The Chicago Festival just sort of snuck up on me– I knew it was coming, I just thought it was next month. Well, next month has ARRIVED! The festival is happening THIS WEEKEND in Chicago, with over 30 different performances from 13 of the top circus performers from around the world. Here’s a list of the performances: http://chicagocircusfest.com/events/ (and if you’d […]
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Great news article about the declining circus in the U.K.. The video was produced by British student Natasha Turney, and this video recently won her the award for Student Journalist of the Year from the Birmingham Press Club . In Great Britain, many circuses are no longer allowed to use animals in their shows, and this has decreased the draw. […]
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The Bindlestiff Family Cirkus will be performing their 20nth anniversary cabaret this weekend at the Brooklyn Lyceum. The legendary Bindlestiff Family Cirkus Cabaret returns to Brooklyn from March 13 – 16 at the Brooklyn Lyceum! For 20 years, Bindlestiff’s New York City Cabaret season has been an alternative New York favorite providing a stage for the world’s best in circus, […]
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The Big Apple Circus’s Luminocity is a fun evening at the circus. It features some of Big Apple’s most beloved performers (although as advertised from a couple of years ago, Grandma has not come back. At least not yet!) Many of the acts have appeared under the Big Apple Circus tent before– and all of them are really good. Clown […]
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For the last few years, December has been a bit of a circus month in NY. Shows from all around the globe come to the Big Apple to make the end of the year just a little bit brighter. This year is no exception There are at least 3 circuses in town running concurrently over the next couple of weeks. […]
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Circus: from Egypt to Éloize Panel discussion Thursday, December 12th, 6:30 p.m. This coming winter, NYU Skirball Center will present Cirkopolis, a circus theater production by Cirque Éloize, a Quebec-based contemporary circus troupe. To celebrate and contextualize this production, a panel discussion will feature experts, practitioners and scholars from the world of circus. They will discuss early references to circus in ancient Egyptian […]
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As many of you are no doubt aware, I am one of a handful of flea circus proprietors in the world. My one man, two flea show, the Acme Miniature Flea Circus, has been performed in over 39 states and 6 countries since 1994. We have been fortunate to have received a fair amount of acclaim for the show, including […]
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The brand new Ringling show is in town through April 1, and it’s well worth seeing. (Buy tickets here: or look for discount tickets at Ticket Liquidator) Every year, Ringling rewrites a brand new show, and then sends it off around the United States on a 2 year tour. This show has as its premise the idea of construction. Elephants in hard hats. […]
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There are a bunch of events happening, clownwise in NYC this weekend. Partially because of APAP (The Association of Performing Arts Presenters ), which holds their annual conference in NY every January. So people try to have something going on so that bookers can see it. (Now why didn’t I think of that?) Here’s a few events you might be […]
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Robin Lane & Do Jump! Extremely Physical Theatre For over one-third of a century, Founder and Artistic Director Robin Lane has led the Do Jump! “actorbats” in creating a unique blend of theatre, dance, aerial work, acrobatics, dynamic visuals and live music that defies categorization. Celebrating both individual creativity and community spirit, Do Jump! has thrilled audiences throughout North America. […]
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FREE TICKETS TO THE CIRCUS! Are you excited? What’s better than that? The McCarter Theater in Princeton NJ is offering 2 free complimentary tickets to readers of this blog (and a couple of other related blogs) to their Circus Oz show on Saturday April 7 & Sunday April 8. If you are not familiar with Circus Oz, you are in […]
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I’m hanging around with 50 Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Clown College (RBBBC) Alumni this weekend on Cape Cod. It’s a little overwhelming. Clowns of all shapes, ages, and classes are here. Clown college started in 1968, and went up until 1997, there are over 1500 alumni of the school. Of course, some have passed on, some have stopped clowning […]
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Keeping with the theme of international circus/clowns, I recently was invited to see a show that has just opened up at the Union Square Theatre. It’s by a wonderful troupe from Montreal called Les Sept Doigts de La Main (The Seven Fingers of the Hand) I was in a circus with two of the 7 fingers in the early 1990’s […]
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“As circus artists, we aim to show the outrageous things that our bodies can do and to surprise people as much as we can,” said Chris Lashua, artistic director of the Las Vegas based contemporary circus troupe, Cirque Mechanics. “However, we take circus one step further by building machines that not only capture the spectacle of circus, but thrill in […]
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My good pal Greg DeSanto (executive director of the International Clown Hall of Fame) is quoted extensively in the April 2011 edition of Car and Driver, talking about the Physics of Clown Cars. They spend an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out (in mock terms) the maximum amount of clowns that can fit in a car. Here’s a […]
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I’ve been reading a blog “The Adventures of Steve and Ryan” which is a blog by Steve Copeland and Ryan Combs, the two clown partners that are on the Kelly Miller Circus. Kelly Miller is an Oklahoma based circus that has been performing since 1938, and is currently owned by John Ringling North. They bill themselves as “America’s Finest One […]
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