorcycle leaps at Circus Extreme are worth the ticket price alone, but there are plenty of other dramatic stunts to witness.
Given its thrilling finale, the show I saw actually got off to a dull start with a singer (never an act that looks especially at home in a circus) performing a ballad that might be titled Better Days Are Coming. It appears to be about moving on from the Covid years, and as a group of performers file in behind the singer, dressed as policemen and NHS workers, holding signs that proclaim 'Hope' and 'Freedom', the message seems a bit heavy handed. Do we even want to be reminded, during what is supposed to be a night of escapism?
Despite the ballad's apparently upbeat message, I found the music rather gloomy - although I've since been told that the singer had lost her voice on that occasion and had to sing in a lower register than normal. I'm assured the song is usually performed in a joyous way.
The show quickly moves on, however, into a succession of skilled acts, beginning with a male and female rollerskating duo.
Soon after, the male and female Ariel Duo Polischuk literally get the bit between their teeth. She hangs upside down with her jaws clamped around a short chain from which her revolving partner is also hanging from his teeth.
This is the sort of spectacle that circus should be about: things that you can't quite believe you're seeing. And while all circus skills are impressively beyond the capability of those of us watching at ringside, shows also need to find new and unique spectacles that we can't see at every circus that comes to town.
Sometimes the newness can be in the way an act is dressed. The trench-coat-clad Tony Garcia, for example, gets a gasp from the audience when he fires up an impressively large flame-thrower. He then performs an inverted juggling routine, bouncing countless balls on the roof of a car that he has set fire to. The skill is in the juggling, but it's the car and the flames licking around his boots that make the act into something special.
Another act improved immeasurably by the way it is staged involves Laura Miller on an aerial hoop who is periodically lowered into a glass tank of water, where she turns underwater somersaults like a mermaid. The climax to her routine sees her drop with heart-stopping speed into what has become a vat of fire.
Henry the Clown performs a number of silent routines throughout the programme, including a comedy waiter skit, but it's as part of a high-wire troupe, fresh from the Monte Carlo Circus Festival, that he really shines: riding a unicycle on the wire, 12 metres up, with another performer standing on his shoulders, juggling.
Henry has set a world record for skipping on the wire, with 211 skips in 60 seconds, but since that's three skips a second, the rope was moving too fast for me to count how many he managed on this occasion! Being a clown, Henry also did a cartoonish pretend fall - revolving under the wire and ending up back on top again! Sometimes the simple tricks have the most impact. A bit like the motorcycle leaps of the finale, really. Bikes leaping across the ring is a simple concept - but you won't see anything like it in most other circus tents - and it's those one-off experiences that have brought the punters to the circus for 250 years.
Although the Circus Extreme big top can hold a reported 3000 people, the circus is selling only 1000 seats, so Covid-nervous patrons won't have to fear being crammed together. Director John Haze reports strong ticket sales in each of the cities where Circus Extreme is playing for up to three weeks at a time - the longer than usual stays allowing the show to benefit from word-of-mouth sales. And deservedly so, because it's unlikely that any other British show is fielding such a strong bill this year.
For Circus Extreme tour dates, click here.
For a behind-the-scenes journey through the contemporary circus scene, with reviews of circuses of all types, both traditional and modern, plus interviews with big top owners and performers from clowns and sword-swallowers to trapeze artists and tiger trainers, read Circus Mania - The Ultimate Book for Anyone Who Dreamed of Running Away with the Circus!
