Showing posts with label Circus Mondao. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Circus Mondao. Show all posts
Tuesday, 8 February 2022
Friday, 1 May 2015
Edinburgh Fringe Gets Circus Hub But I’d Rather See Some Lions
 |
| Zippos star Norman Barrett OBE and his budgies |
Circus is in fashion. A certain type of circus, anyway. Two years ago, Britain’s leading circus school attained ‘national’ status when it became the National Centre for Circus Arts. This year, the Edinburgh Fringe will get a £600,000 dedicated Circus Hub that will bring twelve contemporary circus shows to the Scottish city from as far afield as Canada, Australia and the Czech Republic.
According to Ed Bartlam of promoters Underbelly, “We want to create a real focal hub for the very broad genre that is circus and in that present a really high-quality programme of different styles.”
So it was sad to see Bartlam’s co-director Charlie Wood sweepingly dismissing the biggest part of circus’ ‘broad genre,’ and a part that represents nearly 250 years of circus history, in an interview with The Guardian.
“Circus is not necessarily cliched, hack, silly stuff in a big tent,” said Wood. “We’ve tried to get away from the old understanding of what circus is – nasty big tops and animals and hack clowns and so on. Circus can mean something, it can have a narrative, it can be theatrical and it can have fantastic skills in it.”
During the research for my book Circus Mania, I experienced what is indeed the ‘broad genre’ of circus, from the big budget spectacle of Cirque du Soleil to the blood-splattered Circus of Horrors and small scale companies such as Australia's Circa which is more typical of the type of circus found of the festival circuit (you can see Circa at the Norfolk and Norwich Festival later this month).
There’s no doubt that modern circus can be good. Of the acts appearing at the Circus Hub, Canada’s Cirque Alfonse wowed London in 2013 with the hugely accessible and enjoyable lumberjack circus, Timber! (Click here to read about it)
But, sad to say, much ‘narrative’ and ‘theatrical’ contemporary circus has left me yawning. In trying to “mean something,’ it has frequently lost circus’ most vital element, it’s sense of fun.
 |
| The magic of the big top |
At the still very much extant Circus Mondao, which is run by a family that has been in the circus 200 years, I was transported to a magical plane by the sight of plumed spotted horses cantering through the atmospherically lit sawdust; and reduced to helpless laughter by a soaking wet clown sliding the full diameter of the ring on his belly in a tsunami of spilt water.
Animals and genuinely funny traditional clowns are things contemporary circus would rather forget, but in turning its back on them, in the way Wood does so crassly, it loses its soul and, I would dare to say, a lot of its pulling power. For it’s the traditional circuses that have always existed on box office takings alone while most new circus relies on sponsorship and public funding.
 |
| Tsavo, a Chipperfield lion |
The big cats were a roaring success, but predictably attracted roars of disapproval from animal rights protesters. With a long-promised ban on wild animals in the circus looming over our big tops, it seems even traditional circuses would rather go quietly into the night than rage against the dying of the circus lights.
This year, no UK circus has big cats or elephants and the biggest part of circus’ appeal, for me, seems to have left the big top with them.
Zippos, arguably Britain's most popular circus, continues to use its ring for the purpose for which it was designed - the display of horses - and long may they continue to do so. They also have ringmaster Norman Barrett OBE's performing budgies. It was a shame to see the Guardian's article on the Circus Hub take a swipe at them, too: "Circus in 2015 is far removed from memories of doleful clowns squirting water from a flower, sequinned trapeze acts, and Norman Barrett and his performing budgerigars. It’s more physical, edgy and sexy," writes Mark Brown.
I'd rather see some lions. But given the choice between Barrett's budgies and one of the 'circus' shows on the Hub's programme, which is thrillingly billed as "A poetic search for inner peace and the liberation of prejudice," I'll take the the budgies.
Click here to read the 5-star reviews on Amazon.
Friday, 18 July 2014
Peter Jolly's Circus on film
 |
| PR man Anthony Beckwith of Peter Jolly's Circus in the Chester Chronicle |
The story of Britain's circuses fighting each other for space in our small island continues. Last week it was Zippos, Continental Circus Berlin and Circus Vegas all pitching up in the Aberdeen area. Click here for more.
In an overcrowded market, having a unique selling point such as, say, wild animals, should give a circus an edge over any rivals in the vicinity.
But this week finds Britain's only two circuses with exotic animals - Peter Jolly's Circus and Circus Mondao - competing for custom around Chester. Don't these companies, which are both part of the Classical Circus Association, ever talk to each other about their route?
Still, the Chester Chronicle went along to Jolly's and made a nice film of the animals relaxing in the sunshine, and a good interview with big cat trainer Thomas Chipperfield. Click here to watch it.
For more film of Chipperfield in the ring, in rehearsal and in conversation, click here to read my interview with him in the Daily Telegraph and watch a short film by my colleague Jane Hilton.
Click here to read my review of Peter Jolly's Circus.
Wednesday, 4 June 2014
Royal reprieve for circus animals
 |
| The Queen's Speech Fans of wild animals in circuses breathed a sigh of relief as the much-trailed Wild Animals in Circuses Bill failed to materialise |
In 2012, Animal Welfare Minister Lord Taylor announced that the government intended to ban wild animals from British big tops by December 2015. Animals rights groups criticised ministers for delaying the legislation to bring in the ban.
Last week, it was announced in The Times and, indeed, on government websites, that the Wild Animals in Circuses Bill would be announced in today's Queen's Speech to Parliament. The speech sets out the legislative agenda for the coming session.
When Her Majesty made her speech at the opening of Parliament, however, the Bill wasn't among the 11 pieces of legislation announced. Clearly the coalition felt putting a 5p tax on our supermarket bags and frakking beneath our houses was a higher priority than a law banning less than 30 animals in just two circuses - Peter Jolly's and Circus Mondao.
That means the ban now won't come before Parliament before next year's general election - and if the government changes in that time, who knows what its future may be?
Update: June 6.
An interesting article in the New Statesman suggested David Cameron personally nixed the ban. The paper speculated it was because he shares his Cotswold constituency with Britain's leading supplier of trained animals to the film and TV industry Amazing Animals. Could it be the Prime Minister is a circus fan?
Or could his last minute intervention have been influenced by my timely interview with Britain's last lion trainer, Thomas Chipperfield in last Saturday's top Tory read, The Daily Telegraph? Click here to read it.
Click here to read half a dozen 5-star reviews on Amazon.
Did you know the first calls to ban animals in the circus were made exactly 100-years ago in 1914? The Phenomenon of celebrities endorsing animal rights campaigns is nothing new wither. The writer George Bernard Shaw and actress Sybil Thorndike were just two who gave their support to the issue early last century, while pulp novelist Jack London gave his name to a direct action protest group, the Jack London Club. To read the complete 100-year history of opposition to animals in the circus, click here.
Monday, 26 May 2014
Circus war in Norfolk
Are the more than 50 circuses in the UK this year (click here for the full list) too many for our small island?
Earlier this month, Circus Wonderland was forced to cancel its engagement in King's Lynn when director Paul Carpenter discovered Uncle Sam's Great American Circus was appearing in the Norfolk market town the week before. It would have been "financial suicide" to have two circuses appearing in consecutive weeks, said Carpenter.
Uncle Sam's Circus was itself the third circus to visit King's Lynn this year, following Circus Mondao and Russell's International Circus.
Is the whole country suffering from such an abundance of circuses? And is there a big enough audience to sustain them all, or will the public be, as Paul Carpenter described King's Lynn "circused out"?
Sunday, 25 May 2014
Ban on wild animals in the circus draws closer as Queen announces new Government bill
 |
| Under threat One of just three tigers left in the British circus See him at Peter Jolly's Circus |
The proposed ban on wild animals in British circuses has moved another step closer with the Government announcing its Wild Animals in Circuses Bill will be included amongst other forthcoming legislation in the Queen's Speech to Parliament on Wednesday June 4.
The ban was proposed by Animal Welfare Minister Lord Taylor in 2012 and scheduled to come into force in December next year.
It will still have to be voted through Parliament and the House of Lords, of course, which means a degree of uncertainty remains. If you want to save a British tradition that has existed since the birth of the circus in 1768, you could ask your MP to vote against the ban.
 |
| Britain's last lion trainer Thomas Chipperfield - Big story on him coming soon |
Click here for a review of Peter Jolly's Circus.
Click here to buy Circus Mania from Amazon.
Friday, 25 April 2014
Circus Mondao - inside the real big top with Britain's oldest circus family
 |
| Circus Mondao in the Weekly News |
Going through the archives, I found the above full-page article that I wrote for the Weekly News shortly before Circus Mania came out. The BBC's new circus comedy series Big Top, starring Ruth Madoc and Amanda Holden, had just debuted on television, so it seemed a good time to take a look inside the real big top of Circus Mondao. Run by sisters Carol MacManus and Gracie Timmis, who's family have been in the circus since the early 1800s, the traditional show was spending Christmas at the Elvenden Estate on the edge of Norfolk's Thetford Forest.
I was pleased with the photo selection, including the shot of Carol, ringmistress Petra Jackson and Gracie's daughters riding horses in a My Fair Lady routine. Sitting at ring side as the spotted horses came into the spotlights was one of the magical memories of the night I saw them there. It's also good to see the picture of the circus' camels being exercised on Whitby beach - proof that a circus animal's life isn't purely one of confinement. On the day I visited Circus Mondao in Elvenden, Petra had just returned from taking the camels for a long run through the Forest. Not a walk - "proper camel running," she proudly reported.
Another striking memory from Elvenden was of young clown Bippo sliding almost the whole width of the ring on his belly during a gloriously wet and messy slosh routine. He must have froze in the weeks to come, because soon after my visit the snow fell, heavily, and stayed throughout the Christmas period. It must have been tough on the performers, because the tent was none too warm when I was there. But as Carol said, when I asked her about working over the holiday season, their only day off Christmas Day itself, "This is our life. If we weren't working, what else would we do?"
Little did I know that during that chilly yuletide, love was blossoming beneath the snow-capped canopy of the light-bedecked big top. Bippo had met German Wheel star Lucy Ladbrooke in a previous engagement at the Yarmouth Hippodrome. They'd kept up a romance by phone as work took Lucy to a holiday resort in Turkey. Back from Europe, she got a job at Elvendon, dressed as an elf and selling Christmas trees so the couple could be together.
The following season, she joined Circus Mondao and, later that year I was able to write a follow-up piece in the Weekly News about Bippo's proposal in the circus ring.
 |
| From circus ring to wedding ring Bippo pops the question |
Click here to buy Circus Mania from Amazon.
Wednesday, 8 January 2014
Circus Mania "captivating and strangely beguiling" says Eastern Daily Press
 |
| Circus Mania author Douglas McPherson interviewed in the Eastern Daily Press |
Roll up, roll up, for a glimpse behind the greasepaint.
In this double-page feature from the Eastern Daily Press, Steve Snelling interviews Douglas McPherson about Circus Mania.
 |
| Roll up, roll up, for a glimpse behind the greasepaint - Circus Mania featured in the Eastern Daily Press |
There was something extraordinary about Eva Garcia that would live in the memory. Exotic and quixotic in the way of so many great circus performers, she seemed the very personification of beauty and bravery as she held the audience at Yarmouth’s Hippodrome spellbound with her grace and gravity-defying aerial ballet.
 |
| Eva Garcia - her life and death in the sawdust circle was the inspiration for Circus Mania |
Among those lost in her thrall that day was journalist and writer Douglas McPherson who could scarcely remember his last trip to the circus let alone recall revelling in so many visceral close encounters with performers whose gymnastic displays teetered magnificently “half a heartbeat from disaster” as they somehow contrived to make the “impossible possible.”
To a man more used to reviewing pantomimes, plays and seaside variety shows, the experience was quite literally breathtaking and awe-inspiring.
“I was amazed,” he says. “We’re so used to seeing all this computer trickery in films, but there’s none of that in the circus. It’s right there, for real, and these guys are doing things that just look impossible, and they’re doing it twice a day, making it look easy.”
Still marvelling at Eva’s act, he sought her out afterwards for an interview.
“Because this was my first real interest in the circus, I wanted to find out what made these performers want to do this,” he remembers. She spoke to him candidly about the harsh realities of circus life, the hazards, the injuries and the loneliness, but he also saw in her a rare passion for something that was not so much an entertainment as a way of life.
“The circus was in her blood,” he says. “She was part of a 100-year-old circus family and had travelled all around the world. I was fascinated by the whole lifestyle.”
At 38, the former wire-walker thought she had 10 years of performing ahead of her and, having talked about the changing face of the circus with its far greater emphasis on presentation, she closed with the comment: “You still have to have good tricks, but you don’t have to kill yourself.”
 |
| Eva Garcia in the costume she wore for her final performance |
“It was a real shock,” he says, “but it brought home to me in the most powerful way imaginable just how much of a matter of life and death the circus can be. It can happen at any moment. It’s a bit like being a pilot. It all looks safe, all those planes floating around in the sky, but one mistake and you have a terrible disaster on your hands. It’s about being on that knife-edge. And the fascinating thing is these people are addicted to it. They love it.”
Something of that fascination infected him, too. From that moment at the Hippodrome, the writer was hooked on the circus. All preconceptions about an entertainment that had long slipped from his radar were swept away by that intoxicating mix of seemingly reckless skill and grand spectacle.
At every opportunity he found himself seeking fresh circus experiences crammed with a dazzling array of weird and wonderful acts. Though he didn’t know it then, he was embarking on a circus odyssey of his own. It was a heady journey into largely uncharted territory in search of the magical spirit of the circus which has culminated in a real page-turner of a book that shines a bright light on a hidden world inhabited by an extraordinary cast of colourful characters.
In McPherson’s captivating Circus Mania, which he has dedicated to Eva Garcia, the Spanish performer who helped fire his imagination, we are treated to the literary equivalent of a fly-on-the-wall documentary as we go behind the scenes and beneath the surface of circus life to encounter the likes of the Valez Brothers, and their death-flirting routine on two man-size hamster wheels, sword-swallowing Hannibal Helmurto, the Pain Proof Man who proves that he knows rather more about pain than he likes to let on, and a teenage clown called Bippo who is never more serious than when it comes to making people laugh.
 |
| Bippo - the boy who ran away with the circus. His story is just one of many in Circus Mania |
In fact, Bippo, who’s real name is Gareth Ellis, is one of those who is actually living out the ultimate in childhood dreams. For he actually ran away with the circus. What’s more, his parents ran away with him. His dad became a general handyman, his mum took over as the boss’ personal assistant and he started off selling merchandise before progressing to clowning and juggling.
Though he confesses to never having had such an urge himself as a child, McPherson reckons that after years of hanging around circuses and circus people he can see the attraction. “There’s something very different about that world,” he says. “There’s a sense of community and a realisation that it’s a lifestyle, not a job. In other aspects of show business, people still go home and have normal lives in normal houses like anyone else, but when you sign up for the circus you walk away from real life completely.
“You’re living in caravans, travelling all over the place and you have a completely different set of rules. And I think that appeals to a lot of people.”
That said, many performers, like Eva Garcia, are born into the circus. They know nothing else and, no matter what the risks or hardships, they can never imagine doing anything else.
“Various families have been involved for anything up to 200 years,” says McPherson. “It’s been passed down through the generations. Young kids work their way into it and they seldom leave, they seldom turn their backs on it, and most of them certainly aren’t in it for the money.
 |
| The Great Yarmouth Hippodrome - Britain's oldest circus building where Circus Mania author Douglas McPherson's journey into the world of the circus began |
During his exploration of the circus in all it’s myriad forms, McPherson has experienced a range of styles both on the grand and the small scale, from the glitzy glamour of the lavish multi-million pound Cirque du Soleil to the raw sawdust magic of the Circus Mondao big top, and from the avant garde artiness of the Spiegeltent in Norwich’s Chapelfield Gardens to the rock’n’roll razzmatazz of Peter Jay’s enduring and endearing family-run, animal-free, water-splashed extravaganzas at Yarmouth’s Hippodrome.
 |
| Circus Mania author Douglas McPherson with Gerry Cottle (left) and Dr Haze from the Circus of Horrors |
All of them find a place and a voice in McPherson’s strangely beguiling examination of a form of entertainment like no other.
And though he never shies away from the continuing concerns over the alleged abuses of animals in circuses, something he saw no evidence of throughout his journalistic survey, his main interest is in the human performers and their ever more daring quest for thrill-seeking stunts.
“These people push themselves to the limit doing really unusual and phenomenal things that you simply don’t see in any other sphere of show business,” he says. “You have all the atmosphere, that other worldliness, and then there’s that pure spectacle. There’s not a show I’ve been to when one of the performers hasn’t done at least one thing I’ve never seen before, something that makes you think, ‘that’s absolutely amazing. How did they do that? Why did they do that to themselves?’”
 |
| Circus of Horrors sword-swallower Hannibal Helmurto - one of the amazing characters who's story is told in Circus Mania |
For now, though, he reckons diversity is what circus is all about, with different strands of circus offering different things to different audiences while sharing a common heritage.
My feeling in reading his book, however, is that for all his admiration at the polished theatricality and potentially lucrative appeal of the shows staged by the likes of Cirque du Soleil and Cirque de Glace, McPherson is more at home in a traditional big top.
He certainly doesn’t disabuse me.
 |
| "When you go to the big top, it's the real thing. It's like stepping into the past" - Circus Mania author Douglas McPherson |
“It’s not television. It’s not film. It’s not theatre. You’re sitting around the ring, maybe on muddy ground, on a plastic patio chair, and all these thrills and stunts are right there in your face. There’s a definite romance to that, an appeal that goes well beyond the safe experience of sitting in a theatre and seeing things performed on a stage. And I think because of the appeal of that, those shows will always survive.”
Furthermore, he hopes that by giving people a glimpse inside what he describes as a “totally unique world,” he can assist in ensuring the appeal of circus in all its guises lives on.
 |
| Funny men - Clive Webb and Danny Adams |
Before closing our interview, I can’t resist asking him what his favourite act was of the many he has gasped or simply gawped at over the past eight years. It proves a tough call and after a slight pause he plumps for a couple of clowns he saw perform at the Yarmouth Hippodrome and who sometimes perform their own show, Circus Hilarious.
“Clive Webb, who was once the phantom flan-flinger in Tiswas, and Danny Adams are such funny people, funnier than anything you’ll see on TV.” he says. “Some people have a good script, but these guys have funniness inside them. The warmth comes out and you can tell they’re really enjoying themselves.
“They’ve got that passion for it which really characterises so many circus people.”
Click here to buy Circus Mania from Amazon.
Thursday, 26 September 2013
Children of the Circus
"Normally when they're fourteen or fifteen they'll get their own caravan and live outside. My eldest doesn't want me to kick her out. I keep saying, 'I'll buy you a nice caravan.' 'No, no, I'm fine where I am.'"
- Gracie, Circus Mondao
"A brilliant account of a vanishing art form." - The Mail on Sunday.
Buy direct from Peter Owen Publishers for just £10 including postage.
Peter Owen Publishers
81 Ridge Road
London N8 9NP
Tel: 020 8350 1775
Wednesday, 14 August 2013
Circus Girls and Circus Horses
 |
| Sophie Coles Ring-mistress of the Great British Circus where the idea for Circus Mania was formed. |
My fascination with circus began after meeting aerial silks artiste Eva Garcia, just days before she fell to her death during a performance at Britain’s oldest circus building, the Great Yarmouth Hippodrome.
From there, I embarked on a journey into the circus world, taking every opportunity to review shows and interview performers. But it was not until my visit to the Great British Circus in 2009 that the idea for a book, Circus Mania, fully formed in my mind.
Having before that seen only all-human shows, it was sitting ringside in a proper big top, watching parading horses, camels, elephants and the tigers in their big cage that I caught a true glimpse into the deep history and rich tradition of an art form that began in the UK almost 250 years ago.
Ironically, it was the media storm kicked up by animal rights protestors over the Great British Circus’ reintroduction of elephants to a British circus ring after a ten-year absence that alerted me to the GBC’s existence.
The picture above, of ring-mistress Sophie Coles, is from the souvenir programme that I picked up on that day. Sadly, that programme, and the record of my visit in Circus Mania is now all that remains, the Great British Circus having closed last year, ahead of a new licensing regime and proposed ban on wild animals in circus in 2015. Read the story of my visit in this extract from Circus Mania.
But the GBC was not the only circus with animals soldiering on in the face of protests. A week after my visit, I chanced upon Circus Mondao, a new circus run by two sisters descended from probably Britain’s oldest circus family, with roots in the sawdust circle dating back to the early 1800s. From the Circus Mondao progamme is this picture of ring-mistress Petra Jackson.
Circus Mondao is still on the road, and one of the last places where you can see circus as it used to be. I urge you to go if you get the chance and, whatever your preconceived ideas about animals in circus, defy you not to be moved by the sight of their spotted horses entering the sawdust ring. You can read the story of the company, and my investigation into the truth about animals in circus, in Circus Mania - The Ultimate Book for Anyone who Dreamed of Running Away with the Circus.
And, as they say in the traditional big top: May all your days, be circus days!
Tuesday, 28 May 2013
Pinders Circus - Two hundred years on the road with Britain's oldest circus family
“Between the two world wars, we had motor lorries, but we still used horses as well. I remember saying to my dad, ‘Them first lorries you had, how fast did they go?’ Oh, about 12mph or 15mph. ‘So how far behind were the horses when they came in behind the lorries?’ Oh, 15 or 20 minutes. ‘So what did you bother with the lorries for?’ ‘Because you didn’t have to get up at five o’clock in the morning and catch them!’The following pictures from George’s personal archive provide a trip back in time to when his great-great-grandfather Thomas Ord, a Scottish minister’s son, ran away with a travelling show and went onto to become an equestrian star 200 years ago.
Royal Continental Circus poster, 1926.
Inside the Pinders big top in the 1930s.
The circus in the 1890s.
A poster advertising the horsemanship of Thomas Ord (George’s great-great-grandfather) dated October 25, 1817.
|
| Updated for Circus250! |
 |
| Grand Continental Circus with Pinder and Sons, Dundee, 1926 |
Tuesday, 1 December 2009
Circus Mondao Pantomime
 |
| Ringmistress Petra Jackson (left) and Bippo the Clown (3rd from left) are joined by Ugly SistersAlan Stratford-Johns and Oliver Dane Sanders Imbert-Terry esq (Can that really be his name? Oh yes it is!) in the Circus Mondao pantomime |
- Oh yes it is!
As you drive along the A11, near Thetford in Norfolk, the sight of the light-bedecked Circus Mondao tent poking over the wall of the Elveden country estate like a well-lit Christmas tree is a welcome sight on a wintry day - and the show that awaits you inside the big top is a welcome alternative to the traditional theatre panto.
|
| Circus Mondao's Christmas Programme |
So although the idea of a circus putting on a panto may seem novel, it’s not without precedent, and the two genres combine extremely smoothly in this new show, which plays every day from now until January 3.
 |
| My preview of Circus Mondao's visit to Elvenden in the Weekly News |
Panto’s traditional ‘ghost’ routine gets a literal lift from a flying spook that spirits one of the Ugly Sisters away into the roof, and there’s plenty of space in the big top for a very messy ‘slosh’ routine, starring the Uglies and Mondao’s regular clown, Bippo.
The beautiful, plumed spotted horses galloping through the sawdust, meanwhile, add to the impression that we’ve been whisked away to a magical dreamland.
Kids will love the parade of zebras, lamas, camels and Shetland ponies - and the chance to meet them in their own, smaller big top after the show - while dads will have their spirits lifted by the glamorous showgirls performing a can-can.
Perfectly timed to coincide with Amanda Holden’s Big Top on BBC1, this alternative to the traditional theatre panto is the perfect opportunity for a new audience to get their first taste of the real big top.
So roll up, roll up for the greatest Christmas show in Norfolk.
Send cheques to:
Peter Owen Publishers
81 Ridge Road
London N8 9NP
Or download the Kindle edition from Amazon
"Circus Mania is a brilliant account of a vanishing art form."
- Mail on Sunday
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)