Another beautiful circus poster. Cirquoise

 

But are circus posters on the endangered list? Click here to read my report on the changing face of circus advertising as Paulos becomes the world's first circus to go completely paperless.
 

Interesting concept, coming this Christmas: An Acrobatic Adventure in Wonderland

 

What a beautiful poster! Uncle Sam's American Circus

But are circus posters on the endangered list? Click here to read my report on the changing face of circus advertising as Paulos becomes the world's first circus to go completely paperless.
 

Circus Posters - A Disappearing Art Form?

In an article that originally appeared in The Stage, Circus Mania author Douglas McPherson asks big top insiders about the changing face of circus advertising.

Posters have been the main form of circus advertising for as long as big tops have travelled the land. In the middle of the last century, brightly painted pictures of snarling lions and ornately made-up clowns whetted appetites for the arrival in town of Billy Smart’s or Chipperfields.

Today, animals have almost completely vanished from British circuses, and clowns have toned down their make-up to nearly nothing. In an increasingly online world, are posters also about to fade into history?

Paulo’s Circus is believed to be the first in the country, and probably the world, to have stopped using posters, along with leaflets and physical tickets, in a drive to go completely paperless.

“Our decision to stop using posters stemmed from a number of reasons. Chief among them, waste,” says showman Kenny Darnell Jr, whose family has been in the circus business for seven generations and traded under the Paulo’s brand for more than 120 years. 

“Posters aren’t reusable, they’re wasteful, they make a mess when fly posted and are often slapped onto anything sticky tape will cling to, just so the biller can be rid of them quickly. Personally, I was done with the whole thing.”

Darnell’s memories of billing – as putting up posters is known – are less than happy.

“It was hard work, traipsing around town all day, going shop to shop, asking the same question, ‘Can we pop a poster in your window?’. Rejection was part and parcel of it. Not every shop wants a circus display in their window and then there was the circus politics, other circuses tearing down your posters, and occasionally things getting a bit... physical. Tedious, wasteful and to be honest not a terribly dignified way to advertise.

“I knew there had to be a smarter, more efficient way. Surely circus could tap into this new market online?”

As proof of the power of purely online marketing, Paulo’s in 2024 sold 1000 tickets to a venue Darnell hadn’t even booked – he announced only the county and dates. “And yep, we sold out 14 shows in a row at that venue, two months later. That to me is the power of innovation.”

One reason circus posters were once so visible is a clause in the Town and County Planning Act that specifically exempts circuses and funfairs from needing planning permission to display advertising for limited periods. 

They need permission from property owners, but that has left some grey areas such as telephone poles where a poster may have served its purpose before the owner of the pole requests its removal.

Empty shops are another popular target. Billers have long perfected ‘door dropping’ by which posters attached to sticky tape are slid over the top of a locked glass door to hang down on the inside.

“I was rather skilled at that,” says Darnell. But in retrospect, he says, “I’d hazard a guess that it’s illegal. It certainly looks dodgy. Not a great look for the circus.”

Postering the wrong places can cause complaints from residents and sometimes leads to prosecution. In 2022, Exchange Events Ltd twice appeared at Liverpool Magistrates Court, fined £1500 and £2000, for illegally promoting Gandey’s circus.

“Fly posting is a serious issue,” says Darnell. “I’d be in favour of stricter penalties, or even a licensing system to regulate poster usage. At least that way there’s accountability and some of the revenue could go towards cleaning up the mess left behind over the years, that many shows, us included at one point, have all contributed to.”

The circus industry's reliance on posters has declined over the past 20 years as online advertising and social media engagement grew.

When Martin Burton founded Zippos Circus 40 years ago, he distributed 5000 - 6000 posters per venue. Today it's around 2500. 

Although Burton says he lacks the courage to dispense with posters altogether, he believes they no longer catch the eye on a high street plastered with advertising, and foresees a day when they will disappear completely.

In another break with tradition, Burton has stopped buying local newspaper adverts, having noticed that nobody redeemed the discount codes anymore. Instead, he spends the money – and more – on social media ads, with a full time member of staff dedicated to online marketing. 

Another former mainstay of circus advertising that has fallen out of fashion is leaving piles of leaflets, with discount coupons, on the counters of shops and petrol stations. 

Since Covid, says Burton, “Nobody would pick them up.”

Big Kid Circus, by contrast, still relies “heavily” on local newspaper advertising and believes that posters will always have a role to play alongside online marketing.

“From our market research, posters still have a big impact. People still expect to see them,” says artistic director Julia Kirilova. “We are a business which depends a lot on feelings and nostalgia. Everyone knows circus and has a distinct memory of it. Our job is to find a way to make them remember that feeling, whether that is through a short video clip on TikTok or a poster.” 

While some big top bosses may welcome a future without the chore of billing, circus historian Dr Steve Ward regards circus posters as an important part of our cultural heritage.

“As a child growing up in the 1950s, circus posters were very much a part of everyday life,” Ward says. “They seemed to be everywhere – shop windows, telegraph poles, walls, fence panels etc. Brightly coloured and often quite garish, they offered entry into another world of excitement, danger, and fun.”

In his book Nineteenth Century Circus Poster Art, Ward recounts how innovations in printing technology during that time saw posters evolve from a list of acts to a fully illustrated art form.

“As the saying goes, a picture paints a thousand words,” says Ward. “The second half of the 19th century could be referred to as the early golden age of the circus with some very fine posters to match.”

Since then, poster art has evolved with the circus itself, from paintings of headline acts in the mid-20th century to photographic images, and the more abstract designs used by some contemporary companies. 

“Social media cannot replace the impact of a brightly coloured circus poster that elicits a feeling of childhood nostalgia in many people,” Ward concludes. “For me, circus poster art will continue to adapt to new trends, as it has done so over the last 250 years, but it will survive. It will be a sad day for us all if it does not.”

Review of Kingdom of Kong by Big Kid Circus - the best looking big top show in Britain

 

Salesmen have an old saying: sell the sizzle not the sausage. It’s not the product that people buy, it’s the feeling that the product gives them. The buzz of excitement. The lift out of everyday mundanity.

That goes especially for nonessential buys. And doubly especially in tough times, when nonessentials are the first things people stop buying.

It’s something the circus has always understood, providing affordable glitz and glamour. A cheap night out for all the family, often in areas where other family nights out may be in short supply.

“In a recession,” Zippos founder Martin Burton said in my book Circus Mania, “when more people are holidaying in the UK and not buying that new car, they want to take the kids out for a treat, and a trip to the circus is an inexpensive family treat.”

But that doesn’t mean circuses are guaranteed an audience. Especially in the current economic situation when profits are squeezed between trying to keep prices affordable while costs such as the diesel the shows move and run on are higher than they have ever been.

“I think we’re all surviving,” says Julia Kirilova of Big Kid Circus. “People are cautious about how they spend their money.”

For its 20th anniversary edition, however, Big Kid Circus has cut no corners. With its show Kingdom of Kong, it has done the opposite, sparing no expense to present what I have no doubt is the best-looking circus production to tour the UK for a long time.

Photo by Andrew Payne

At its centre is Kong himself, a specially designed and built 30-foot-tall animatronic ape who emerges snarling and rolling his head from the back of the stage before lifting a contortionist who performs, Fay Wray-style, in the palm of his giant paw.

The solid floor performance area looks more like a jungle clearing than a circus ring, surrounded by giant flora and fauna that also extends up the king poles of the big top.

Atmospheric lighting adds to the jungle atmosphere, as does the costuming, dancing and a soundtrack that mixes new and traditional African sounds into a heart-quickening brew.

Before anyone even does anything, Big Kid is, in short, selling the sizzle more than any other show on the road.

“We don’t just want to offer a traditional circus show,” says Kirilova. “We want to add a storyline, and still be attractive to the kids. We’re not going as far as Cirque du Soleil where nobody knows what world they’re in.”

I would say they have got the balance just right. The storyline about a couple of explorers – the clowns – trying to steal a diamond from an African tribe is pitched at kids level. In the style of a pantomime, perhaps. But no one goes to the circus for Chekhov (hopefully) and the story does its job in stringing the acts together in an accessible way without boring the adults too much.

But what of the sausage behind the sizzle?

Even Cirque du Soleil, for all its grand presentation, knows that the circus lives and dies on its acts – what Soleil calls its “acrobatic skeleton.”

Here again, Big Kid delivers.

Some expected big top fare – foot juggling, hair hanging, rollerskating, Wheel of Death – is lifted by the African dressing. An aerial straps guy dressed as Tarzan is a perhaps obvious but nonetheless smile-inducing nod to the setting. 

But there are some more unusual stand-out acts, too.

Photo by Andrew Payne

First is a man performing on an unsupported ladder. A really impressive and engaging one-person act.

A troupe of human tower acrobats are equally good. When a three-man tower falls forward like a toppled tree, it’s a good heart-stopping circus moment, smoothly resolved when the performers land with perfectly performed forward rolls.

Perhaps the most original act is a large troupe mix of basketball and springboard. But strong competition comes from an extremely rubbery 'alien contortionist' who seems capable of bending his joints in ways that should be impossible.

The clowns, meanwhile, deliver a traditional chase through the audience while spraying copious amounts of water from a pressure washer. There’s nothing like a good dousing with water to get an audience squealing and screaming and knowing they’ve had a good time.

The finale is a Globe of Death, but with a difference: it’s the UK’s only all-female team, which was painstakingly assembled by Kirilova with performers from all over the world.

The gender of the motorcyclists may not make much difference as viewed from ringside. And that’s kind of Kirilova’s point. She plans to take the act onto Britain’s Got Talent with a view to normalising the idea of women taking part in a traditionally male-dominated act.

“An all-female globe shouldn’t be a novelty,” she says.

Photo: Andrew Payne

The circus was at the forefront of female empowerment long before feminism was a word. The Victorian circus featured women lifting weights and swinging on the trapeze at a time when their activities were strictly curtailed in other avenues of society.

Big Kid Circus continues that tradition by including the only female Globe of Death rider from Iran. 

“I think that’s so symbolic and so special, for a country like Iran where it still has its strict regulations around women and perceptions around how women should be,” says Kirilova. “She’s breaking all sorts of boundaries. Something like this would never be accepted in Iran. They don’t even allow women to perform on stage, never mind something as extreme as that.”

Kingdom of Kong is a show that could run and run. But in the spirit of continually moving forward, Big Kid is retiring the big ape at the end of this season. Next year they’ll be back with the Jurassic Circus featuring giant animatronic dinosaurs.

I can’t wait!

Death of a Strongman, Khalil Oghab, Father of the Iranian Circus

When Gerry Cottle passed away in 2021, I naturally called his long time associate 'Doktor' John Haze, founder of the Circus of Horrors, for some insights into Cottle's career.

Haze attributed Cottle's success to some of the unique acts that featured in Gerry Cottle's Circus. In particular, he singled out strongman Khalil Oghaby, who would stand on a platform and lift a baby elephant - a feat for which he is still in the Guinness World of Records today.

Ironically, just a week after Haze left this world (more info here), Oghaby has passed away at the age of 98.

Known as the Hercules of Persia, Oghab (whose name was spelt Oghaby in the UK) came to fame by staging Iran's first strongman shows. As many as 50,000 people would pay to watch him toss weights over his head with his teeth and allow buses and trucks to drive over him.

In the 1970s, Oghab starred in Duffy's Circus in Ireland and then Gerry Cottle's Circus in the UK, where he also appeared in the Saturday evening TV show Seaside Special, broadcast from Cottle's big top.

Cottle called him, "Probably the best act I ever had."

In 1991, Oghab returned to his homeland where he founded the country's first circus and became known as the Father of the Iranian Circus.

For more on this story, read the Gerry Cottle Story, here.

 

Big Kid Circus brings 'Mayhem' to Hawick

 

Circus Extreme coming to Glasgow - Review of Britain's biggest and best circus

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!

Click here to read the 5-star reviews on Amazon.

 

Circus reopening in Ukraine with tigers, parrots and horses

 

The latest news from Ukraine is that the National Circus building in Kyiv will be reopening from 2 July with a production called Save the Animals of the Circus.

The show is expected to feature mainly animal acts including tigers, parrots, dogs and horses that have been sheltering in the circus since the war began. The performances will help keep the animals in condition and raise funds to maintain their upkeep.

The trainers will also be talking about their work and answering questions from the audience.

Even in war, it seems, the circus always goes on.

The National Circus of Ukraine, Kyiv

For the story of the Ukrainian circus stars currently touring the UK, click here.

130-year-old circus poster found in Wisconsin bar

Circus posters are not designed to last long. Once the show has left town, the billboard promoting it is obsolete.

A couple of years ago, however, the renovations of a Wisconsin bar revealed a 9-foot-high, 55-foot-long, multi-sheet, full-colour circus poster for the Great Anglo-American Circus that had been hidden behind a wall for 130 years.

Apparently, it had been on an outside wall before the bar was built against it almost immediately after the show on 17 August, 1885.

Among the acts depicted is that of circus owner Miles Orton, who specialised in riding horses bareback, standing up, with his two children standing on his shoulders and head.

The poster was printed by Russell, Morgan & Co. from Cincinnati, which was the lithograph capital of the world.

Today, the carefully restored montage of bison, ostriches and aerialists is preserved behind glass and has pride of place in the dining room of the Corral Bar & Riverside Grill in Durand on the banks of the Chippewa River.

American Circus in Paris!

Ringling may have retired across the pond, but in Paris zay have ze elephants! Ze tigers! Ze parades! Ze 3 (count 'em) rings!

Book now for Christmas!

Gerry Cottle's Wow Circus, Paighton Green Seafront until August 30

Like music? Love circus? Roll up, roll up for Gerry Cottle's Wow Circus on the seafront at Paignton Green this month.

The latest venture from Britain's best-loved circus impresario promises hit songs from the past 60 years with an array of big top treats including trapeze, juggling on quad bikes and a trio of female magicians.


Cottle is, of course, the best known showman of the past 45 years - the Billy Smart, PT Barnum, John Ringling or Lord Sanger of his generation. His enduring influence became clear while writing Circus Mania! in that there is hardly anybody in the industry who either hasn’t worked with him or is related to him.

It’s 50 years since Gerry turned his back on suburban life as a stockbroker’s son growing up in Cheam and, at the age of 15, ran away with Robert Brothers circus. From humble beginnings as an apprentice, he taught himself to clown, stilt-walk and, most importantly, the tricks of running a circus.

Cottle and Austen's Circus posters

By 1970, he and his business partner Brian Austen had started the first Cottle and Austen Circus. With no cash to buy animals, the owners and their wives performed nearly all the acts themselves. From the beginning, however, Cottle proved a natural publicity magnet. The circus was featured in a BBC documentary, The Philpott Files, and on the cover of the Radio Times as ‘The smallest greatest show on earth’.

By the end of the decade, Cottle and Austen’s Circus had become Britain’s biggest circus, thanks in part to a policy of monopolising London’s parks, and providing the big top venue for Saturday night TV variety show Seaside Special.

Cottle and Austen went on to promote the Chinese State Circus and Moscow State Circus, which were soon established as the UK’s most successful shows, and Cottle became a founding partner in the Circus of Horrors, which has been another of the biggest circus success stories of the past decade.

In 2003, Cottle sold Austen his share in the Chinese and Moscow circuses so that he could buy the tourist attraction Wookey Hole. Proving that old adage that you can shake the sawdust off your shoes but you can’t shake it out of your heart, however, Cottle never gave up his love of the circus. At Wookey, he swiftly established a circus museum and a circus school for local kids.

Gerry Cottle (Left) with Circus Mania author
Douglas McPherson (Centre) and Dr Haze from
Circus of Horrors at the launch of Circus Mania 

When I interviewed Gerry for my book Circus Mania! he said his love of circus was greater than it has ever been. He sees every circus that comes within range and will talk knowledgeably and passionately about any show you mention.

As for his latest venture under the big top, Cottle says: “It’s got my name on it and I promise you a great show LIKE NO OTHER. A whole world of LIVE entertainment for all the family – we think you’ll have the time of your life!”

Gerry Cottle's Wow Circus is at Paignton Green until August 30, before moving on to Plymouth, September 2 - 18.

For times and tickets call: 0845 835 50 50


And for the full story of Gerry Cottle and many other circus stars, from trapeze artists to animal trainers, read Circus Mania - The Ultimate Book For Anyone Who Dreamed of Running Away with the Circus by Douglas McPherson.

Click here to buy from Amazon!

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.