The Perfect Christmas Present

 

For anyone who ever dreamed of running away with the circus!

Hair-hanging with style at Cirquoise

 

The animal rights protest that made me love the circus

 

This is the picture and newspaper headline that started my journey into the circus. I'd been to the circus before, mainly to review shows at the Great Yarmouth Hippodrome. The Hippodrome was a living piece of history: Britain's oldest purpose-built circus building, replete with the bizarre Edwardian attraction of a ring that transformed into a swimming pool for synchronised swimming. Houdini and Charlie Chaplin had performed there, and even the variety star parents of former Prime Minister John Major. It was there that I met aerialist Eva Garcia... just days before she fell and died during her act. That tragedy brought home to me the dangers of circus performance.

But my trips to the Hippodrome, to review its all-human spectaculars for The Stage were twice-yearly occasions - a small part of my work; a minor side-interest of mine.

Then, in 2009, Martin Lacey reintroduced elephants to his Great British Circus, after a 10 year absence. It sparked animal rights protests intended to keep audiences away. But the protests caught the attention of the media, sparking TV news reports, and the above headline... and the moment I saw that photo of an elephant being rehearsed, I knew it was a glimpse into circus history that the even Hippodrome couldn't give me.

There, in a big top, with sawdust underfoot, was the REAL circus - a flavour of entertainment that I thought had long disappeared.

Soon I was sitting at that ringside, muddy grass beneath my feet, watching elephants, horses, camels and snarling tigers. I interviewed Lacey, and veteran showman Gerry Cottle. Within a week, I went to my second traditional big top show with animals: Circus Mondao, run by the descendants of perhaps the oldest families still in the circus business.

Within a fortnight I'd pitched the idea for my book, Circus Mania, and almost immediately been commissioned to write it. The stars aligned and I was off on a wild journey into a wild world. All because of a protest designed to keep audiences away.

Read Circus Mania, my thrilling ringside and backstage journey through the world of sawdust and spangles, talking to acrobats, showmen, clowns, sword-swallowers and tiger trainers about their lives, culture and superstitions.

Now in its second, updated, edition, it's the ultimate Christmas present for anyone who ever dreamed of running away with the circus. And if you never dreamed of doing that... you will after reading Circus Mania!

Gerry Cottle Remembered by his Circus Friends

Gerry Cottle with his Wookey Hole
circus school students

Five years after the untimely passing of circus giant Gerry Cottle on 13 January 2021, I thought it would be good to revisit the following tribute article that I wrote in The Stage, with contributions from some of his closest associates. Their memories seem especially poignant now that John Haze and Phillip Gandey have themselves passed away, bringing to a close a particular era in big top history.

Gerry Cottle, who died on 13 January 2021 aged 75, was “Britain’s Barnum – the greatest showman”, according to the British circus impresario’s friend and former business partner John Haze. Circus of Horrors director Haze says: “When I was a kid, Billy Smart was the name you associated with circus. Gerry took over that mantle. He had these great acts from bygone times, such as a man lifting an elephant with his teeth and Miss Atlas, the World’s Strongest Woman.”

“From the 70s onwards, you’d have to put Gerry Cottle at the top,” agrees fellow showman Phillip Gandey. “He took risks that other circuses weren’t prepared to. He had a flair for showmanship and publicity, which is the lifeblood of a circus. At a time when everyone said the circus was dying, Gerry said, ‘No we’re not, we’re here, we’re bright and vibrant.’ I think we all owe him a debt for that.”

Cottle served his apprenticeship as a juggler, stilt-walker and clown on Gandey’s Circus in the 1960s. Phillip’s father Joe Gandey gave Cottle his clown name, Scats, after being stuck behind a Southern Counties Agricultural Trading Society lorry on the A303, and showed him how to run a circus.

“Gerry said in his book Confessions of a Showman that it was my father who set him on the road to being a circus owner,” says Gandey, who was a boy at the time. “Gerry shared a 10-foot caravan with my elder brother Mike. We did a gala show with James Brothers Circus and that’s where Gerry met his wife Betty (Fossett).”

In later years, Gandey and Cottle were rivals.

“We weren’t at each other’s throats exactly,” Gandey laughs. “We’d take each other’s posters down and jump into a town ahead of the other. That’s just how it was. But you could still turn up on his site and have a cup of coffee with him.

“Gerry loved circus and always tried to put on the best possible show. It was the size and success of Gerry’s shows which drove us on to become bigger and better.” 

Cottle’s rise to fame was fuelled by two TV programmes. Within two months of starting Cottle & Austen’s Circus with long term associate Brian Austen in 1970, Trevor Philpott made a documentary about the five-person outfit which was billed on the cover of Radio Times as ‘the smallest greatest show on earth’.

In 1975, Cottle’s fame spread when BBC1 variety show Seaside Special was broadcast weekly from his big top.

“It had the prime time Saturday night slot that X-Factor or Britain’s Got Talent has now,” says Haze. “They had massive people on it, like Abba. It raised the profile of Gerry and circus as well.”

“The TV people liked Gerry’s can-do attitude,” says Cottle’s former ringmaster and general manager, Chris Barltrop. “He was very inventive when it came to getting around problems. He was never deterred.

“Gerry was very organised,” Barltrop goes on. “He had an exercise book and each day was a new page with things that needed doing under headings like ‘transport’ or ‘costumes’, and he’d just work his way through the list.

“He was admiring of other people and curious about other ways to do things. From Circus Roncalli in Germany he got the idea of putting a dab of makeup on people’s nose or cheeks as they came in. On their way home people would ask where they got it, which got them talking about the circus.”

Not everything Cottle touched turned to gold, including an ahead of its time non-animal student show in the early 80s that was critically praised but a box office disappointment. But he always bounced back.

“Gerry was a juggler when he was a kid,” says Haze, “and when you think about it: throw enough balls in the air and you’re going to catch a few. And that’s what he did. He tried a circus on ice which didn’t last long, but a day or two later he got an offer to take a circus to Hong Kong which was really lucrative.”

Cottle’s successes in the 1990s and 2000s included the Moscow State Circus, Chinese State Circus and Circus of Horrors, now in its 26th year.

“Gerry was the only one with the balls to do it,” says Horrors founder Haze, who teamed up with Cottle to stage the show at Glastonbury in 1995. “Then off we went around the world with it.”

In 2004, Cottle sold his circuses to buy the Somerset tourist attraction Wookey Hole, an ancient cave system. He expanded the site to include a circus school and a 58 bedroom hotel.

“Wookey Hole was turning over a reasonable amount of money when he bought it and I thought he was going to go there and take it easy,” says Haze. “But Gerry couldn’t take it easy. I went back within a year and, wow, had it changed! He’d put in a theatre and a dinosaur park. I thought: plastic dinosaurs in this place of natural beauty? But it worked.”

Cottle wasn’t ready to wave goodbye to the circus, however.

“Gerry’s various addictions have been well documented in the national press,” says Gandey, “but his biggest addiction was circus. I remember sitting in his office where he had a huge collection of circus books. He said, ‘I’ve read that when successful circus directors retire, they always take this last show out which loses a fortune, and I’m not going to do that.’ But of course he did! He told me what he lost on Zambezi Express and it was getting into seven figures.”

Undaunted, Cottle continued to produce touring shows including Gerry Cottle’s 50 Years of Circus and Magic and Gerry Cottle’s Turbo Circus.

“Even last year, during a pandemic,” says Haze, “he rang me up and said ‘I fancy putting a tent up on the prom in Weston-super-Mare.’ I thought, bloody hell, Gerry, is this the right time to risk something like that? If he’d lived, I’d have put money on him doing a summer season this year.”

Olympia Posirca performed in Cottle’s Wow! Show in 2012, although her connection to him goes back much further.

“My mum and dad met and fell in love on Gerry Cottle’s Circus. Their wedding reception was at his headquarters. When I was three or four months old, Gerry’s circus was the first one I was taken to.”

Although Cottle was in his mid-60s at the time of Wow!, his enthusiasm was undimmed, Posirca says.

“I was like a schoolgirl because I learned so much from him. The one thing I’ll never forget him saying was, ‘Remember there’s an audience and remember to smile. As long as you’re smiling the audience will smile.’ Even now, as soon as that curtain opens, I’m smiling.

“He wasn’t scared to push the boundaries of circus,” Posirca adds. “In my case, I wondered if people would want to see someone singing in a circus, but he brought those things together. I’ll always owe him for that, because my current boss saw me in Wow! and now I get to do singing and ringmistressing at Big Kid Circus.”

What motivated Cottle in later life?

“His family,” says Posirca. “He said he was doing Wow! to show his grandkids that you can do everything you want to, so don’t ever stop wanting and wishing for things.”

Asked if anyone will ever fill Cottle’s shoes, Posirca answers without hesitation, “Not a chance! He was one in a million and there will never be another Gerry Cottle.”

Gerry Cottle (L), Circus Mania author Douglas McPherson
and John Haze from Circus of Horrors.

Gerry Cottle was a major help when I was writing Circus Mania. As the top man in the business, he introduced me to people who would never otherwise have talked to me, including his longterm business partner Brian Austen, who ended up telling me things Gerry himself was surprised to learn!

Gerry also travelled half way across the country from Wookey Hole to attend the Circus Mania book launch at the then Circus Space in London. There was nothing in it for him, he simply supported anything to do with circus.

For more on Gerry Cottle, read Circus Mania. His name runs through it like the letters in a stick of rock because there wasn't a corner of the British circus industry in which he didn't have an influence.

The magic of the Indian circus

The circus is one of Britain's most successful cultural exports. Created in London in 1768, it quickly spread around the world. Wherever it went, it absorbed local traditions - acts native to that specific region. At the same time, different countries created their own unique flavour of the travelling big top show.

India was a relative latecomer to the circus world. Vishnupant Chatre established the country's first homegrown show, The Great Indian Circus,in 1880, inspired by a visit to Bombay by the Royal Italian Circus. 

Keeleri Kunhikannan, a martial arts and gymnastics teacher, trained acrobats for Chatre and opened India's first circus school in 1901. Many of Kunhikannan's pupils became key players in the subcontinent's emerging big top business and led to him becoming known as the Father of the Indian Circus. 

During the 20th century, the circus boomed in India as it did elsewhere. By the end of the century, however, it had problems. As the country modernised, it faced competition from television, cinema and the internet.

As in the West, there were concerns for the well being of the elephants and lions that formed the heart of the shows. Wild animals were banned from the Indian big top in 2017. Unlike their Western counterparts, Indian circuses also gained an unsavoury reputation for exploiting child performers who were sold into apprenticeships or even abducted, and more or less owned by the proprietors. Such practices have now also been outlawed. 

The Indian circus endures, however, and today has a very distinct character of its own. On a whistle stop tour of some of its biggest travelling shows - Jumbo Circus, NK Rolex Circus, Bingo Circus, Gemini Circus, Diamond Circus, and Malda Tarzen Circus - I saw many acts that you would see anywhere in the world, such as jugglers, aerial silks and flying trapeze. 

I also found more commonalities between each show than differences. Together they very much shared a distinct aesthetic, with similar acts and styles of presentation across the board. So rather than review individual shows, I have decided to list some of the common features that set the Indian circus apart from the UK scene.

1 - They have impressive frontages decorated with paintings of the acts. Gates in these brightly coloured facades typically lead to an open walkway to a tented foyer that is equally lavishly decorated. There's a definite sense of arriving at an Indian circus, especially considering that the prices start at 150 rupees, which is about £1.25 in UK terms, and the best seats go for 500 rupees (about four quid). 

2 - They like to keep the lights on. While UK shows favour a lot of lighting effects in blacked out big tops, all the Indian shows I saw were performed in brightly lit tents, with as much light on the audience as the ring. The lighting was only rarely dimmed - in one case for a limbo routine with a lot of fire, and in another instance for a Globe of Death with illuminated bikes. All the other acts took place in the same stark lighting, which also showed off the colourfully patterned ceilings of the big tops. 

3 - They're not big on individuality. None of the shows I watched had any kind of theme or storyline to set them apart from each other. More than that, they all tended to field very similar acts in much the same order. In fact some acts were almost identical from show to show, down to the costuming and even the music. At least three shows also had near identical flag-bearing opening parades. It was as if they were all following a common blueprint of what a circus should be. And perhaps that comes from an inherent part of the travelling show tradition. Circuses that come to your town are not really in competition with each other. You go to the circus that has come to you, rather than picking a show to go to. A show that dared to be different may risk disappointing expectations. 

4 - Little people are big in India. Nearly every show had two or three of what used to be called midgets, all clad in similar clown costumes and playing similar roles. 

5 - Bicycles are also big. By far the best acts I saw were female trick bicycle riders. Perhaps they stood out for me because we don't see many of them in Britain. But that's not the case in India. Every show had at least one bike act and often two - a solo performer and a group performance.

6 - But animals aren't. As in the UK, animals have almost completely disappeared from India's big tops. Across six shows I saw only one act with animals: a dog act.

7 - The Globe of Death sits on the sidelines. Literally. The motorbike cage is as ubiquitous in India as it is in the UK. The difference is that British shows invariably wheel the sphere into the centre of the ring, usually as a finale. In Indian big tops, the cage stands at the side of the tent, beside the ring doors. But not only when it's not in use. At every show it stayed in the same place, outside the ring, while the riders performed in it.

Highlights

Despite the sameness of the shows I watched, the most ardent circus fan would be hard pressed to visit any show in the world and not see at least one act they had rarely or never seen before, and that was the case in India as much as anywhere. Here are some of my favourites.

At NK Rolex, a neat fakir act in which two men each balanced with their arms and legs outstretched supported only by their torsos, which were each resting on four spear-like spikes. A board was then placed across their backs and a woman performed the same stance on a similar set of spikes positioned on top of the board.

Also at Rolex, a blindfolded swordsman slicing bananas held in the palms of his assistants.

At Jumbo Circus, a foot juggler using a very tall piece of apparatus best described as a pole with seven small platforms attached to its length and a basket on top. With deft thrusts and hip twists, the performer bounced an inflatable ball up the pole from one platform to the next before depositing it in the basket at the top.

Elsewhere were accomplished Chinese pole, aerial hoop, chair balancing and large troupe flying trapeze acts. It all added up to the magic of the Indian circus.

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!

The World's Strongest Teeth!

 

Circus star Michael Radiff has bitten his way to a Guinness World Record by lifting three people with a combined weight of 185.80 kg (409.61 lb) more than six inches off the ground... with his teeth!

The American Iron Jaw star performed the stunt in a show in Taipei City, Taiwan this year.

"Training Iron Jaw at the beginning was a very slow and painful process," said Radiff. "Building the strength and pain tolerance in my jaw and neck took a lot of patience and determination."

Tallest-Ever Human Pyramid Stands 10 Levels Tall

 

Not in a circus, but the tallest-ever human pyramid climbed into Guinness World of Records this year by reaching 10 levels at a festival to celebrate the birth of Krishna.

The pyramid reached a height of 14.73 metres (48 ft 3.92 in), which is as tall as a three-storey building, and broke a previous record of nine levels that had stood for decades.

Risk is part of the circus, says injured Globe of Death rider

 

The Globe of Death isn’t just a scary name. When you have multiple motorcyclists looping the loop inside a spherical cage, the stunt is only ever a second’s loss of control from a serious accident.

Proving the danger behind the glamour of every circus stunt, Globe of Death rider Malin Yovov came a cropper during a Circus Funtasia performance in Helston, Cornwall this summer. His tyre blew out, causing him to crash into another rider. He suffered three broken ribs – but won’t be deterred from rejoining the act as soon as he is able.

“This is all part and parcel of live entertainment,” Malin said on the circus’ social media. “People pay money to see the best shows in the UK with the most extreme stunts. I’m well aware of the dangers of this performance and I thrive off it. When I hear the audience go wild, I just can’t wait for the next show to do it all again.”

Click here for the story of how Circus Funtasia boss Tracy Jones ran away with a circus… and ended up starting her own.

Currently in Helston, Circus Funtasia will open in Bude on 11 August.

Big Kid Circus goes ape (big time!)

With its jungle scenery and a contortionist performing in the palm of a 30-foot-tall animatronic ape, could Kingdom of Kong, the new show by Big Kid Circus be the best looking show touring the UK this year?

Big Kid is celebrating its 20th anniversary, and with Kingdom of Kong, directed by Julia Kirilova, it proves why circus will never die: the big top's perpetual ability to introduce new, never-before-seen spectacle.

With a storyline in which the clowns are explorers trying to steal a diamond from an African tribe, the show also includes the world's only all-female Globe of Death motorcyclists and a very fresh-looking basketball-meets-springboard act.

Atmospheric music and lighting, and a view through ringside flora that transforms the performance area into a jungle clearing, create a fully immersive experience with a completely different appearance to traditional images of sawdust and canvas.

And if the above picture doesn't make you want to buy a ticket, what would???

For venues click here.