World Circus Day - But how do you define circus?

Does a horse and ringmaster a circus make?

Saturday 16 April, 2022 is the 12th World Circus Day. But what is a circus in 2022? Is it different from a 'cirque'? Should it have animals? Must it be in a tent?

I wrote the piece below back in 2015 in response to some comments by contemporary circus people that sought to distance themselves from what Charlie Wood of the Edinburgh Fringe’s Circus Hub called the “nasty tents” and “hack clowns” of traditional circus.

If the c-word has such negative connotations for them, I argued, why don’t they come up with a new name for a new form of entertainment that while using circus skills generally results in something that looks and feels very different from what many people would call a circus?

But can we define what a circus actually is?

For me:

It doesn’t have to have animals - the Moscow State Circus is an example without them.

It doesn’t have to be in a tent - the Yarmouth Hippodrome is a purpose-built circus building. Other venues such as the Roundhouse and Royal Albert Hall are perfectly suited to circus, and the very first circuses were in amphitheatres.

It can have themes and story lines - Giffords Circus being an example that mixes theatre with the traditional elements of a big top, sawdust ring and horses.

But for all the differences between the above shows, they have one thing in common: a programme comprised of a variety of different acts.

Astley's - Where it all started.

All the acts in Philip Astley’s original circus - horse riding, acrobats, strong man, clown - existed for hundreds or even thousands of years before he brought them together in a single show - and they weren't called circus until he did. So if Astley is by general consent the Father of the Circus, it must surely be the bringing together of disparate acts into a whole that’s bigger than the sum of the parts that defines the art form.

Many acts have been introduced to the circus since Astley’s time: the flying trapeze; magic; wild west displays and other historical re-enactments. The strength of the format is that it can incorporate just about anything: kung fu, performing budgies, human cannonball, motorbikes, hypnotism.

It’s the continually changing line-up - the constant search for a unique must-see attraction  - that has kept the circus popular and relevant for 250 years. And it’s because of the constantly changing repertoire, as different acts come and go, that it’s hard to say any one act is essential. If a circus can have flying trapeze or not and still be a circus, it should be able to have animals or not and still be a circus. It’s the format that makes it a circus, not the content.

By the same token, individual acts are not in isolation circuses.

Clowns are a familiar sight in the circus.
But is a party clown a circus act?

Clowns, for example, are often seen as the ‘face’ of the circus. But clowns also work outside of circuses (party clowns, for instance) and when they do, their show is not circus; it’s clowning.

Jugglers are a circus staple. But a juggling troupe performing at a festival is not a circus - it’s a juggling show.

Tightrope is a circus skill, but Nik Wallenda walking across the Grand Canyon is not in itself a circus.

It recently pained me to read an article that described Bromance by the Barely Methodical Troupe as “circus at its purest.” By “pure,” I guess the writer meant unadorned. The show is performed on a bare stage largely without props or equipment. But the show is more an example of gymnastics than circus.

Zippos or Giffords would be better examples of circus purity, since they retain the elements of Astley’s first circus: horse riding skills, a circus ring and a variety of other acts.

The three-man Barely Methodical Troupe, to me, are comparable to an act like the Kenya Boys. The latter perform a mix of balancing acts within many circuses, but if they performed their routine on its own in a theatre it would have to be called something other than a circus, such as an acrobatics display.

The idea of defining circus as a format is not about it being traditional or contemporary, incidentally, and there’s no reason why circus can’t up date; in fact, it always has.

Cirque Berserk is basically Zippos minus the animals, dressed in a more contemporary way and relocated from a tent to a theatre. It’s a mixture of acts presented in an exciting modern way but just as much a circus as its parent.

Cirque du Soleil - the progenitor of new circus - may have linked its acts with a theme or storyline, just as Russian circuses did before them, but it too retained the format of a lot of different acts, and different types of act, being brought together into the same show - a circus.

Many of the companies calling themselves circus today, by contrast, are basically single act shows that draw on a narrow repertoire of skills (usually its a mix of acro-balance and aerial acts - you seldom see a big stunt like a wheel of death or a human cannonball). They are the ones that should be calling themselves by a different name. And why not, if the image of circus is such a burden to them that people like Charlie Wood have to battle popular perceptions of what circus is?

Instead of trying to redefine circus in their own image, why not leave the C-word to circuses and come up with a new one that defines them as they are?

Finally, to prove this is about defining different art forms, rather than saying one is better than another, I’ll leave you with Thomas Chipperfield’s An Evening With Lions and Tigers. Wow, you might think, big cats in a big top - ‘Tiger Douglas’ is going to like that! And, of course, I do. But since it contains no other acts (as far as I know) I wouldn’t call it a circus. And neither, it seems, would Chipperfield.

“What we are doing isn’t actually a circus,” he told BBC Radio Wales, “It’s animals in a show.”

Wouldn’t it be more accurate if certain other shows said, “What we are doing isn’t actually circus, it’s gymnastics and dance in a piece of conceptual theatre.”

Douglas McPherson is the author of Circus Mania - The Ultimate Book for Anyone who Dreamed of Running Away with the Circus.

Click here to buy the new, updated 2nd Edition!

Insuring the circus

Ever thought about accident insurance?

Ever wondered what it costs to insure all those high-risk acts in the circus? I looked into the matter for an article in The Stage - and my findings were surprising. Read the article here.

# Tiger Douglas!

Not being on Twitter, I've only just noticed what a storm blew up around my Daily Telegraph article, A Critic's Plea: Stop All Arts Funding Now.

There have been newspaper articles about it and blogs. No less than the chief executive of the Arts Council weighed in with a column. I was even given my own hashtag on Twitter - #tigerdouglas, which makes amusing reading.

The nickname came from this brilliant send-up in Exeunt Magazine which you just have to read to the end. The tears of laughter are still rolling down my face!

Giffords Circus brings its horses to London for the first time in 10 years

Read all about it at Blasting News.
And read my review of Giffords Circus - The First Ten Years here.

Why the circus needs to take risks

In The Stage today, read Circus Mania author Douglas McPherson's views on why the circus needs risk... and animals... and why contemporary shows forget that at their peril. Click here to read it.

Love in the Elephant Tent - Book Review

Fancy reading a real-life Water For Elephants? Kathleen Cremonesi's new memoir Love in the Elephant Tent is equal parts love story and circus adventure. Click here to read my review on the world's fastest-growing news site, Blasting News.

Clowns - Scaring people since 1892

According to a report in the Guardian over the weekend, the 'Jimmy Saville factor' is scaring off business for party clowns. But scary clowns are nothing new - they've been scaring people since Victoria was on the throne. Click here to read my 200-year history of scary clowns.

Bobbo Roberts - 30 Years a Clown (Part 2)

Bobbo Roberts has been a clown since he was 13-years-old and, without wishing to give his age away, 2016 is his 30th in the business. 

In the second part of a two-part interview (you can read the first part here) he gave me his views on what it takes to be a clown and the future of clowning in Britain.

What tips would you give an aspiring clown?

Don't become a clown because you want to be funny, become a clown because you NEED to be funny. A wiser man than I once said clowns aren't made, they are born. You can learn all the skills in the world, buy the most expensive costume and the biggest boots and never be a clown. If there's something inside you that is already a clown just waiting to be born it will come out by itself. You need to love people, watch them interact, study from past masters who've paved the way for you. You never stop learning or growing. There isn't a magic formula that will make you a clown, but if it is your passion and you look for inspiration everywhere your clown will let you know where you need to be. Oh and if you've ever thought it's ok, I can mess up, I'm supposed to be clown, or looked at a cheap afro wig and thought this is my look then maybe consider a career in accountancy, because it's not for you. You have to be yourself as a clown. I can't tell you how to be YOUR clown but I can say you'll know it's for you if you always seek out new opportunities to learn and to work in different places and ways.

Bobbo is a proud member of the
Grand Order of the Water Rats
and is seen here with fellow members
 comedy legend Ken Dodd
and legendary scriptwriter Jimmy Perry,
co-writer of Dad's Army.

Please tell us a bit about your part in Love Labour Lost (Bobbo was supporting Simon Thompson's Clown Noir in a production at Britain's oldest music hall in 2015) and how it differs from what you’ve done before?

It's a different experience working in a theatre as opposed to in the sawdust ring. I only recently started working theatres this past winter. There's a lot to be learned from working with other talented performers such as Simon. His style is more theatrical but he has worked in circus and street too. My main reason for working this kind of show is that I want to tread the boards where some of the greats have worked and let Bobbo out to play on the music hall stage. It's been in his heart for a while (and in his blood). It's about time it was under his feet too. Clowning has always grown and adapted to the world around it, after all it's a reflection of the world. So I thought what better way to bring my clowning bang up to date than performing in the world's oldest surviving music hall in my 30s-style way with a clown doing Shakespeare.

How do you see the future of clowning in Britain?

Clowning in recent years has taken something of a downturn in the public’s eyes - ironically, as more and more people don the slap and motley. Circus clowning is a very different kettle of fish to what birthday party entertainers, and walkabout/street clowns may encounter. At the same time, circuses have big bills to pay and may not want to pay feature artist prices for a clown that really knows how to entertain and perform a signature act. Run in clowns seem to be the norm to cover act changes and equipment moves within the circus and of course everyone expects to see clowns at a circus so some shows make the decision to employ young lads, josser clowns or ring boys to don the make up and baggy pants and re hash the same old routines that haven't got laughs for years. It's a real shame as the public never get to see the quality of clowning out there that say the European audiences get to enjoy. Unfortunately this financial decision creates the idea that clowns are just folks in oversized clothes cheap wigs and with make-up they haven't even grown into yet, and for the short term financial gain they're losing their future audience. Sometimes I just want to grab them and give them a good shake and say, clowning is more than that. It can be delicate, tender, make you think, connect with an audience on an emotional level, It doesn't have to involve laughs but benefits form them. It can have pathos and make you really feel for the clown's plight. Clowning is after all an art but if we in the business see it as something anyone can do, can we really blame our audiences for thinking the same? Clowning will survive. It's been about for thousands of years in one form or another. I'm still growing and performing and taking my show to the theatres, on to the streets, in burlesque clubs and anywhere else that will have me. The future of clowning is in the hands of the clowns. As long as we grow and move with the times then we'll always have an audience. After all everybody loves to laugh.

Is there anything else you'd like to add?

I’d just like to say how proud I am to be a member of the Grand Order of Water Rats, and how I love my folks and my Gillian and two boys, Logan named after a well known Scottish music hall comic called Jimmy logan, and Bailey, named after Bailey Fossett my god father. It's the next lot of Roberts Brothers.

2nd Edition
out now!

For more on clowns and clowning, read Circus Mania - The Ultimate Book for Anyone Who Dreamed of Running Away with the Circus. Click here to read the reviews.

The new, updated 2nd Edition includes my meeting with Bobbo at Peter Jolly's Circus!

When Circus Stunts Go Fatally Wrong

Twice hospitalised but undeterred
and accidents likes the two headline-making cases last week keep happening
in the world of circus, sometimes with fatal results. 

Read all about it... in Circus Mania author Douglas McPherson's account in the Daily Telegraph.

Bobbo Roberts: 30 Years a Clown (Part 1)

Bobbo by the river (Photo: Mike Brittain)

Bobbo Roberts has been a clown since he was 13-years-old. He comes from one of the world’s oldest circus families but combines a sense of tradition with an eye to the future. As well as circus rings, he’s worked in burlesque clubs and in 2015 made a guest appearance in Simon Thompson’s ‘clown noir’ adaptation of Shakespeare’s Love, Labour, Lost at the Britannia Panoptican, Glasgow. 

In the first part of a two-part interview, he tells us about his 30 years as a clown.

Did you always want to be a clown?

When I started in the business I had mentors in all of the circus arts willing to teach me. That’s one of the advantages of being born into the profession. I tried presenting horses at first, but doing the same structured act every time wasn't for me and I started mucking about and milking laughs from the audience. I did a dog act with a little comedy in it, thinking that'd be enough but the act still required structure as you can't really go off script too far with dogs. They're very intelligent animals but aren't the best at improv comedy. I even tried a goose act at one point. One day my dad took me to one side and said "It's obvious you lack the discipline in the ring for these acts, if you really want to clown about and get laughs why don't you go talk to your uncle Jack (Fossett) and see if he can make a clown of you."

Passing on the tradition
Bobbo's father Bobby Roberts with Jacko Fossett
and Jon Fossett in 1958

Who taught you the most about clowning?

From an early age I had a love of music hall as well as circus clowning and it's hard to pick one clown who Influenced me. The Rastelli Clowns were the first to put me in makeup, Jacko Fossett took me under his wing and around the world, David Konyot helped me grow as a performer and develop a more subtle make-up. I worked with Karl Brenner for 2 seasons learning how to get maximum laughs out of a bucket of slosh. Alongside working with all these pros I kept researching all types of clowning, watching clowns from European circus, big American shows but also the clowns of the stage: George Carl, Ed Wynne, Harry Langdon; and the silent movie clowns, Buster Keaton, Stan Laurel, and Harold Lloyd. The thing about clowning is you have to be yourself, you can't be someone else. I've always believed if you do what makes you laugh and bring the audience along with you it's more true. So I seek out all comedy clowning and otherwise, and whilst I'm not a clone of anyone, everyone who has made me laugh has influenced me in some way.

Bobbo with the (fairly) big cats
on Peter Jolly's Circus last year

How would you describe your look and style of clowning?

The look has changed a lot over the years. Most clowns start out with a full face of slap and as they grow as performers it become less of a mask and more of a window. My style has changed as my confidence grew along with my makeup. Experience teaches you a lot. Yes, you can get a laugh from pouring a bucket of slosh down your trousers but you can get massive laughs from a well timed look once you can read your audience. My current look is referred to by some as European style auguste, personally I refer to him as Bobbo. My style is constantly growing as I grow. I'd say Bobbo is currently a clown out of his time, an innocent born of the 1930s era, equal parts music hall and circus. He's everybodys best mate and wants everyone to enjoy themselves as much as he does.

Where do you buy things like your clown boots and make-up?

Prada and Louis Vitton, but mostly Oxfam. No, seriously, it used to be a struggle to get decent costumes and boots, you'd have to pester people who can sew on the show. Nowadays you only have to go to Google and type clown boots and you'll have pages of results come up. I still like to look around charity shops, though, as I like to look different. Some things are ready to wear some may need adjusting but everything will be unique.

What do you most enjoy about clowning?

Making someone smile. It's corny but true. Clowning is a form of theatre where the fourth wall doesn't get broken; it's never built in the first place. You interact with your audience. You don't perform to them, you conspire with them. Not a lot of performers get that level of intimacy with their audiences. Most artists with a skill based act can repeat a fluffed move to rapturous applause, a clown gets one chance to get to the punch-line or he's blown the gag. The audience will really take you into their hearts and that's a lovely feeling.

In Part 2 of his interview, Bobbo offers his thoughts on what it takes to be a clown and how he sees the future of clowning in Britain, in circuses and elsewhere. Click here to read it.

You'll also find Bobbo in the new updated edition of CIRCUS MANIA! Click here to buy from Amazon.