Rachel Bletchly Roll up, roll up for the greatest socially distanced show on earth!
The clowns are covid compliant, the acrobats are bending over backwards to please, and one nervous writer is feeling on edge… yes, the circus is back in town
THE French foot jugglers are itching to kick off, the Spanish hand balancers are smothered in antibacterial lotion and the contortionists are bending over backwards to get things ready. Paulo Dos Santos the Brazilian acrobat is flipping his 3ft 6in tall frame around the ring and the aerial artists are hanging about high on pre-show excitement.
I, however, am standing against a white board gouged with deep blade marks trying to stop myself shaking. “It’s important you don’t move,” says Toni Novoltini, the High Speed Knife Thrower from the Czech Republic, stating the bleedin’ obvious.
“My wife is my usual assistant and I’ve never hit her, but I did pin her dress to the board once.”
Before I can ask Toni if he’s practised much recently, a huge metal knife whistles past my face close enough to trim my eyebrows. Six more thud into the target and, as I check all my limbs are intact, a huge cheer goes up from the assembled ensemble.
I have passed my in-tents audition for Zippos Circus, the spectacular family show that is finally back in action after four months of corona lockdown.
The big top is up again on Southsea Common in Hampshire ahead of a nationwide tour and the 80-strong community have all been working flat out to make things safe. Circuses are classed as outdoor venues so have been allowed to open ahead of theatres.
So, roll up, roll up, ladies, gentlemen and children and take your socially-distanced seats for the greatest covid-compliant show on earth.
“We are absolutely thrilled to be back,” says founder and director Martin Burton, aka Zippo the Clown. “We are calling this the Rebound Tour as we’re determined to bounce back to our brilliant best.
“We’ve had to comply with stringent social distance and safety regulations but I’m confident our big top is now safer than my own home.”
Rows of seats have been removed but families and households can sit in bubbles and, as seats all face forward, the wearing of masks is voluntary.
BUT juggling Covid-19 safety concerns with the need to put on a good show means Martin and his wife Julia are inevitably walking a commercial tightrope.
“We are going to take a big hit,” says Martin with resignation. “We would normally seat 1,000 people but now it’ll be 400.
“And then there’s the expense of all the hand sanitiser stations, the
PPE and the ‘deepfogging’ machine we’ll use to disinfect the tent between performances. But everyone is just relieved and delighted to get back to work.”
During lockdown the 30 artists, many from overseas and working on contracts, faced a tricky balancing act to make ends meet.
Martin and Julia provided a safety net by allowing them to live at their winter quarters in Newbury, Berks. But circus folk aren’t very good at sitting around doing nothing, so, visas permitting, they went out and found other jobs.
The Kenyan tumblers became care home assistants and were warmly welcomed by staff and residents.
A juggler and her family did night shifts in a chicken factory and others worked as drivers. “That’s the circus work ethic,” says Julia. “But our Mongolian acrobats didn’t speak English and couldn’t find jobs – so local charities helped raise the money to get them home when flights resumed.” Even the ringmistress went to work in a meatpacking factory… to make ends meet. Tracy Jones, 52, from Oswestry, North Wales, is the circus’s first female ringmistress. She is covering for the veteran ringmaster Norman Barrett MBE who, at 85, is still shielding at home with his famous performing budgies.
Tracy’s been a circus performer since she was 16 and took a school summer holiday job as a stunt rider’s assistant and realised she had found her vocation.
Pretty soon she had run away from home to join the circus as a bareback rider, flying trapeze artist and snake performer.
“I’d try anything,” she says. “I had absolutely no fear. My mum was mortified when I packed my bags and went but I just had to do it.
“It’s the sense of community and the thrill of seeing the audience’s excitement too.
“That’s why we are all so thrilled to be back. It’s not a job but a way of life. You just get the bug.” But now, as well as compering the show, she has the added responsibility of keeping the performers and the audience safe from coronavirus.
And, sadly, that means no more audience participation – something that has hit the show’s hilarious French clown Emilion especially hard. “He had some brilliant routines involving audience members” says Julia. “Kids love to see their parents dragged up and vice versa but it’s just not possible.
“And there are no pantostyle ‘He’s behind you!’ routines either.
“We can’t have people shouting and screaming because of the risk of aerosol emission.”
Gasping and breath-holding absolutely fine, though.
And that’s the usual reaction to the staggering first-half finale – which sees the
‘A huge knife whistles past close enough to trim my eyebrows. Six more and I check if my limbs are intact’
should be