A Pictorial History of Gerry Cottle's Circus and The Posters of Billy Smart's Circus

The Wells, Somerset postmark meant the sturdy package could only have come from one man: Britain's most legendary living showman, Gerry Cottle. And what a treat it was to open the jiffy bag and pull out A World of Circus - A Pictorial History of Gerry Cottle's Circus by ace photographer Andrew Payne.

This is Volume 2 and takes us from 1991 to 2015. The A4-size hardback is stuffed with glorious colour photographs from in the ring, to backstage, the transport and shots of the big top being built up and pulled down; plus hundreds of fabulous circus posters.

All Gerry's ventures from the past 25 years are here: the Moscow State Circus, Circus of Horrors, Cottle and Austin, Wookey Hole caves and theme park, the recent Wow! and Turbo shows - forming a fantastic visual journey with a year-by-year written account of the shows.

It's a book every circus fan will enjoy, although the Cottle story is far from over.

Slipped into the cover of my copy was a photocopied list of dates for Gerry's latest venture, Gerry Cottle's Electric Circus, which begins its 2016 tour on Southsea Common, July 2.

For more on Gerry Cottle, click here.

And if you like the new Gerry Cottle book, you'll also enjoy The Posters of Billy Smart's Circus by Steven B Richley. Before Cottle, Billy Smart was the showman who's name came to mind in Britain whenever the word circus was mentioned, and the Smart name is still synonymous with the big top.

2016 is the 70th anniversary of Smart's first circus, and this is another A4 hardback, beautifully printed and positively overflowing with amazing circus art that traces Smart's history through the years.

The Smart name lives on, and it was recently my pleasure to interview the Guv'nor's granddaughter, Yasmine Smart for this piece in the Daily Telegraph in which she recalled growing up in Britain's most famous circus. I hope you can download the image and blow it up large enough to read.

UPDATE September 2016: Just heard that The Posters of Billy Smart's Circus is SOLD OUT - although a reprint is scheduled for 2018, to mark the 250th anniversary of Philip Astley's first circus. In the meantime, Steven B Richley's next book, Sir Robert Fossetts Circus - The Definitive Visual History, will be out in November. More details here. 

Gerry Cottle, left, with Circus Mania
author Douglas McPherson
as pictured in The Stage.

The Guv'nor, Billy Smart

This fine portrait of arguably Britain's most famous circus owner, Billy Smart, was painted by Terence Cuneo and appears in Steven B Richley's fabulous new book, The Posters of Billy Smart's Circus. The book can be purchased from Double Crown Books for £34.99 including postage. Click here for details.

More on this soon.

One of the posters (also used on the cover) in
The Poster of Billy Smarts Circus
by Steven B Richley

High flying Circus Knie poster

There are some great circus posters to be seen at Mashable - you can also find out exactly what Omikron - The Living Gasometer did in his act!

Not the creases on the above poster, too. Did you know that prior to the 1980s, circus and film posters were always sent out folded rather than rolled?

For more fabulous circus art on the Circus Mania blog, click here.

Circus Wonderland starring the Popolinos, Britain's best-dressed clowns, in Southampton

There was a time when every circus had a whiteface clown. Now Mr Popol - alias Paul Carpenter - pictured above, standing, with his comic partner, the traditional auguste Kakehole, is the only one left in the UK. Catch the Popolinos in Circus Wonderland, a brand new take on the classic big top, at the Apps Court Farm, Walton-on-Thames from March 18-22, and sample clowning as it used to be. Call the box office for times and tickets: 07531 612240.

What is a whiteface clown? Or an auguste? For more on the history and techniques of clowning, including interviews with some of today's finest performers, read Circus Mania - The Ultimate Book For Anyone Who Dreamed of Running Away with the Circus. Click here to read the 5-star reviews on Amazon.

The Posters of Bertram Mills

My feature on The Posters
of Bertram Mills in
The Stage

The poster has always been the primary means of publicising a circus. Billed as the Quality Show and the show that put the 'O' in Olympia,  Bertram Mills was Britain's biggest and most famous circus in the first half of the 20th century and produced the finest artwork. Steven B Richley has gathered more than 350 examples of their designs in a new book, The Posters of Bertram Mills. Read my article on the book, the posters, the artists and the acts exclusively in this week's edition of The Stage.

For more circus art, click here.

Circus Tyanna - The Perfect Circus for a Village Green!

Roll up, roll up... to Circus Tyanna!

I couldn't resist sharing this fantastically atmospheric picture of the Circus Tyanna big top, from their Facebook page. Could there be a more tempting sight to grace a village green on a pleasant evening?

The 2015 Circus Tyanna poster
Look out for it in a town near you
when their new season starts

Circus Tyanna is named after the granddaughter of former Billy Smarts ringmaster, the late Chris Christian, who was immortalised as ringmaster in the 1960 Donald Pleasance film, Circus of Horrors.

Chris' son Todd and his wife Claire founded Circus Tyanna in 2009 to mark their daughter Tyanna's first birthday.

It's a small family show but one dedicated to keeping animals in the circus, hence the notice below, which I also found on their Facebook page. Perhaps it's one all circus owners, bloggers and fans should display and tweet?

Agree? Blog, Facebook or tweet it.

How to market a circus

The lights are on, the doors are closed and the show has begun...
but what lies in wait inside the big top?

If you read my previous post about Circus Fantasia, you might be thinking: yeah, nice lorries, nice ticket wagon, but what's the show like?

Unfortunately, the posters and flyers give us little idea of what to expect inside the big top. I doubt if their clown looks anything like the generic one on the poster, which gives us no idea what sort of acts they have. Definitely a case of you pays your money and takes your chance!

But shouldn't a circus poster do more to tempt us? Like showing us a must-see act, for example?

It was very different in the days of Bertram Mills, when the show that put the "Oh!" in Olympia would plaster a town with a whole range of posters - often one dedicated to each act and others that listed every act on the bill.

If you fancy treating yourself to a late Christmas present, The Posters of Bertram Mills by Steven B. Richley lets you flip through some of the greatest circus posters ever designed. And if you want insight into how a circus should be promoted, read The Advance Man by Jamie MacVicar. Click here to read my review.

There's a lot in both books that today's circuses could learn from. Because it doesn't matter how good a show may be if nobody rolls up to see it.

For more circus art, click here.

Circus Fantasia Christmas Spectacular, Snetterton

The advance men for Circus Fantasia have been working hard to promote their Christmas Spectacular in Snetterton Park on the A11 bypass in Norfolk. The town of Wymondham has been plastered with posters as these ones outside a boarded up pub show - and Wymondham is miles from Snetterton. Phone for bookings: 0844 888 9991 or just roll up, roll up from now till Sunday Jan 4.

Click here for pics of the Circus Fantasia big top and transport.

Click here for more circus posters.

How do you promote a circus? Click here for my review of The Advance Man by former Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey promoter Jamie MacVicar.

Circus picture of the year?

Here’s the winning picture, by Dutch coach and choreographer Vincent Michels, in this year’s Federation Mondiale du Cirque’s photography contest for which the theme was World Circus Day.

The striking zebra-striped image was chosen from 115 entries from 19 countries. But could it have been better?

To my eyes, the matching costume and tablecloth effectively blends the imagery of traditional animal circuses with the look of more contemporary human-skills-based forms. Personally, though, I think the picture's impact could have been intensified by cropping it along the top of the table and down the right-hand table leg, or even along the innermost table legs to left and right. The bottom margin would also benefit from being cropped at the edge of the mat. The black rectangle above the table, the glimpse of background to the right and the strip of floor to the front add nothing, and provide a needless distraction. By focusing exclusively on the contortionist and the zebra-print tablecloth the stripy motif would be emphasised and the image would be more ambiguous - teasing us with the illusion that the contortionist was performing beneath or between some real zebras.

Having not seen the runners up, I'm not knocking the judges' decision. I'm just saying. But the photo will be used on the cover of the Federation's 2015 calendar, so there's still time for the picture to be cropped. Trust me, guys, you'll improve it if you do.

The contortionist is Li Ling, a student at the private acrobatics school Corpus 
Acrobatics and the shot was taken at the World Circus Day celebration hosted by De Leeuw Circus Events in Amsterdam, The Netherlands in April 2014.

My pick from last
year's runners up.

Click here for last year's winner.

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.

Wind forward a couple of weeks, and just a few miles west to Norwich, and on the day Uncle Sam's American Circus trucks roll out of Taverham in the north of the city (click here to see my pictures of their spectacular American lorries), I saw a poster for Billy Smart's Circus, which is coming to the Norwich Showground in just a couple of weeks on June 10.

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"?

Clown stamps for International Clown Week, August 1 - 7, 2016

Following my last post on circus stamps (click here to see it)

here are some clown stamps

Click here for more circus posters and circus art.

Circus Stamps

Step right up to get a new set of US postage stamps celebrating the art of the great American circus poster. A set of eight stamps each featuring the 19th century posters of Ringling Bros, Sells-Floto, Al C. Barnes and more was launched on May 5 at where else but the Ringling Museum in Sarasota, Florida. 

Of course, it's not the first time the circus has graced a stamp. Here are a couple of British first day covers celebrating Chipperfields Circus in 1983 and Gerry Cottle's Circus in 2002. Oh, and naturally enough, Monaco, home of the International Circus Festival, has produced a circus stamp or two over the years.

For more fabulous circus art and circus posters, click here.

Circus directory 2014

How many circuses can you see in Britain this year? According to the circus diaries blog, there are more than 50. Clicking through the links, it looks like they're all active, so click here for the full list and find one near you.

When I wrote my book, Circus Mania, the Mail on Sunday called it "A brilliant account of a vanishing art form." But with so many shows on the road this year, I think Dr Haze of the Circus of Horrors better described the circus scene when he said in the book, "Circus is very much alive and juggling."
Click here to buy Circus Mania from Amazon, then go along and see a circus near you.

Chaplins Circus brings exciting new concept to the big top

Following my last post about the need for big top shows to offer something special if they're to draw audiences from cosy indoor venues comes news of an exciting new show to tour Britain this year.

Chaplins Circus is a theatrical show about the backstage drama of a 1920s circus and it will be travelling the country in one of the biggest big tops on the road - all the better to accommodate its finale human cannonball stunt!

A poster for the real
Charlie Chaplin's
film The Circus
- which was the 7th
highest-grossing film of
all time.

Chaplins Circus is the brainchild of Charlie Pakdel, a veteran Charlie Chaplin imitator; Mark Foot, who ran away with the circus at the age of 8 and went on to run one of the biggest suppliers of seasonal entertainment to shopping malls; and Gary Stocker, a street entertainer and magician.

The show opens in Highfield Park, St Albans, May 24 - June 1. Info: www.chaplinscircus.com

Given these PC times, the circus features no animals, which is fair enough, and, because they're deemed too scary, no clowns. But hang on, wasn't Charlie Chaplin's Little Tramp a hobo clown?

Zippos open day

If you've ever wanted to go behind the scenes at the circus, pop along to Zippos on Blackheath Common on Friday April 18. As part of this month's World Circus Day celebrations, the circus will be holding an open day from 11.00 to 12.00 when visitors can meet the animals, performers and staff and find out how a circus works.

"A very enjoyable book"
- the latest 5-star customer
review on Amazon.
Visit the site to read
another six.

Another way to go behind the scenes of the big top is to buy my book Circus Mania - a backstage journey through the British circus scene from traditional tent shows with tigers and elephants to such freakishly contemporary shows as the Circus of Horrors. Along the way you'll find clowns, trapeze artists, animal trainers and showmen talking about their unique lives, culture, traditions, secrets and superstitions. There's even a full chapter in which Zippos founder Martin Burton tells the story of his circus and the part it played in BBC sitcom Big Top.

Click here to buy Circus Mania from Amazon.

"Circus Mania is a brilliant account of a vanishing art form." - Mail on Sunday.