Is the Globe of Death the circus' deadliest stunt?

Following a fatality in the Globe of Death in Italy last month, we look at the 120-year history of motorbikes in the steel sphere.

The Globe of Death has become a ubiquitous part of the UK circus scene in recent years. So much so that I have to admit that I was beginning to find its predictable presence in nearly every big top... a tad boring.

But while the majority of performances pass without incident, this past year has surely proved that the spectacle of motorcyclists revolving in a steel cage is actually one of the most dangerous stunts in the circus.

Performers were injured in four collisions in British circus rings this summer, at Circus Extreme, Zippos, Circus Funtasia, and the Blackpool Tower Circus.

Then in November came the worst news of all: 26-year-old Christian Quezada Vasques was killed in a three-bike pile-up inside the globe during a performance at the Imperial Royal Circus in Italy.

It was the latest of at least three deaths in the globe, including that of 20-year-old Cristian Camilo Hernández Sáenz in Columbia in 2016.

In Britain in the 1950s, Arno Wickbold performed in a bottomless globe that was winched high into the air while he rode inside it. Having begun his act dressed as a clown, he took off his costume as he rode. Tragically, the garment caught in his wheel and stalled his motorcycle, sending him crashing through the open bottom of the cage to his death during a live radio broadcast.

Other incidents include a bike crashing and bursting into flames during a show in China in 2023. With another bike continuing to circle the cage, to avoid falling into the inferno, the circus ring took on the fiery hue of a scene from Rollerball.

What I hadn't realised is that the Globe of Death is not a new act. Nor was it derived from the Wall of Death, as the Globe seems to have come a decade earlier.

Inside the Circus Extreme Globe of Death

At the top of this post is a patent for a globe, designed by stunt rider Arthur Rosenthal, that looks very similar to the ones used today. It's dated 1904. And it describes "certain new and useful improvements". So they existed even before that.

It's described as a Bicyclist's Globe, because they rode pedal bikes in the early days, although motorbikes were swiftly adopted. 

The first performer was probably bicyclist Thomas Eck in 1903.

Rosenthal and his partner Frank Lemon - performing as Rose and Lemon - used both bicycles and motorbikes.

The first woman rider was Agnes Theodore who performed as CeDora around 1905 if not earlier. Originally riding a bicycle in frilly shorts, she had changed to a motorcyle - a 1903 Motosacoche - by 1906 and later adopted a single-cylinder Indian motorbike as her signature machine.

Posters described her as "The most daring girl on Earth," and as "Flirting with death at a mile a minute."

Agnes rode in the globe until her retirement in 1929 when she passed the name CeDora to 16-year old Eleanore Seufert who carried on the act through the 1930s.

Early globes went by different names. Italian daredevil Guido Consi called it the Sphere of Fear in 1913. Brazil's Cedero called it his Golden Globe, when he performed in New York in 1915. Australia's Mendoza family called it the Globe of Fate.

Originally a carnival attraction rather than a circus act, the Globe of Death reached a peak of popularity at stunt shows in the 1960s and 70s.

The Infernal Varanne team set a world record for the most people inside a globe - six riders and a person standing in the middle - in 2011.

Over the years various efforts have been made to make the globe even more exciting, such as hydraulic lifts that raise the globe and split it into two sections while the riders are revolving inside.

Shows with a big enough big top, such as Circus Extreme, have had stunt riders jumping over the globe.

In 2015, the world's largest globe was was built in Vilnius, Lithuania. It stood 39-feet-tall... and a CAR repeatedly looped the loop inside it! Take a look at this:

But what does the future hold for the Globe of Death? Will the death of Christian Quezada Vasques and the other accidents this past year affect the popularity of the stunt?

Malin Yovov who broke three ribs at Circus Funtasia in the summer summed up the spirit of the globe riders when he said of his crash, “This is all part and parcel of live entertainment. People pay money to see the best shows in the UK with the most extreme stunts. I’m well aware of the dangers of this performance and I thrive off it. When I hear the audience go wild, I just can’t wait for the next show to do it all again.”

Zippos Christmas Circus, Winter Wonderland 2025 Review

 

It wouldn't be Christmas without Zippos in Hyde Park. And once again, showman Martin Burton has served up a cracker.

Don't be fooled by the 45 minute runtime (performed three times a day). Zippos annual Christmas show is no mere sideshow to the wider Winter Wonderland funfair that it is part of. It is in fact one of the best circus shows you will see all year.

If anything, the short interval-free format works in its favour. You get everything you would see in a two hour show condensed into a fast-flowing parade of world class circus acts without a moment of padding.

This year's show is especially focused on the acts, without any dance routines or costumed snowman or polar bear characters to interrupt the acrobatics, clowning and illusions.

Introduced by a traditionally dressed ringmaster, the show begins with a brief opening parade, in which all the artists appear, brandishing presents. During this, a male and female performer shin up a rope into the lofty heights of the big top.

Then we're straight into a daring high altitude cradle act. There are gasps and cheers from  the crowd as the male catcher throws his female partner into a series of rapid somersaults, spinning her over and over.

The act's finale draws gasps as she appears to fall... only to continue to swing from her partner's hands on a pair of long ropes that then lower her to the stage.

Without pause for breath, an skilled diabolist takes to the spotlight, deftly flipping a stick about between two others. The only downside is that he performs in the entrance aisle, which presumably restricts his visibility from other parts of the large tent.

Then the big guns come out in the form of a Super Swing troupe. The Super Swing is more traditionally known as a Russian Swing, but I guess no one wants to be associated with the Russians at the moment!

Whatever you wish to call it, the place to watch this act from is the entrance aisle seats of the front couple of rows. The big swing swings right out into the aisle, bringing the nearest punters as close as they will ever get to such a big dynamic act. Viewed up close, this really is circus at its most physically impressive.

The audience duly cheers as performers fly off the swing into a big sheet positioned in front of the ring doors.

Curiously, though, the high point of the act isn't the somersaulting flyers. It's when the last man on the swing swings it upside down over the bar, turning a full 360 degrees several times. Simple as it may sound on paper, this is circus guaranteed to put a big grin on the face of the most jaded circus goer.

Speaking of grins, one of the show's three big highlights is provided by clown duo Los Revelinos - one of them sporting a topical Trump wig.

Clowns can be a hit and miss affair. We've probably all sat through interminable clown interludes that just weren't funny, and sighed while we waited for the daredevilry to recommence.

But these two larger-than-life characters really are funny. The first part of their routine is a musical number that proves they can play their instruments as well as clown around.

The highlight comes when 'Trump' throws a bomb into his partner's tuba. With a bang and a puff of smoke, the end of the tuba is blown into the air and lands on Trump's head like a hat.

The second part of their act is a slapstick boxing match in which the slaps really resound. Even the ringmaster gets a clout. He says afterwards that that one wasn't in the rehearsal. He may say that at every performance, but he looks shaken enough for us to believe that the anarchic funnymen really did take him by surprise.

The third of my favourite acts is a magic segment featuring the boldly costumed Joseph Popey and two assistants, one male and one female.

Performed wordlessly, with no patter to slow things down, it's a fast moving routine with a couple of impressive disappearing/appearing illusions, including vanishing from a cage suspended high in the air.

He also does a very funny mangle gag in which he is squashed into a paper cut-out.

Interestingly, one of Popey's assistants is Neli from the Duo Stefaneli. Her partner Stefan has a couple of run-ons as a nerd clown throughout the show. But he and Neli seem underused carrying props on and off for other acts when they have a top class aerial act and quick change act of their own, either of which would have been nice to see included here. Maybe they fancied light duties over Christmas.

Elsewhere in the show, a Mexican man does an impressive fabrics display that includes a hang from the back of his neck at high altitude. Another man gives us both contortionism and hand balancing. And a female silk act closes the show with an elegant and dramatic routine that left the audience audibly wowed.

At that point it was time for everyone to return to the ring to wave the audience off with an inevitable blast of Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas.

All I want for next Christmas is another Zippos show as good as this one.

Zippos Christmas Circus is at Winter Wonderland until 1 January.

 

"I try at Christmas time to carry on as though nothing unpleasant were happening." - Quentin Crisp

 

The Perfect Christmas Present

 

For anyone who ever dreamed of running away with the circus!

Hair-hanging with style at Cirquoise

 

The animal rights protest that made me love the circus

 

This is the picture and newspaper headline that started my journey into the circus. I'd been to the circus before, mainly to review shows at the Great Yarmouth Hippodrome. The Hippodrome was a living piece of history: Britain's oldest purpose-built circus building, replete with the bizarre Edwardian attraction of a ring that transformed into a swimming pool for synchronised swimming. Houdini and Charlie Chaplin had performed there, and even the variety star parents of former Prime Minister John Major. It was there that I met aerialist Eva Garcia... just days before she fell and died during her act. That tragedy brought home to me the dangers of circus performance.

But my trips to the Hippodrome, to review its all-human spectaculars for The Stage were twice-yearly occasions - a small part of my work; a minor side-interest of mine.

Then, in 2009, Martin Lacey reintroduced elephants to his Great British Circus, after a 10 year absence. It sparked animal rights protests intended to keep audiences away. But the protests caught the attention of the media, sparking TV news reports, and the above headline... and the moment I saw that photo of an elephant being rehearsed, I knew it was a glimpse into circus history that the even Hippodrome couldn't give me.

There, in a big top, with sawdust underfoot, was the REAL circus - a flavour of entertainment that I thought had long disappeared.

Soon I was sitting at that ringside, muddy grass beneath my feet, watching elephants, horses, camels and snarling tigers. I interviewed Lacey, and veteran showman Gerry Cottle. Within a week, I went to my second traditional big top show with animals: Circus Mondao, run by the descendants of perhaps the oldest families still in the circus business.

Within a fortnight I'd pitched the idea for my book, Circus Mania, and almost immediately been commissioned to write it. The stars aligned and I was off on a wild journey into a wild world. All because of a protest designed to keep audiences away.

Read Circus Mania, my thrilling ringside and backstage journey through the world of sawdust and spangles, talking to acrobats, showmen, clowns, sword-swallowers and tiger trainers about their lives, culture and superstitions.

Now in its second, updated, edition, it's the ultimate Christmas present for anyone who ever dreamed of running away with the circus. And if you never dreamed of doing that... you will after reading Circus Mania!