Dad knocked out by circus clown
A FATHER hit out at circus bosses last night after being knocked unconscious in a clown’s clumsy stunt.
Ben Garnham, 37, landed on his neck when a trick meant to make the audience laugh went horribly wrong.
He claimed staff “manhandled” him off-stage despite knowing he had a head injury and that he was lucky not to have been paralysed or even killed.
Ben said footage of the accident filmed by one of his daughters looked like a move out of a wrestling match – and as he lay senseless horrified spectators gasped: “Is he dead?”
The self-employed DJ, who was making his first trip to a Big Top, said: “It could have been much worse.
“I am grateful to still be here and hopefully there’s no long-term damage but I am pretty annoyed.”
Disaster struck on Monday night when he took daughters Jade, 22, and Amber, 19, to see Circus Zyair in Blackwood, Caerphilly.
Ben, from nearby Cefn Fforest, was plucked from the crowd for a trick to make it look like he had flipped clown Ben Coles into the air.
He said: “All I remember is bending over, being told to push against the back of his legs and then it all went black. I was completely out of it.”
As the stunned crowd stopped clapping four staff rushed to help.
The video shows them moving Ben, which he insisted should not have been done without expert medical training. He said: “They knew I had a head injury from the way I landed on my neck. It’s basic stuff.”
Ben – who suffered a golf ball-sized lump on his neck, bruising and sore ribs – was rushed to Royal Gwent Hospital and fitted with a brace.
He added: “A circus is a high-risk event and I would expect there to be trained first-aiders on stand-by.”
Circus Zyair has offered Ben and his family free tickets for Saturday’s show in Carmarthen.
It had not commented on the incident last night.