A penny wise clown lowers prices
When Trevor Kelly took his newly formed circus around the country last year, the biggest piece of feedback he got was cost.
So, he slashed his prices from $20 an adult and $15 a child and now charges just $5 for either.
‘‘What we found out was that people just can’t afford to bring their families along,’’ he said.
But Kelly will have to fill his 200-seat tent for his nine shows over the three-day weekend.
‘‘Without filling the tent the price would have to go up.’’
‘‘It’s a trial to see if we can make it with the $5 seats because there is a lot of overheads with it.’’
The show features Kelly as Trombo the clown as well as Diablo, a trio of performers who had travelled to New Zealand from Argentina who would be doing juggling, fire juggling, aerial hoop and trapeze in the 40 minute show.
Marius Dince, Pablo Bron and Maria Brighenti, who make up Diablo, decided to come to New Zealand after getting in touch with Kelly via Facebook and had been enjoying the experience so far.
‘‘The kids are the same in all the countries and the comedy is the same in all the countries; the people love all the same things,’’ Dince said.
‘‘And I love the sheep.’’ Horror movies such as Stephen King’s ‘‘IT’’, which features Pennywise the demon clown, had had an effect on circuses around the world, Kelly said, but that hadn’t stopped him.
‘‘Even circuses in the UK stopped using painted faces, the traditional faces, and I thought there’s no way I’m going to give up the traditional clown because it’s what I love doing,’’ he said.
‘‘I’ve had a few kids go ‘I’m scared of clowns’ but at the end of it we’re having photographs with them under the ring.’’
The small crew was busy setting up the tent yesterday morning and Kelly was hoping the small tent would be a selling point.
‘‘A lot of them are trying to be like Cirque du Soleil and, to me, you lose the audience anticipation when you go that way,’’ he said.