Gerry Cottle then and now

John Masefield likened Circus to Paradise - “a world of strangeness and beauty in which all the inhabitants have a loveliness, a skill or swiftness not before seen, and where even the oldest jokes take on new life.”

Those words open the text of this delightful programme for Gerry Cottle’s 1984 season. The programme goes on to say:

“Gerry Cottle’s present purpose is not simply to restore Circus to how it used to be, but to make it as it never really was: to make our childhood dreams a reality - to create the circus we thought we saw as children, and, as grown-ups, had come to believe we would never see again.”

It was a ground-breaking show in two respects. Firstly, it had no animals at a time when the campaign against animals in the circus was starting to take hold among the local councils who licensed show grounds, but when the majority of circus-goers still expected to see them. Secondly, it included the students of Cottle’s first circus school who were recruited in open auditions around the country.

The circus had a vintage look

Like many things that are ahead of their time, the tour had a mixed reception, doing well in more arty, cosmopolitan areas, and less well in the more traditional provinces. But it left a lasting legacy. Among the alumni of Cottle’s school was aerialist Andrew Watson who went on to become a leading light in Cirque du Soleil.

Cottle himself remains committed to nurturing the circus talent of tomorrow. At Britain’s oldest tourist attraction, the prehistoric Wookey Hole caves in Somerset, he runs a new circus school for children who put on shows for the public every weekend and school holiday.

He has a recently-built hotel on site, making Wookey the ideal location for a West Country break. As well as the caves, a dinosaur park, fairy garden and, of course, a circus museum, you may even see his students create what in 1984 he promised would be “The circus that never was, but always should have been.”

For more information call Wookey Hole on 01749 672243.

Gerry Cottle in 1984

See also my earlier posts on the Gerry Cottle story and the witch of Wookey Hole.

For the full story of Gerry Cottle and his Wookey Hole Circus School and the stories of many more colourful characters from circus past and present, read Circus Mania - The Ultimate Book For Anyone Who Dreamed of Running Away With the Circus, available in paperback and ebook.

Click to buy from Amazon or order direct from Peter Owen Publishers for just £10 including post and packing in the UK (add £2.75 postage worldwide). Send cheques to:

Recreating the circus "as it never was
but as it always should have been."

Peter Owen Publishers
81 Ridge Road
London N8 9NP

Tel: 020 8350 1775 in office hours.

Circus Exhibition at Great Yarmouth's Time and Tide Museum

It wasn’t so much a case of bringing the house down as bringing the bridge down when Cooke’s Equestrian Circus became the first circus to visit Great Yarmouth, in 1845. To drum up publicity, Nelson the Clown sailed down the River Bure in a bathtub pulled by four geese. So many people crammed onto the suspension bridge to see him that the bridge collapsed and 79 people were drowned.

A painting depicting the disaster is one of the exhibits of Showtime, an exhibition celebrating 165 years of circus in the seaside resort, at the Time and Tide Museum Of Great Yarmouth Life.

Naturally, much of the exhibition focuses on Yarmouth’s very own piece of circus history, Britain’s oldest circus building, the Hippodrome. Owner Peter Jay has loaned a wealth of items such as posters, paintings, and props from his backstage collection. These include a chimp bicycle used by the Billy Russell chimps in the 1950s, a swan float from the water-shows and an elephant razor. This razor was used by an elephant for pretending to shave a member of the audience, before dousing them in water!

The exhibition also includes a massive collection of memorabilia amassed by circus historian Don Stacey. He has loaned props and costumes such as a big cat pedestal, trapeze and a white-faced clown costume made by Vicaire. Vicaire was a Parisian maker who specialised in creating heavily sequinned costumes to contrast with the well-known style of baggy tartan trousers and red nose favoured by Jacko Fossett, Britain’s best loved clown. A leotard once worn by Miguel Vazquez, the first trapeze artist to successfully complete the quadruple somersault is also amongst Don’s loans as well as paintings, prints, and posters.

The Great Yarmouth Hippodrome as it was
- a picture from the Showtime souvenir programme

Other attractions include film footage of the circus past and present and a display of paintings by Katherine Hamilton during her residency at the Hippodrome.

There will also be a series of talks each Friday morning, including A History Of Clowning by Don Stacy and The Roman Circus by Adrian Marsden.

If you want to get more involved, Rollo the clown will be hosting a drop-in circus skills workshop every Monday from July 26 to August 30.
Showtime is open from 10am - 5pm until October 31, which makes it the perfect taster for a visit to the Hippodrome’s summer season.

Oh, and finally, don’t forget to pick up a copy of Circus Mania in the museum bookshop - there’s plenty in it about the Hippodrome and every other aspect of the circus life, past and present.

If you’re unable to attend the Showtime exhibition, though, don’t forget you can order Circus Mania direct from Peter Owen Publishers at the special discount price of just £10 postage-free. Simply send a cheque or postal order to:
Peter Owen (Sales)
81 Ridge Road
London N8 9NP

Or click here to buy Circus Mania from Amazon.
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COMING SOON on the Circus Mania blog: Meet the Mr Big of British circus!

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

There have always been links between circus and pantomime, not least in the person of Joseph Grimaldi, the early 19th century panto star regarded as the father of modern clowning. Circus clowns are still nicknamed Joeys in his honour, and although Grimaldi never worked in a circus ring, he employed many elements of circus, such as performing animals on stage.

In previous eras, meanwhile, many circus stars, and their animals, found winter work in theatre pantomimes.

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.

The story picks up where ordinary pantomimes end. Cinderella has married her Prince Charming, but now that the new has worn off her happy ever after, life for poor Cinders has reverted to domestic drudgery. To relieve her boredom, she asks her fairy godmother to conjure up a circus.

My preview of Circus Mondao's
visit to Elvenden in the
Weekly News

That’s about it, as far as plot is concerned. But, with little story to slow the proceedings, it’s action all the way as a string of high standard circus acts - silk, solo trapeze, aerial straps - are interspersed with panto routines featuring Alex Morley and Ian Jarvis as a pair of well costumed Ugly Sisters.

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.

Circus Mondao is run by sisters Gracie Timmis and Carol Macmanus - the youngest generation of Britain's oldest circus family. To read the full story of their 200 years in the circus, plus behind-the-scenes visits to and interviews with the showmen and stars of Britain's most popular circuses,  buy Circus Mania direct from Peter Owen Publishers for the special offer price of £10 including postage and packing in the UK (for overseas orders add £2.75 worldwide)
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

Must Circuses have Elephants?

Or clowns, for that matter?

Britain's funniest clowns
Clive Webb and Danny Adams

According to the old saying, which may or may not have been coined by Phineas T Barnum himself, a circus is not a circus without clowns, peanuts and elephants.

Well, the elephants made a nostalgic reappearance at the Yarmouth Hippodrome over the summer, if only in an opening archive film sequence that quickly established what the show, Celebrate, was celebrating: Peter Jay’s 30 years at the helm of Britain’s oldest purpose-built circus building.

It was nice to see the old rubber mules, as American troupers used to call them, and reminded me of Peter telling me fond stories about the pachyderms trouping off down the beach to swim in the sea between shows.

Zip back to the present, and not only have the animals long departed the Hippodrome, but this year, the clowns have as well. At the very least, they left their red noses and hoop-waisted trousers backstage in Clown Alley.

The laughs this year were provided by a double act of ringmaster Jack Jay (Peter’s son, taking the straight man role) and young comedian Johnny Mac. What they did was clowning by another name. Both the banter and high percentage of physical slapstick were strongly influenced by Clive Webb and Danny Adams, who ruled summer seasons at the Hippodrome for the past six years, before heading off to Butlins for the entirety of 2009.
Danny and Clive would have been proud of the young pretenders’ use of the Hippodrome’s water feature, including a particularly inspired gag that saw the well-upholstered Jack jump into a boat rowed by Johnny - and fall right through the bottom.

For all this clowning, though, there was not a scrap of motley and slap in sight. So, do 21st century clowns (and circuses) need their red noses, any more than big tops still need elephants (or peanuts, for that matter)?

Peter Jay makes the familiar point that a lot of people are scared of clowns: “When we had the clown posing for photographs outside, we’d have kids in tears before they came in.”

If nothing else, the plain clothes clowning of Jack and Johnny reminds us that many comedy double acts, from Laurel and Hardy to Cannon and Ball, are clowns without the noses.

Indeed, I went to the Seaside Special on Cromer Pier recently and was struck by the similarity of father and son comics Simmons and Simmons to Danny and Clive - the only difference being that the former wore normal clothes instead of ringmaster and clown clobber.

And yet... Simmons and Simmons were on a stage in a theatre, in a traditional variety show. Peter Jay tells me he sees the Hippodrome becoming less of a circus show than a variety show with circus acts in it.

But the fact remains that a circus ring, in a big top, is a very different environment to a theatre. It’s often bigger, for one thing. The exaggeration of colourful ringmaster jackets and clown clothes helps to get the show across to people who may be sitting some distance from the action.

And shouldn’t everything about a circus be bigger, bolder, more colourful, more glamorous and more exaggerated than real life, anyway?

Let me know what you think.

In the meantime, all this talk about clowns has got me thinking: who is Britain’s funniest clown? To find out, stay tuned to Circus Mania. (Or add your own suggestions)