it's been a while.

 It's been over a years since my last blog so to anyone who has been waiting with bated breath for the latest musings from my  racing fingers my apologies and you need bate your breath no more,

Before i start I promise I will return to 'My Life , The Universe and Other stuff ' in the very near future. 

In 2017 I retired, We'd thought about buying a small place and settling down,  Ancsa wanted to live in Wales I preferred Scotland but we got an offer we couldn't refuse to go to Germany and with Brexit impending and FOM with its travel restrictions being part of the deal I wasn't happy about staying around so Germany was a good idea.

A couple of days ago I celebrated 76 years on this small blue planet on the edge of the Milky way Galaxy from which I draw the conclusion that theres more behind me than in front and it's a sobering thought, 

My last blog was about working during the pandemic to an online only audience at the Budapest Capitol Circus , If you are interested you can scroll back and read the article it was published on June 3 2021.

After the Dynasty shows Ancsa and I worked for the Hungarian Museum of Circus Arts on an ad-hoc basis, I was asked to do some research and writing about Circus in General for entry into the Library archives and a little while later Ancsa was seconded to the main Circus building helping to prepare the 2022 Budapest Circus Festival a job she excelled at and as a result she was kept on in the Circus office as an assistant to the direction and I continued writing. 

2021 October I was asked by Fekete Peter the Hungarian Capitol Circus director who at the time was the Hungarian Culture Minister to assist in arranging a special conference on European Circus Buildings and suggest people that I thought would have knowledge of the subject and be available to attend.

The conference was to be a Gala event opening the 2022 Budapest Circus Festival taking place in mid January,  the venue was the imposing Museum of Fine Arts on Hero Square and over the next few hectic weeks a stellar line up of experts was assembled and the  Conference, the first of its kind anywhere in the world, got under way.

The UK was represented by  Chris Barltrop and Dr Steven Ward, 

from France :-Dr Alan Frere, 

Jean Arnaud and Dominique Denis,

Pascal Jacob ( on Zoom)

Mr Gilles Maignant 

from Bulgaria :-Dragomir Draganov

From Canada:-Prof; Paul Bouissac (also on Zoom)

From Hungary :- 

Ms Anna Klara Andor

Ms Fanni Farkas

Mr Mihaly Szecsenyi

The museum was decorated with models, moquettes and images of circus buildings past ands present with a special presentation of the proposed new Circus Structure for the Hungarian Capitol Circus,  all researched and put together by the Hungarian circus museum director Mrs Joo Emese who over recent years has gathered a plethora of costumes, props and other artefacts from all the major Hungarian Circus families and Artists all of which are now in an air conditioned temperature controlled facility awaiting the construction of the Hungarian Circus Arts Museum where they will be displayed. I am happy to say that a large contribution from the Könyöt Family will be among that collection.

A couple of weeks before the conference took place the Circus director asked if I would be the moderator for the conference , that took me by surprise as I don't speak Hungarian too well, but an instant translation service was employed along with the TV, Radio and Video  transmission companies which meant that I could happily use my native language.

The conference was a huge success and created world wide interest form Circus historians and academics the world over.

in 2022 I was awarded the Hungarian Silver Cross for my lifetime contribution to Hungarian and International Circus, a great Honour and a deeply moving moment which I, in my heart, dedicated to the Könyöt family whose examples of excellence throughout the years have always inspired me to maintain those high standards in my own working life. 

Since then a lot has happened , Following the Dynasty shows  we went on tour with the 'Magyar Nemzetközi Utazó Nagycirkusz', owned and run by the Adam Rudolf family who had  had also appeared in the Dynasty shows with their various and impressive acts which included Krisztian Adam on the High Wire , Rudolf Adam jnr with his Juggling act, Angelina Adam on her high school horse and the family all together with a Juggling on Horseback presentation that brought back memories of Gaby Donnert in his heyday.They are  extremely talented reminiscent of the Circus families of old, self contained and driven by their work ethic.

In 2022 we bought a small house with a little land south of Budapest near the Danube which will keep me busy for the foreseeable future

2022/3 Xmas season we were at the Ulm WeinachtCircus, good show with very good business, I enjoy working in  Germany always an appreciative audience,

April 2023 we started work at the Casselly Family's 'Kimba Elephant Park' in Gyor near the border with Austria. Lili was asked to produce a Western show for the park as an addition to the attractions already there which included Pedersens Sealions and Rene Casselly with an Elephant display. 

Thats it for this one.

 Music is emotional ,it has the power to inspire , to make you laugh , to make you cry, it leads armies into battle , accompanies the dead on their last journey , according to Congreve “music hath charms to soothe the savage breast , to soften rocks or bend a knotted oak” Powerful stuff indeed and thats before you add lyrics.   Good writing can,  and has ,changed the world so when a composer and a lyricist get together their boundaries are endless  , Musicals , Operas  , Country and Western  , Rock ,Pop, Grunge , Grind , Garage , Punk, a million  possibilities  and with modern technology as many ways to listen .Music is with us 24/7 Every high street , Every store, Every shopping centre , on trains, on buses ,in Taxis, even in a lift  we are bombarded with a constant wall of sound .   

                   And then there is CIRCUS !

  My earliest experience of music for Circus was  around the mid '50's on a circus belonging to some relation of ours , because the previous 'Musician', and I use the term very loosely , had left I ended up sitting on a stool behind a snare drum and Cymbal next to  a panatrope , the original name for a record player  , The 78rpm  discs were in order and before  each act  I would pick the next one from the pile put it  on the player start it and accompany it with the snare drum , even though during my career I managed to master many Instruments, Drums were not among them , luckily the music was either a basic3 /4  waltz or a 4/4 swing . The least problem was getting the discs mixed up , the acts were unfazed by the music, they just performed took their bow and went off ,  This was , of course , a small family Circus with the  sole ambition  to survive , the bigger shows had proper bands dressed in military style uniforms , a throwback to earlier times when that style of music was the only choice.

Jumping forward to the '70's After a decade of performing my own musical comedy act in theatres I went back to my Circus roots and slowly I started producing individual acts and a little later full shows ,I knew that in the modern era Music and lighting had taken on a whole new role in Circus  , it could enhance or diminish a performer  and a wrong choice could affect the atmosphere of the show itself .  My first one  was for two sisters and their Corde' Lise act , two ropes hanging from the roof of the  big top on which they performed a display of acrobatic and aerial skills , we choreographed it to  version of  Gershwin's ' Rhapsody in Blue edited to 6 minutes with the girls routines being perfectly synchronised to each other and the music which could be played live or from a cassette tape which many shows had started using  , The entrance , the act and the exit  were performed In one fluid movement , no pauses for applause in between tricks or moves until they reached the curtains at the end ,whereupon they turned ,looked at the audience and just slightly bowed their heads , because we had not let the audience show their appreciation for individual tricks   the reaction was tremendous. 

I then put a more acts together with some success , I was usually given the job of putting the show together on whatever show I was in  at the time ,this would be a basic running order with an opening and a finale normally done to some march or other but I had very little control over the music or general production .

The first time I put a complete show together from start to finish was Circus Harlequin in the early '90's ,I then realised that doing an individual act was rewarding  but now I wanted the music to do something different, it had to convey  a theme and a mood  , each act and the comedy had to link together to present a complete package to the audience , We still had live music but there was also more technology , mini discs !!! my scope was bigger and together  with the Owner Martin Lacey, the chief Airealist Larry de Wit and our 'Band ' organist Dave and drummer Phil we  produced a ground breaking show , I will highlight two acts .

Sue Lacey  , Martins wife was small , Blonde and an excellent wild animal trainer , she presented a group of tigers and  the lights and the music were used to enhance an already  excellent performance , Blue lights and Ravels 'Bolero ' played with a combination of live and recorded music so that it sounded like a full orchestra produced an act of such quality and class that I am still reminded of it many years later by those who saw it .

The second example was the aerial cradle act of Larry De Wit and his partner Georgia , I had the idea of the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet  so we started with a voiceover of “ But soft, what light through yonder window breaks , 'tis the east and juliet is the sun”  during which the spotlight picked up georgia ( Juliet) on the cradle frame in the roof of the big top , her  long white dress in the shape of a tube ( the light from yonder window ) flowed to the ground masking a rope ladder which Larry ( Romeo) climbed , I was then presented with a dilemma , there were three music options   Prokofiev , Tchaikovsky and Bernstein's  'West Side Story '( the last  however would have meant significant changes in presentation`)
 In the end I chose Prokofiev as it seemed the perfect combination of the other two with both old and modern themes .
There is another version by Berlioz but it didn't fit the criteria I needed .

I went on to produce  other shows in the UK ,and in 2001 along with Ancsa we produced a new German Circus show called  “Manege “ .

   Over the last twenty years  I am noticing different trends In Circus music , with the majority of shows having no live music and relying only on  digital music players both they and the performer are presented with some problems , for instance if a juggler drops a club or a ball , a flying trapeze artist misses a trick and has to climb back up to retry this changes the timing , a live band can and usually  did adapt to the change , nowadays even with the wonderful editing options on your PC media app  a digital player can't do that so other solutions have to be found , this sometimes  means compromising  between  the choice of music in the knowledge  that  the performance has to be perfect every time  which is extremely difficult to accomplish , or you pick music that is not your first choice  but lets you have a little room to manoeuvre  if something goes wrong .
 Some artists coming from Circus Schools  leave with a finished act , Lighting cues , music, props etc all done and dusted which is fine until they get to a show where someone else has the same music .
 Other  problems can arise when you make your music  choice too personal , you pick a song because you like it without thinking of what is best for your act and the reaction of the audience . 

Picking a currently popular song is also a danger as songs go out of fashion as quickly as they come in .
When 'Love is in the air ' came out in '77 nearly every horse act in european circus  used it , the Superman theme was taken by  a myriad of male aerial acts and Star Wars was used by everyone  from jugglers to clowns  .
I have used various tunes in my capacity as a Musical Clown but always finished with a  March this was and still is a bit traditional even though there are very few Musical Clown acts around any more  .

 There has never been a great deal of Music written especially for circus , Originally military music was used hence the Band Uniforms , in the 20's 30' and 40's  the lack of widespread  access to  music, relying on  radio and phonographs , limited the options for performers . Nowadays Cirque du Soleil use all original music for their shows but the lyrics are in a language of their own composing and are special to each particular performance or show , I can only think of a couple of Soleil tunes that have made it into wider Circus use.
'Salto Mortale ' is a well known circus march used  for openings or finales and the Monte Carlo Circus Festival has it's own theme tune , some artists through the years  have had  their music specially written but again it's a small number .

Finally What I have noticed throughout my time is that audiences are somehow empathic to the music used in a performance, they instinctively know if it's right or wrong , If, after a show you asked them why, they couldn't tell you, but they know and if the audience is happy you've done your job and thats all that matters. 

    

ONLONE -OFFLINE

Live or Online ?

a study by David Konyot

Prologue.

Good clowns open their heart and soul to the public, To free them from the stresses and strains of life they gives the gift of laughter, allowing themselves to be mocked, ridiculed, soaked, tripped, humiliated and thwarted in romance

.

This offering of their innocence to the crowd is the greatest love.

---- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------- ------ ------ ------ -----

To ask a clown to perform to an empty room is an anathema, we live for and thrive on public approval, they are our mirror, take them away and we are a shadow.

Buildings don't smile or laugh and bare seats don't giggle like children

The arrival of the pandemic presented us with a challenge, adapt and learn or be forgotten or worse, to be brought back when it's all over but thought less of and in a diminished role.

So the first rule was -forget the rules,

The audience is now behind the small lens of a camera and not only can't we see them , we can't hear them.

Of all the problems that faced us that was the hardest, the volume and length of a laugh is our metronome, It dictates everything and can add or subtract time from the performance.

There were laugh tracks added to the online video but a laugh at the push of a button in a sound room is no substitute in either volume or length for the real thing.

Ref (a)

If memory serves there were 6 cameras filming the online shows A,B,C,D plus the Gala musor in January, so we had to concentrate on working to those 6 spots imagining that behind each of those lenses were hundreds of people, this restricted our normal movement and choreography.

Ref (b)

Having to discipline ourselves to 6 spots in the Fovarosi Building was not easy , as I said the natural instinct is to move around trying to make eye contact with as many of the audience as possible , My wife's situation was a little easier, as the 'Authority' figure against which I combat, creating the conflict that is the basis of all comedy, she was in one position in the ring but still has to connect with the cameras to portray her frustration at my antics.

The first major change we did was reposition our microphone to a place further forward in the ring, normally I would have it about 3m from the ring entrance, this gives us a view of the majority of the audience, every 1m forward from there means that 2/300 people are looking at your backside , not good for comedy ! So we worked more than halfway into the ring and being nearer the cameras gave us a better chance to display the emotions and expressions needed .

I have to admit that I found it hard for a couple of days, looking for the cameras, getting frustrated at the laugh tracks which could be too early, too late or sometimes not at all, finishing the act without that sense of satisfaction that comes with genuine applause.

That last one never went away but I solved the rest by resorting to what is called 'Institutional memory', When I did anything that I knew always got a laugh I let my instinct take over and judge the timing before I carried on, it worked and life got easier, The only drawback is in the long term it's not possible to try out new gags or routines with no audience as your barometer.

PS I have added 2 references to further illustrate the importance of timing and choreography to comedy.

After 4 months of online shows we were back live and to my surprise for the first time in my career I was nervous, I don't think anyone noticed but it took a couple of shows before I was completely relaxed,

The 4 months of online shows was a new experience for me and as always you have to learn from everything, I did.

=========================

(a) The length and depth of laughs is different at every performance depending on how many in the audience, % of children is important because they have no inhibitions so they giggle and laugh longer, Adults are more reserved, so less time.

(b) The choreography of a comedy routine is vital and changes depending on the venue and how many in the act.

if you are on your own you have freedom of the ring.

Two - A perimeter and a distance, too close and there's no conflict, too far and it's impersonal.

lazy journalism and detrimental bias.

When will the Press stop using CIRCUS and CLOWN as words to describe Political chaos and incompetence especially now.

the present PM and his administration are constantly being referred to or pictured and photoshopped as clowns.

CIRCUS throughout the world survives through the teamwork and dedication of the disparate collection of artists gathered to entertain the public,

they travel the world and everywhere they go they take their work ethics, principles and morality with them ,

Unlike Politicians and the Press they hold themselves to a higher standard, and many take their life in their hands every time they perform, the only thing the press and politicians take in their hands is a glass full of something alcoholic

Circus survives and grows because we are the epitome of a good responsible society that is tolerant of all, CIRCUS is not sexist or racist and every artist is judged by their work and nothing else, Would that todays political leaders followed our example.

In this time of uncertainty due to the pandemic the co-operation between circuses and artists to help each other has been amazing, The FB page Circus SOS started by David Hibling has been a beacon of hope during the last months and shows our community at it's best. We must not let the media

denigrate us with their lazy journalism

If you think I'm right please share or put your own post up, lets try and stop the press from using the words CIRCUS/CLOWNS in this derogatory manner.

If you see an instance in the press, social media or TV write an email and complain, copy and paste this post to them in the email.

Thank You

I miss the phone calls

My mother and I had a strange, strained but mainly superficial  relationship , there was an underlying theme that we never explored, the elephant in the room ,

As explanation I was born in 1947 my mother was 17, my father 19 , in comparison to teenagers of the present time they were innocent babes,  neither had a great academic education , they were both from circus families to whom artistic skills were more important than the three R's. They met when my mothers Hungarian  family worked on my Grandfathers  Circus in England . Mother was an acrobat / contortionist and my father was a clown , animal trainer, horse rider , mechanic, ,a true jack of all trades, but this was normal in Circus life . Privately he was something else, nowadays his conduct would be classified as abusive and threatening  but in those days domestic violence was a fact of life,  the difference between a slap round the ear and a punch to the head was negligible.

My details are unimportant for as the 21st century advances we hear stories of child and adult abuse both mental and physical that are heartrending and sickening , we have grown as a society and no longer tolerate such atrocities but back in the '50's enlightenment was still a generation away .

1952 my story took a strange turn , I was 5 years old and was put into the hands of two lovely people in Stourbridge , The Rodens , George and Rosa .    they were friends of my fathers family and at some point my father and his sister Violet were left there to go to school ,  20 years later I was left with them for the same purpose , by this time George had retired from a life working for the railways and both he and Rosa were in their '60's, They were wonderful generous , openhearted  people  but being presented with a precocious 5 year old must have been a poisoned chalice, at the very least I was  a ferrel child with little or no social graces and , I spent the next 5 years going to school and in the holidays a luggage label was put round my neck and I was put on a train to be picked up by various relations on whatever circus /theatre they were in and spent time with them , in retrospect  I don't remember getting Birthday or Xmas card/presents from my parents during that time but that wasn't strange as i didn't know what parents were supposed to do. My memories of those years are at best minimal , I have flashbacks of moments but they comprise of a few snapshots but nothing substantial .

I don't write this to get a sympathetic response but just to explain how it affected my later life and  more importantly my relationships .

From  my 10th  to 15th birthday lots happened to affect me,  my parents were divorced, they both remarried , my mother got custody in the divorce and put me in boarding school , I ran away and ended up with my father but we had a  physical  altercation and I left him to get a job on my own in a small circus owned by a relation .
 In my first 15 years that final decision was the only one I made as an individual , until then every one was taken without my inclusion or involvement .






 

life ,Love and birthdays

 As we approach my youngest  daughters 21st birthday on the 9th of August  my heart is breaking , it's the first one we won't be together to party and celebrate and my family is a huge and treasured  part of my  life .

For my first 40 years this wasn't so because for reasons which I never came to terms with but eventually understood my parents were not a major part of my formative years, from the age of  4 -10  my parents were just a Xmas or birthday card . 
They were a product of their time and circumstances,   Mother was 17 and Father 19 when I was born in 1947 , she had been working since she was 4 years old in a variety of acts, contortion , acrobatics etc , He was raised in  the family Circus and had a wealth of talent, unfortunately none of it in parenting skills, He had a predilection for  other women and was constantly unfaithful throughout their marriage. 
 The determination not to be like him shaped my own life and relationships,  as a result my emotional intelligence was stunted and I grew up looking for love but shunning it when it became too serious , always using the timeless "It's me , not you " scenario to get out of a relationship . I now realise how hurtful this was to many of those I had feelings for and by todays standards I was probably not a very nice person.
  I determined not too marry until I was at least 40 believing that by then I would have the maturity to settle down raise a family,  it didn't work out that way, 
    My first child was the result of a wonderful relationship with Mia ,  a delight to be with, fun , full of energy and life , in  general a happy soul , we worked together on a circus in the late '70's and she was one of the first girls that I really fell in love with but as always with me it couldn't last,  She left the show and reappeared some time later with a pushchair with a little girl of about a year old telling me that this was  my daughter, My memory tells me I behaved gallantly and offered to 'do the right thing' by her and the child but to my eternal shame I don't think I did , Mia said that she wasn't prepared to travel with a circus and had decided to stay single and bring up her daughter on her own , I wasn't prepared to give up my life so we parted with the agreement that when the girl was older Mia would tell her about me and leave it up to her if she wanted to get in touch.
I told two people about this, my Brother and when I married in '87 my first wife, I did this in case something happened to me and my daughter got in touch at a later date.

I still find it hard to open up emotionally, Oh, I'll cry at a sad film , a well written piece of prose or good writing can bring me to tears  but that's superficial , my true emotion only comes out when I work, In front of an audience I'm stripped naked for the world to see, my triumphs and disasters all happen in public .
This is hard on my family but I do try and hopefully as I get older it gets better . 














 . 

Circus , society and the corona virus .

The pandemic that is the Corona virus COVID-19 is having an affect on society and the world as we know it and however long it lasts we will never go back to pre March 2020 habits and attitudes . I am a circus artist and we look at life through a different lens,  For many centuries we were insular and separate from mainstream life , Nomads travelling from one town/region/country to another entertaining whoever sat in front of us , This gave us a unique insight into the world and it's inhabitants , it was a case of 'us and them'.  Over recent decades we have integrated and become more  accepted into society but we have kept many of our traditions , habits, foibles and superstitions , the strongest of these is a sense of fellowship , In times of trouble we unite to help and aid any of our community in trouble  regardless of the circumstances, It's happening during this present crisis , many circuses throughout Europe just as the season was starting were locked down in the town in which they were performing , some got help from the local authority but many others were shunned by theirs. Artists from all over the world suddenly trapped  in a strange land with no recourse to financial aid and being left to their own devices,  Circuses and Artists using social media came to the rescue offering places to park caravans with electric and water , animals getting food from local farmers  ( who are turning out to be heroes throughout Europe ) and giving advice to many  on how to get home, many shows stayed together with the Big Top still up as a place to practice and 'self isolate'  as a group  , sounds strange but it works .
 I read of many local communities where this type of co-operation has  happened but these are people who live close to each other in a small neighbourhood , it's different when the community is spread from Norway to Greece and UK to Ukraine. The other side of the story is many circuses throughout the EU have offered their Tents, Generators and other assets to Governments and local authorities to use as emergency hospices, testing sites or A&E facilities .
Over the next weeks and months much more of this behaviour will happen as the situation worsens and people realise that their dependence on the 'kindness of strangers ' is the norm .

At the end of the crisis and because of it I believe that society will change considerably , people will look at their leaders, both local and national, with different priorities , How they behaved during the time of trouble , did they lead or were they led , were they decisive and honest , did they tackle the situation in front of them to the best of their ability or did they see it as an opportunity to further their own ambition and try to bluff over the ' bad bits', I have to admit I wrote the last paragraph with Trump and Johnson forefront in my thoughts as they both seem to be still campaigning and putting politics (with a big and small P ) the before national interest .

It has usually been the case that 'cometh the hour , cometh the man - or woman'
but it seems that is no longer true, Governments throughout the world affected by the virus had very different and varied solutions to the same problem from immediate lockdown and quarantine to social distancing and self isolation , the speed and spread of the virus demanded a more instant  response from all sides led by the major administrations in unison but in an age of Skype , conference calling and many other technological advances in communication this did not happen , the U.S. and Trump were on a program  of denial , " Everyone's doing well, they're all getting better " these comments came from Donald  Trump while deaths were being reported on other networks that he describes as 'Fake News' . In the UK Boris Johnson resorted to his Dominic Cummings inspired soundbites which got him elected ,  meaningless platitudes in place of facts . it seems that both are re-acting to events instead of being proactive and decisive.
The UK government has been noticeable by it's absence , Only the PM, the Home Secretary ( mired in a bullying scandal and unable to command her position with any authority ) The Health Minister , a Johnson acolyte who is incompetent in the job and the Chancellor are visible,  out of these the Chancellor is the only one to have any credibility, behaving with dignity that belies one so young in such a position  and  at all times talking to the people and not at them .

It has been many decades since the world has gone through such a grave situation , one thinks of WW11 and the havoc that caused  but that was over more than 70 years ago, since then there have been other  conflicts , skirmishes and 'Police Actions ' but none as severe internationally ,
There have been two 'Pandemics since WW11 ,the Asian and the Hong Kong flu, the latter occurring  in 1968 so we have had 5 decades/Two generations  growing up without having to cope with or prepare for a worldwide emergency .

No 10= Not Downing St, 10th chapter of My life the Universe and the other stuff

I returned to a very different Cottles circus , It was smaller and the performance was a very good production built around an old tale from Uzbekistan about a travelling magician and puppeteer (played by Chris Barltrop) whose dolls come to life , Carlos and Guillermo Cardinal arrived a couple of days after me, we had a coffee and straight away there was a connection and a good feeling, we practised a couple of times then we were in the show , how they slotted us into an Uzbeki childrens story I can't remember but thats the magic of circus , Suspended Disbelief I think it's called , anyway we were working and getting ready for Hong Kong.

There was one problem which none of us had foreseen, Part of the Cardinalli's routine which they had performed for years involved a singing duck ,well a quacking duck actually, I played the Blue Danube on the Trumpet and at the appropriate moment after the first five notes = Altogether now, DA, DA, DA, DA, DA , The next four notes were

quacked by our Duck QUACK QUACK < QUACK QUACK , you get the idea .

The show moved to Alexandra Palace and after the first night someone complained that we had a 'performing animal ' and we were threatened with closure by the council which at the time was led by Bernie Grant, remember him ? Ken Livingstone on steroids, Chris Barltrop got his publicity machine going full pelt and we were everywhere, I did a long interview with Brian Redhead on the Today Programme on radio 4 , we had photo's in the press , one with me sitting on a suitcase playing the trumpet with the strap-line 'Clown looking for a new job' It was really a lot of fuss over nothing but the left wing administration of Haringey tried to politicise it.

In Gerry Cottles Book this story is related but has the incident happening with the Hazard Clowns in 1994,

It didn't , it was 1986, Alexandra palace , I was there.

We were ready for Hong Kong but some of us had to stop in Sharjah in the UAE on the way to put on a show for an international fair, I went to do a paste act with Willie Cottrelli and Graham Butterby ( little Bean) two Cottle stalwarts, also in the show were Juggler Luis Garcia and his sister Pilar who had a super foot Juggling number, she was a little perturbed when she found that the Dress Code for female artists in Arab countries stated they had to be covered from wrist to ankle with no exposed skin, Pilar had some beautiful costumes, some quite small but all covered in sequins and stones so they glittered and shone like diamonds, now she was loathe to give them up, her answer= she bought the tightest thinnest tracksuit she could find and wore that with her costumes over the top!
After the short break in Sharjah I flew on to Hong Kong to be met at the airport by Alan 'Doody' Dudley an old mate who's journey into Circus was started by my uncle Hans Vogelbein who once took out a small Circus and employed young Alan , as he was then, to travel with the show, he liked the life and stayed, he worked for a few shows and ended up on Cottles, universally popular, easy going with a great sense of humour he was a good companion and not too shabby as a cook , cakes and cookies were a speciality of his and were enjoyed by many of us, but sad to say he was taken from us way too soon.

For the Hong Kong season I was asked if I would also Ringmaster repeating my Barum experience, I knew I wouldn't be announcing the show, they had a Chinese Radio DJ to do that but they wanted me to run the performance , I could handle that and the clown act , no problem .

Hong Kong was an experience like no other , four months of pure delight , I had worked a lot of european countries where the only difference was the language and the scenery , This was another culture , !

Before we left the UK Sonny Fossett and a group of carpenters had made complete sets of flat pack furniture, beds, wardrobes, tables and other vital pieces, they were packed into the contain ers with the tent , equipment and artists props with the intention that when they arrived and were emptied the flat packs would be assembled in the containers to make the accommodation , Apart from a Skeleton staff brought from the UK we employed local Honh Kong workers, many spoke english but I learned a little Chinese quite quickly, I like to speak the language of the country I'm working in, I think it shows respect even if you pronounce it badly , because of this I got the job of procuring what else we would need to make 'Container Alley ' habitable ,

Bedding, cutlery, washing machines, shower equipment, mattresses, in fact everything that couldn't have been constructed in the UK or indeed was cheaper in HK, They bought a runaround car and I would make regular trips to Hong Kong town , Kowloon side or Stanley to get what we needed, it was great fun - and I was getting paid to do it .

The only things that didn't come in those containers were of course, the animals , Marcel Peters would be presenting his Lions and Gerry had employed Carlos Rosaire to come with his Crocodiles, I knew Carlos from my younger days , he's Joan Rosaire's cousin and he lived in Spain so his first journey was to England by road , I then accompanied him to Southampton where his truck compete with tank and crocs was craned onto the ship, he said later it was the best trip of his life, there was only him and a small crew aboard, they had a pool and great food what more would you want ?.

The Tent was built up in Ocean Park just a couple of Km's from the main shopping district , Hong Kong itself was over the water on Kowloon side just a ferry ride away, a bustling, busy, hectic city where you could get a suit made in a day and that was about how long it would last, Nearly every day I would go down to Wan Chei or Central because there was always something that was needed on site, I soon got to know the traders and became friendly with many of them and had fun haggling with them in english and my little bit of Chinese .
There was an English pub in Central called the Groom and Jockey , I'm not a pub-goer usually but it was a link with home, they had the daily papers so I could keep up with Chelsea's progress and they had a Phone so that I could keep in touch with the family in the UK.

My friendliness with the local traders had a mild downside when during the run-up to Chinese New Year in February I was downtown buying supplies and other goods and in every shop or stall I went to I was offered a glass of 'Mi Jiu' to celebrate, ( MiJiu is Chinese Rice Wine much like Japanese Saki ) in Asian countries it's rude and discourteous to refuse a gift so having visited a few of my regular stalls and partaken of many MiJui's I was a little , shall we say , unsteady or in journalistic parlance 'tired and emotional' I don't remember driving back to ocean park but I do know I spent a long time in the shower before I had to do the show.

Returning from Hong Kong I agreed to stay with Cottle's because I wanted to start my own clown act with me doing the comedy, The show was going to Ireland and they had booked Yasmin and Dany with their horses so the chance to renew our Austrian adventure was irresistible, especially with the prospect of making Martini's with Irish Poteen .

Through various circumstances the start of the season was a little tough,

Gerry was indisposed so Chris Barltrop and Betty Cottle took the show out with Chris covering Gerrys normal role of doing the business and overseeing the whole thing, because of this change I agreed to be Ringmaster until Gerry came back and Chris could take over again, This happened in the middle of the season and I finally got to do the clowning, I started off with a simple paste act working with Willie Ramsey and a couple of reprises with Chris, Juat after the summer Yasmin and Dany tragically lost one of their main horses so they returned to Belgium and were replaced by Pam Enos and her football dogs. The Enos family had been on Chipperfields, father Phil performing his Comedy Car with pamela hidden inside working the gadgets, sons Rudi and and Colin were the shows run-in Clowns.

In the 40's Phils wife Doreen and my mother and father had worked together on Fossetts Circus, Doreen had looked after me and been my baby sitter while my parents worked their acrobatic act so our families already had a history , which was about to get even closer.

A little while after Gerry had returned we were told that he had talked with Martin Lacey and had asked him to take over running the show on a permanent basis, this was a surprise because Chris Barltrop had done an excellent job under difficult circumstances but thats the way it was,

We arrived back in the UK and built up in Middleton in Chesire the Lacey family were already there , Martin, Sue and the kids Martin jnr, Alex and Richard.

I had met Martin a few times over the years, most notably backstage at the Belle Vue winter Circus in the mid '80's, we were sitting in the the backstage area having a coffee and chatting when a particular circus director who was known to both of us, walked past, instinctively Martin and I both stood and saluted, not out of any feeling of deference or esteem, quite the opposite in fact ,It was pure bloody mindedness but we realised we had a similar appreciation of some members of our profession and that was enough to bond a friendship

Martin asked me to stay on to to do the clowning and over the next few weeks we found we had many other things in common , the same sense of humour, a liking for Mateus Rose wine and importantly similar ideas about the future of Circus.

My personal life took a turn , in February 1987 Pamela and I were married at Cottles winter quarters in weybridge . We started the season with our musical clown act and Pamela's Football dog act and settled down to married life.

Towards the end of the year we were offered the chance by Gerry to do the winter circus at Wembley ,the show was being presented in one of the halls and there would be a lot of noise from the Fairground rides in the same hall and it wasn't a good atmosphere for a clown act so I declined , instead we went to France to the Jean Richard Circus for the Gala season back to the UK for Xmas in Worthing for Gandeys and the following summer 1988 we were going to Ireland for the season with Fossetts Circus , they had booked us because 50 years previously they had my Grandfather and the Konyot Springboard troupe on the show and they thought it would be decent publicity to bring back the family name for the anniversary

By this time we had a good musical clown act with Pamela and myself as Clowns, our White face was Martin Crosswell and our other partner was Andy Kemp a lovely young guy who was , to use the awful PC phrase ' Vertically Challenged ' He was with me for 6 years through good times and bad, a wonderful partner , a good man , nothing got him down , he could do anything a 'normal' could do and most important , he was Funny !!!! , later on he married and had a super family, No-one deserved it more.

On August 20^th in Tralee my lovely daughter Olympia was born , named after my great aunt Olympia Konyot she has grown into a beautiful talented young lady of whom I am extraordinarily proud, she herself is now married to Marian and has two children of her own so the Dynasty carries on.

In '89 we were booked to appear with Circus Hassani in Chessington but for a month before I was in Kuwait as RM and producer for an Italian Circus touring the UAE this was arranged by Billy Arata and it was a super month but was a little bitter sweet as a couple of years later when Sadaam Hussein invaded Kuwait there were TV pictures of the Kuwaiti prisoners being held in a building which I recognised as the buffet where we had gone to eat every lunchtime before the show, to try to equate the fun and good time's we'd had there with the suffering and pain that was being endured by the local people was a sobering moment.

During the '89 season we were invited to the Clown Convention in Bognor Regis, Apart from the clown act Andy and I did our japanese reprise ,I had a large fat body suit ( no facetious comments please ) and was introduced as Satsuma the Sumo King, Andy was then announced as the Karate Kid and would run into the ring and do a high karate leap ,

in the show we followed Charlie Caroli and Claudie who had done a water gag and the ring was still a little wet , So, Andy came flying through the curtains leapt in the air with a scream , landed on the water, fell on his arse and slid the full way across the ring hitting the ringfence on the other side like a car crash , The laugh that followed was the biggest I have ever heard and just went on and on and on , I sat on the ringfence waiting for it to calm down then said to Andy “ we can't follow that” and hand In hand we walked out of the ring , another one of those happy accidents that could never be orchestrated or repeated but a wonderful memory.

For the winter of 89/90 Austen Brothers put on a huge Xmas circus in Battersea Park , we took part in one of the strongest circus shows seen for many years , Twice during the run we had Royal visitors , One was Princess Diana with the two young Princes , The other was Princess Margaret , both visits were private with minimum security but during Princess Margaret's visit she suddenly appeared in the ring doors during the interval wanting to see the animals, a line up was quickly organised and after her visit to the stables she came back and was introduced to everyone . In the show I was doing my 'Spaghetti Entree' as a semi-drunk waiter ,as she shook my hand the Princess said very quietly “ you remind me of someone at the Palace” Enigmatic or what ?

The Clown Act was going really well and 1990 we went with Circus Fiesta, Jeff Jay was my White Clown and what a good one he was , A talented performer and a great sense of humour ,

Xmas 90/91 was the second Battersea winter circus , again a very strong line up of artists which included Yasmin and Dany, another welcome re-union ,

The show was produced by David Hibling ,We had worked together a couple of times , he was an excellent Ringmaster and animal trainer with an impish sense of fun , a very long and self indulgent version of us doing 'the Busy Bee' in Worthing comes to mind . As a producer he had some very brave ideas and a sensitive and clever choice of music . , Over the New Year we put on a midnight Matinee with everyone doing a parody of each others acts , the undoubted hit of the night was David as 'Tasmin Tart ' , As I said an Impish sense of fun .

In 1991 we were with Chipperfields which was Circus Fiesta with a name change , a contractual dispute brought our season to an end In July, and at the urging of my brother -in -law Colin we took out a Circus for the last couple of months of the season, It made sense , He had a Tent hire company which meant that all the equipment was there , Calling in a lot of favours we got a good show together and it was a good chance to try some production ideas rather than just put up a running order of acts , we got Jeff Jay to come with us and he was invaluable ,he could turn his hand to anything, a real jack of all trades and master of them as well

Hippodrome Circus was a good experiment but disappointing in the end, it taught me an important lesson that the non-artistic side of running a circus was not for me , The paperwork and general admin is very time consuming and frustrating .

1992 was the year of Circus Berlin , It was special because it was also Olympia's debut in the ring, It was originally supposed to be a one-off , we had her dressed as a mini majorette to come in and do the march as a special treat for her fourth birthday, yea ,like that was gonna happen !!!! .

the next day she turned up dressed an ready and the day after that until we gave in and put her into the main act with a couple of little gags .

The end of 92 I was pretty low and a little disillusioned with Circus after the problems at Fiesta and the Hippodrome failure and I was thinking maybe we needed a change , We were parked at Fossetts Winter Quarters for a few weeks when I got a call from Martin Lacey ,We had been hearing stories of Gerry Cottle wanting to get out of Circus to run some sort of travelling theme park , Martin confirmed this and said that Gerry wanted to close the show putting Martin out of work, After looking at some other options Martin offered to buy the whole outfit and go out in his own right , would we be interested in going with him , ? we could carry out the ideas we'd talked about over our glasses of Rose wine in '87 , It was an offer I couldn't refuse so despite many problems and obstacles Circus Harlequin took to the road , It started out temporarily ( and with his agreement ) as Gerry Cottles circus with the intention of changing the name as soon as we could , This was hastened by Mr Cottle suddenly announcing to the press that he would never have animals in his circus again , and he was against performing animals , this was not so good as his name was still on the transport and we had all Martins animals , It was Easter ,we were at Southend and you've never seen so many trucks painted and re-lettered in such a short time

OK we'll leave it there and carry on with the 'Harlequin experiment '

in No11, not far to go now , your doing very well we'll soon be at the end

after a short delay No9 of My Life they Universe , you know the rest .

Life the universe === ( you know the rest)

This is the 9^th episode of many, many more.

Prologue- while editing this portion of my story the sad news came the Gerry Cottle had passed away from Covid 19, He was an innovative Circus director and produced some of the most exciting shows which thrilled the public for many years, he had a turbulent life away from the Big Top and tried many other ventures but always returned to the sawdust ring , luckily every generation produces one or two 'Jossers' , non-circus people, who rejuvenate and take circus forward , In my own family my Paternal grandfather and Maternal great grandfather were both from private life who ran away to the circus married circus girls and became influential directors, in the UK since the 60's Gerry, Brian Austen, Tony Hopkins, Martin Burton and latterly Anthony Anderson, all from private life, have come in, enhanced and moved Circus forward.
I have always extolled the circus families who have kept the circus arts alive through generations but the energy, passion and drive of the private entrepreneurs gives us a platform to keep entertaining which is our life and our raison d'etre.
Back to the story ====

August 1980, Robert Bros; Circus, Crystal Palace, London, my friend and agent Billy Arata comes into the ring doors in the interval and asks “ Do you want to go to Holland “ my reply = “Not now , I've got the second half to do “ not funny but quick !
The offer was to be RM at the Kerstwinter circus in Eindhoven which I gladly accepted, Now remember this is in August, In December I drove to Eindhoven and walk into the Circus building where Billy is talking to Frank Torres, He looks at me and says “Bloody hell, Konyot, what are you doing here “?

“You booked me to be here ”

“ Oh that's right , you're here , I'm in Rottterdam , I'm in the wrong place “ !

having said that he left the building and we didn't see him again until the Xmas show was over.
Billy along with his brother Victor had been one of the best Wire acts I the world but had now become a circus agent , everyone loved Billy, he was exasperating and disorganised but he was a good agent and fun to be around.
After Holland I returned and had a season booked with Circus Hassani run by Ali Hassani and his wife Tamara, Having formerly been an artist himself, Ali had troupes of Morrocan acrobats performing in Circuses all over the world , Tamara was the daughter of Nicolai Poliakov better known as Coco he was one of the most famous clowns in England, he was a stalwart of Bertram Mills Circus for many years and was well known as the MOT's 'Road Safety Clown' a Role performed later by the Green Cross Code man ,David Prowse ( Darth Vader in Star wars ) and in the 90's for a short time by 'The Konyot Clowns' me and my first wife Pamela , we also worked with Dr Barnardos, heading the 'Just Say No' campaign ,educating children about the ever increasing drug and child abuse problem . Both achieved limited success as the Government of the day wasn't prepared to realistically back us in any serious way.
Back to Circus Hassani, Tamara was the driving force behind the show and the previous year had become the first circus to be animal free, many other UK Circuses were outraged and hostile towards Hassani's but most of it was bluff and bluster as within a generation nearly every UK circus was non-animal, for the majority the decision was not for ethical or moral reasons but pure economics but it was an advantage to take the moral high ground as an excuse.
The downside is that they let the domestic animals go, Horses, Ponies and Dogs have been part of circus from the very beginning, from the time of the Saltimbanques, Voyageurs, Gauklers, Travellers, who were the origins of todays circus traditions, this generation has turned circus into Variety shows in a tent .
But I digress.

1981 Circus Hassani appearing at Chessington World of Adventures = Super season, 3 shows a day, 4 at peak times but the shows were 45 mins; and we were finished by 6.00 pm, we had a football team which beat all the teams from the other sections of the park , Catering, Zoo, Fairground, Office staff , We even had a match against a team from Windsor Safari park and beat them as well, I love football but I wasn't that good, Michael Austin was the best of us, a good player and goalscorer but we had fun and I kept fit.

Winter 81/2 back toEindhoven for the second winter,
This was the programme =

Tom Dieck Lions

Billy Smart Elephants

Ramirez Cloudswing

Fernandos Clowns

Romero Rola Rola

Mullens Unrideable Mules

Golgojews Cossack Riders

Romero Cloudswing

Duban Nicol Comedy Trampoline

Dubskys Football Dogs

Tagora Fire eater ,Fakir

Granger Family Puppets

Sinekos Balancing Act

Jarz Family Flying Trapeze

Hans Peters Speaker .

I look at this line-up and can't think of many shows today who could replicate it .How times change.

During the run I was introduced to Gerd Seimoniet who offered me a contract as 'Speilleitung' for his show Circus Barum, The literal translation is 'Game Manager' but in German Circus it meant RM, Stage Manager, Artist manager, basically everything that went on in the tent from the first customer being seated to the last note of the finale music. I had received other offers from European shows but Barum was one of the most prestigious shows in Germany and I gladly accepted.

My job was not just to announce the show but I had the responsibility of 'setting the show' ,that meant putting the Artists and staff caravans place , the show vehicles were a job for the Circus transport manager , When the tent was up I had to make sure that the ringfence was set properly , The cage for the wild animals was inside it and was pulled up during the show so any deviation from a perfect circle had repercussions , There was the earth and sawdust to go into the ring to make a level and comfortable surface for the animals to perform on , This part was undertaken by many of the artists as it was in their interest as well, We had a Russian Cossack riding act, 'The Bratuchin' and Liswoy Bratuchin was my partner in crime for two years in getting the ring ready for the show, he and his wife Dee became like a second family to me, in fact Barum was the closest I'd got to the Chipperfield atmosphere , The Bratuchin, The Christianis, rolling globes, The Chabri clowns, Linda Van Gool ariel artiste par excellence , The Sinecos a Czechoslovakian balancing act , Jack Bremlov Juggler , the Clarrisons Sealions , Pano and Dino bulgarian twin clowns plus all Barums house artists Charles Knie a wonderful trainer of exotic animals of which Barum had a lot , Harry Althoff ,Elephant presenter , EddieMeschke with the Horses and Finally Gerd Siemoneit himself with His Tigers and Lions ,

He was acknowledged as one of the great wild animal trainers of his generation , I would sit and watch him train and he was indeed in a class of his own , I was very proud when he told me one day that he had been a great admirer of my great Uncle Oscar Konyot who had worked on Ringling Brothers Circus in America , He even admitted he'd stolen a couple of his tricks , I found Gerd to be quite a shy man but excellent company, his English wife Rosalind was very kind and helpful to me in those first few months, Occasionally Gerd and Rosalind along with Lisvoy and Dee ( who they knew from a season together in Blackpool ) and I would go out for a meal , especially if there was an Indian restaurant, a favourite for both me and Rosalind, during one of these evenings we were talking about the next season, It appeared that my return was a foregone conclusion which was a nice feeling , Rosalind mentioned that Gerd wanted an in-house clown act, a clown troupe that could grow with the circus, there was an example with Circus Knie in Switzerland, this tied in with something I'd seen a year or two before in Monaco at the annual Monte Carlo Circus Festival, The Ringmaster Sergio had worn a White Face clown make-up for part of the show and it looked really good , I suggested that I could do this and combine  the two jobs, Ringmaster and White faced Clown, all we had to do was find a couple of clowns for me to work with, Gerd and Rosalind both liked the idea so we started planning

The first name we came up with was Chico Fluckinger a Swiss clown with an lovely engaging personality who duly agreed to come so we were left with one space to fill.

For Xmas I was going to Kelvin Hall Glasgow with Robert Brothers Circus , a well established Winter circus venue with only one drawback which I found out about on arrival, Burn's Night = I was expected wear full dress Kilt and recite the famous 'Poem to a Haggis ' I actually wore the Kilt for the whole season ,the girls said I should 'cos it made me look sexy , Somewhere there is a photo, luckily it's  not here !

Halfway through the Kelvin Hall season I got a letter from Gerd Seimoniet to say that they had found the third member of the new Barum Clown act and we would meet in the winter quarters on my return, 2 weeks before opening I duly arrived at Einbeck the circus winter quarters, seeing Chico first I asked had he met the new clown ,”no” was the reply we were all going to meet up in the house , evening came we went to the house to the surprise announcement that the new clown was Gerd himself, to say that I was surprised would be the understatement of all time , I liked him a lot and as a wild animal trainer and presenter he was unequalled, but as a clown ?

We rehearsed and got a routine together but as the season went on it was obvious that it wasn't really working, Chico and I got on well and had both stressed that it would take time for the act and the partnership to develop but as a trio we didn't gel, It's a shame but that's life .

In the meantime I was getting offers from clown acts to go with them as a White Clown but I wasn't really interested they were all too my mind a little old fashioned and not what I wanted, one however, excited me , it was from Tony Alexis, since we had last met he had married and had a son , He said he was separating from his family to start a new act , he'd seen me working and was I interested in going with him, we met up ,talked about a few things and came to an agreement .

The Tony Alexis trio first saw the light with a small German circus called Carl Althoff ,we worked for free for two weeks to break the act in, from there we went straight to Paris for a season of Galas and then to Munich's famous Circus Krone for the Xmas and New year season , this was a baptism of fire , Krone is one of the most prestigious shows in Europe and we had been working together for 6 weeks , the opening was a night to remember , Tony was at his best and the audience loved him, we were a young act fast paced , playing good music and getting laughs all the way, what's not to like ? Outside the ring was just as memorable , on opening night one of the girls from the front office said there was a bottle party in her waggon so most of the show turned up and a good time was had by all,  The next day she started returning the half empty bottles of booze to the people who had brought them to the party, I said it was a shame to waste good drink so bring them all to my caravan and we'll carry on the party after the show, this continued for the whole month , after the show my waggon was open house, constantly full and apart from the inconvenience of having to work the party went on for the whole month .

The next two years were a whirlwind , from Krone we went to Busch Roland for 6 weeks then to Norway with Circus Merano for the season finishing in September, then Vienna to Circus Jacobi Althoff , Paris for the Gala season , then Rome for Xmas and the New year ,

Between Paris and Rome we made a short stop in Monte Carlo to perform in 3 private shows for the Royal family of Monaco , One for the Royal family and a few invited guests , about 30 people in all , the second for the family and staff of the Royal Palace and the third for Princess Grace's Red Cross Charity raising funds for the poor children of Monaco , (I know, I had a problem with that as well )

After Rome we went to Offenburg for a German TV show , While in Offenburg Tony and had a problem, he had renamed the act , 'Tony Alexis and Company “ and I wasn't happy about being the 'and company' part , we had started together and in were all equally responsible for our success, we also had a discussion about money , which didn't end well , we agreed to part at the end of the season in Austria.

The Austrian season was terrific fun , Yasmin Smart and Dany Cesar were there with their horses , Dany and I spent a lot of time rock climbing while Yasmin prepared Mai Tais or Martinis for our return ,it was to put it mildly, a very 'Social' season. Tony and my problems became untenable a bit before the end of the season , it's hard to do comedy if there is ill feeling and it became impossible to work together , Tony believed that he was the whole act and actually said , “ before me you were nothing, I made you ! “ a little harsh I thought, So I challenged him to find another White clown before I found another job . This happened in Innsbruck and off I went to the Post to make a couple of calls , the first was to Billy Arata who said “ring me back in twenty miutes” I had a coffee and rang back , Billy said “ I have the Cardinalli Clowns whose Father wants to retire, they are looking for a Partner and I have a contract for you with Gerry Cottle in Hong Kong for the winter, you can start straight away in England , I went back to the ground and told the Circus direction what was happening , I agreed to stay until Tony found a new partner , mainly because the owner of the circus, Madame Jacobi Althoff knew my family and was a friend of my Aunt Lottie Konyot who lived in Vienna , about three weeks later Tony found someone to work with and I was on my way home , I had loved clowning both on Barum and with Tony but I wanted something else and knew the only way to do it was with my own act .

     No 9 done  - No10 soon 

My (funny) Life part eight

PART 8, 

Nothing fancy in the title- what did you want fireworks ?, it's part 8 of God knows how many , depends how long this bloody lockdown goes on, I'm only writing this to take my mind of drinking !

Okay so you've done with 7 and we're off to Spain , lovely sunny Spain ,Land of Flamenco , Sangria , Senoritas , Tapas, Chocolat y churros and the rest of that == well Spain can Sod-Off, from the moment we left Polbrook things didn't go well, I was driving a short AEC Mandator with a trailer full off seats, poles,ring-fence, props, basically everything, the load was grossly overweight and on the way to Southampton docks I managed to half jacknife the whole thing and bent the drawbar so while everyone else buggered off Michael Austin stayed behind with me to repair it, We got help from Jimmy Chipperfield and had a nice couple of days staying at his home while we got the job done, that was the best bit of the whole exercise . We met up with the rest of the convoy in France so that we could cross the France /Spain Border together , Britain had only recently joined the common market so Border protocols were still observed ,the Elephant act and Ponies had a contract for the Xmas Circus in Madrid and we were smuggling the rest of the RBC circus into Spain with the intention of touring the south coast with 'Circo de Inglaterra' ( RBC with a Spanish accent ), That was the plan and you know what happens with plans !! The tent that they got for the trip was the first Plastic tent in the UK ,I heard that they had got it in a swap from an Italian show in exchange for a Lion act, when it arrived in England it came with an Italian who explained to Michael and me how to build it up , I was just there with Michael and didn't take a lot of notice, anyway it was then stuffed into the swan neck of the elephant waggon and the kingpoles were strapped on to the top with the hope that we could convince the Spanish Border guards that it was the stables for the animals, We actually had 9 elephants and there were only 6 on the contract for Madrid , maybe the guards thought they were Subs to come off the bench if one was injured , anyway they fell for it and we were in !.

If it had been me I would have got to the first Spanish town , built up and opened so as to get some money in , but no we then drove another 1000km to the South coast , with a stop in Madrid on the way, I say we , I very nearly didn't make it .Going through any town in a convoy is always risky ,with Sat Navs it's easy peasy, but Spain , Madrid , Rush Hour, I was last in the line so problems arose , I could see the elephant waggon about half a mile ahead and it turned right at a big roundabout which was presumably where we were going to park for the night, the 'Placa Eliptica Madrid' so I just carried on, The traffic was horrendous and slow when all of a sudden a Spanish Police officer jumped onto the running board of my tractor and shouted “Ve, Ve, Mas Rapido” which I , at the time didn't understand , I thought he was welcoming me to Spain and hoped I would enjoy it's countryside and be sure to visit it's many places of beauty , I was wrong , how did I know I was wrong you ask , and even if you didn't ask I'm going to tell you , I knew I was wrong 'cos he POINTED A BLOODY GUN AT ME ! You can believe me I 'Ve,Ve'd as rapido as I could Rapido, we kept going straight for a while until we got past the main traffic , me desperately trying to remember the way back to the 'Placa Eliptica', As suddenly as he had arrived the policeman shouted “Basta” which I presumed was either stop or “would you like coffee”

I stopped and he jumped down off the running board stepped into the road and did the scene that you see in all Cop movies, pointed his gun at a car coming up the road and when it stopped got in and buggered off .
So recap , I'm a few miles from where I should be and I'm facing the wrong way so I drive until I see a piece of waste ground so I drive on and on the way out get stuck, not badly but I didn't want it to get worse so I uncoupled the trailer, turned the tractor round so as to couple it from the front but the trailer still wouldn't move so I uncoupled again got on the road and drove back , by this time it's safe to say that I was mildly aggrieved and my mood didn't get any better when I got back to the ground and found everyone in one of the caravans drinking tea , I had a small hissy fit explaining what had happened complete with expletives , details signs and interpretive dance moves , declaring that for me Spain could go F*** itself and take it's police with it especially the fascist with the gun and the Starsky and Hutch impression . Michael calmed me down enough to explain where the trailer was and said OK lets go back and sort it out , He got the land rover and I said you'll need more than that the trailer is really stuck, don't worry said Michael, so I didn't, we got back and I coupled up the trailer again knowing it was futile when I heard a whooshing sound , that was Michael emptying the Brake air tank on the trailer , those of you who have driven big stuff will now be giggling at my stupidity ,the rest of you just be content with the fact that I felt a complete pratt.! In my defence I had just had a Star Pistol next to my head for about three miles which tends to upset your equilibrium and turn your thinking capabilities to jelly . Suffice to say all these years later it's one of the first topics of discussion whenever the trip to Spain comes up .
The rest of the tour was eventful but the business was awful and it came to a head when we got to a site which was a football ground on a single track road with a small gate and 2 concrete huts as payboxes on either side . Michael and I were always the last two loads he with the tent artic and me with my tractor, and now 2 trailers , Oh I forgot to mention that we had got a booking office from a Spanish circus which was a small 4 wheeler with Ackerman steering , if you ever had a go cart or a pedal car you'll know what that is , enough to say if you went over about 25mph it would start to tango all over the road, even uphill, thats why we were always the last. Anyway we arrived at said ground and realised we wouldn't get through the gate with our loads , the others were walking the ground marking out where the tent , stables etc would go so Michael and I tagged onto the group occasionally mentioning that we couldn't get into the ground but not being heard , this went on for a while until Michael suddenly erupted , now this is a man who speaks quietly but is always listened to because he's well respected and he's been around a while so when he raised his voice everyone stopped and turned , very slowly he explained the problem , what followed was a Monty Python sketch various solutions were mooted among them strapping to steel cables aroung the concrete huts and pulling them down , finding another place to enter and take down the hedge and bushes etc, and one , I kid you not ,which suggested that we could blow the huts up , one of the directors did a cowboy act and had black powder and ignition caps on hand ! In the midst of all this someone asked Michael what we should do and he said “I'm going to the next town” I was behind and said “I'm with him” so we got into our transport and went to the next town .
The next day we were all around talking about what to do next when somebody said to Michael “What do you think we should do “ Michael replied “ I'm going home “ I was behind him and said , well you know the rest , we got our transport ready and early a.m. the next day we started the journey home with the wager between me and Michael that the last one home paid for the drinks. I won 'cos Michael stopped at Oxford services for a tea .
A lot more happened in Spain ,most of it's painful but one story typifies Michael Austin and why he's my best friend and for the last 25 years my Uncle and I love him dearly . We were opening the tour in Murcia on the south coast and everyone was away except for me, Mike and Kevin, he was one of our ring boys but so much more, anyway the ground was not the biggest so when we were pulling the poles up Mike had to back the tractor out onto the road so Kevin is on the ground making sure the stakes don't pull and that the cables are OK , meanwhile I'm on the road checking traffic ready to tell Mike when it's safe to go , As I'm looking up the road I see two girls, well girls doesn't do justice to the beauties that were strolling in our direction, all thoughts of work was put aside while we enjoyed the view, the closer the girls got the more we appreciated the difference in the sexes until they got real close to the tractor and one looked up and said in a thick Irish accent “Jaysus Chroist, It's Michael Austin” ! . Very few times in life have I been lost for words and this was all of them . They were showgirls from a touring theatre company who had worked with Michael before on some other circus , Small world , made smaller and a little brighter on that day .
We got home and started building , painting , getting ready for another season , Timm was there for the season showing the lions, Michael was there as well so it was a fun season ,Timm left before the end and even though I agreed to do the winter in Edinburgh I knew my time on RBC was coming to an end , I enjoyed the work but it wasn't challenging enough , I wasn't sure if they wanted me because I was a good RM or the fact that I drove a heavy load and built up the lights.
For 1977 I had a contract to RM the Hippodrome Circus in Gt Yarmouth at the time it was one of the most prestigious shows around , the big 4 were Blackpool, Yarmouth in the Summer and Belle Vue , Kelvin Hall in the Winter .
I had also been contacted by an agent who wanted me to compere some Sunday Shows on the south coast and with the agreement from Roberto Germains who was the Agent and Manager at Yarmouth I had a busy summer ,Saturday night I would drive to either Bournemouth or Eastbourne stay in a hotel and do two shows on Sunday with some great stars . Ken Dodd, Vince Hill, Mike and Bernie Winters, Frank Ifield, Lionel Blair, Anita Harris , Rod Hull and Emu just some of the names , alongside all this I was also doing cabaret spots on a Wednesday in the Gorleston Ballroom / Cabaret club just down the road from Yarmouth .
By the end of the season I was knackered but my bank account was pretty healthy. During the season I got an offer from Gerry Cottles Circus to join them as RM , Mike Denning was the normal RM but he was being moved up to General Manager and I was headhunted , seriously it was a compliment because at the time GCC was the best and most innovative show on the road, He had the Seaside specials and was about to host the Circus World Championships in a Huge tent on Clapham Common and it was run as a business , I wasn't expected to drive or build-up and pull down, my responsibility was putting the ringfence together making sure it was always painted , clean and full of sawdust, sort out rehearsal times , organise the ringstaff and run the show from when the public came in to the last note of the finale, I was also in the discussion on the programme running order , proper RM work .
It was an enjoyable time , Gerry and I had first met many years before when I was about 14 and my father and I were clowning( sic) on Gandeys Circus for a few weeks , this young guy turned up to join the show with a bag containing some juggling props and it was Gerry.
We didn't have that much contact on his show, he was away most of the time doing PR or plotting his next venture , I had a credit card from the company for sawdust, dry cleaning ,paint etc and anything else I sorted out through Mike Denning . I knew everyone on the show and was related to most of them, Sydney Howes with the Lion act, Carlos MacManus presenting the Elephants, Horses and exotic acts , Julie and Baba Fossett with aerial acts , Barry Walls being anything anyone wanted , he would be an Indian chief for a western show, El Hakim the Fakir for his own act but whatever he did he put his heart and soul 100% into it , the most talented man I have ever known in and out of the ring. We used to get Milk delivered to the caravans , one of the jobs the advance team organised, one morning I woke to find bottles with my name on them on my steps, Barry had bought an engraving kit , His painting, signwriting and leather engraving was of the highest professional standard and he could have got a job anywhere at a lot more money but all he wanted to do was entertain , a wonderful man and he was gone way too soon.
The Clowns were Sonny Fossett, Matto and Jimmy Scott , Jimmy was the prime example of what a reprise( run-in) clown should be and I learned so much from him which was to stand me in good stead a little later in my life even though I wasn't aware of it at the time . Matto was a young eager clown who had a wicked sense of humour and a talent beyond his years , Uncle Sonny, thats how everybody knew him ,was a clown of the old school , easy to work with a good carpenter outside the ring .

The Circus World Championship took place on Clapham Common it was one of the best things I've been involved in with some of the best artists taking part and some great memories , it ran for about 6 years and I was there for 3 of them as assistant to Norman Barrett. His years at the Blackpool Tower Circus, Big Apple Circus and latterly Zippos are a testament to his professionalism and his calm nature is a reassuring presence in any situation , working with him also made me realise that there was only room for one 'number 1' and he was it in the UK so If I was to make my name as a Ringmaster I had to travel further afield. I would be a couple more years before I could achieve this but I knew what I had to do.

OK enough for number 8, my fingers are tired, I'll be back with No 9, take it as a threat or a promise however you like , but I'll be back 

PART V11

PART SEVEN = just in case you don't read Latin

We opened in Basingstoke with a strong show but the vagaries of show business in general and circus in particular meant that for contractual or

travel reasons some artists had not turned up for the premiere so we had a couple of temporary acts , Oh I forgot some of you may not have read parts 1-6 so you'll need to catch up ---- here's your chance .

https://thoughts-from-the-big-top.blogspot.com/2020/03/life-my-universe-and-few-other-things.html

all caught up ? Good, on we go . As I said, Basingstoke, it was a good week despite lots of rain which I didn't really take notice of, I had an umbrella to take me from my caravan to the Ring Doors ( backstage for those of you who have never been to a circus), My approach to being a RM was to treat it like any compere job but with a red coat instead of a dinner suit, I like people, especially when they are together and called an audience and I wanted to talk to them and not at them , the comedy in the show was handled by Charlie Bale ( Jacko Fosset for the first couple of weeks) and the Enos family, Phil with his comedy car, Colin and Rudi doing reprises, luckily we all got on well together and had lots of laughs both in and out of the ring, Phil's wife Doreen had been my babysitter when she worked on Fossetts circus with my parents, my relationship with the Enos family was to take on more importance many years later, you'll read about it in later chapters if you stick around and I'd recommend that you stick around, it's more fun than watching re-runs of countdown .
Back to the rain , not until Saturday night did I realise the significance of the weeks downpours , these were the days of Lord Chamberlain when Circuses and some other forms of live entertainment couldn't work on Sundays so Saturdays comprised of driving my caravan through to the next ground , coming back changing into my RM outfit wherever there was a space do 3 shows pull down get into my 2^nd load which was the Crocodile bus drive through to the next town get up Sunday and build it all up again , fun, fun, fun, all the way, I had never done a pull down on a big show, the Circus in Wales that I referred to in Chapter 1 (bet you wish you'd read it now ) was a 1 pole small tent about 60ft across and was easy work, most of you reading this who have any circus experience will have grown up in a world with Plastic tents , winches , forklifts all of which makes the actual manhandling a lot easier, Chipperfields was a big show with a huge canvas tent and on that Saturday night it was getting heavier with each drop of rain, describing the whole pulldown will probably bring on a migraine but suffice to say at 03.00 am Sunday we were still rolling up the sections of the tent by hand.
About midnight Dickie's brother in law Dave Thomas , who was and still is a huge Everton FC supporter and the word 'huge' doesn't adequately describe his love and adoration of the Blue side of Liverpool, suddenly ran into the middle of this mayhem of wet canvas , mud, skidding lorries and muddy skidding people and shouted, nay screamed across to Dickie “Dickie Dickie, I've got to go back to the farm , It's really urgent” everybody stopped and looked at him , “I've left my Everton tie in my old waggon and I've got to go back and get it “.One bright funny moment in a tough wet night , eventually we managed to extricate ourselves from what had become a huge morass of brown windsor soup by which time it was morning again.

Over the next weeks I became used to a totally different lifestyle and realised how readily I had been accepted by the community, many of them had known me as a child or we were related in some way and most of us were of a similar age , I wrote somewhere that with the shared talent we had between us we could have done anything but we spent most of our time laughing and joking and there wasn't a situation that we couldn't turn into humour, much of it was directed at Dickie Jnr who was an affable character but not a 'joiner in' , I think he felt the huge responsibility of his name and what had gone before under the Chipperfield banner. We had no such restrictions, very few nights went by when there wasn't something happening somewhere in somebody's waggon, usually John Jnr's , card games , listening to LP's, telling jokes, drinking and generally having a good time, in this manner the season rolled merrily along.
All went well until we got to Chelmsford .

The normal build-up routine was that Mike Freeman his brother Dave and I got up and set about putting the Kingpoles up , at the same time Jim Stockley, John Jnr, Tommy and Charles would build-up the stable tents , sort out the wild animal waggon line-up and the Zoo in general, when the poles were up I went for breakfast while the tent was going up and came back to set the ringfence , bandstand and get everything ready for the first show. That was normal-- until Chelmsford !

During the season a new tent had been ordered and had arrived a few days previously, unlike most circus tents at the time which were made in Germany by a firm called Strohmier this one had been made in Chester by a firm which normally built marquees. It was a different configuration from the 4 Pole canvas tent we were used to, this one was a 6 pole, 4 king poles 2 queen poles ,one on the left one on the right , from above it would have a diamond shape, this meant a more complicated rigging system for the wire cables , the fabric for the tent was new and was supposed to be resistant to tearing and ripping which was always a problem with canvas tents especially older ones. As far as we knew the tent was not going to be used until the next season but we had now been told that we were going to put it up in Chelmsford, hey ho, co-incidentally during the pull down on the Saturday Dickie had driven the seating waggons out , a job normally done by the Freeman boys and while taking the last one out he ripped a great hole in the old tent which was in the way of being a 'fait accompli'

there was now no choice ,the Green Monster had to go up .

Also taking place on the Monday in Chelmsford was Colin Enos's wedding to Dorette , an event to which we had all been invited and were looking forward to with great eagerness especially the party in the evening. The build-up didn't start off well, Dickie took charge of putting the poles up and not to put to fine a point on it he didn't have his finest hour, after we had put them up and down 3 times due to the rigging being wrong the 4^th time we left them up and re rigged by climbing up the poles and changing the shackles in situ .I say we, from my memory it was mainly me, Alex Storey and Charles, by midday the poles were up , hoo-bloody-ray !
The tent presented other problems as we got it up you could see the stitch-holes where the makers had gone off line on the seams and lacing it up around the 6 poles was damned near impossible ,Oh and did I mention that it had rained all day ?
The tent was up and the seats were in very late in the day and everyone was knackered I told the Ringboys to have a lay-in on the Monday morning just to make sure that the seats were clean and tidy and I'd be back from the wedding at 2.00 pm and then we could set the props, ,sawdust the ring and the front of the Box Office and still have plenty of time to be ready for a 4.45 pm show. I actually arrived back at around 1.00 to find that Dickie had had the boys working from the morning doing those same jobs , I said that it was silly to do the Box Office too early as the rain would mess it up by showtime and also the boys deserved a break as they along with us had had a stressful weekend, we had a few words during which Dickie recommended that I seek out a job involving sex and travel, further advising me to follow the Biblical entreaty to “Go Forth and Multiply “.
It was a small ground and the caravans were quite close to each other and I couldn't easily get mine out so I said I'd need some help to which Dickie said anyone helping me could ****** off as well which resulted in the crazy sight of the artists and men from the show lifting my little home and carrying it to the gate . I was sad that it ended the way it did but I wasn't sorry because I wasn't prepared too be verbally abused by anyone , I had taken enough abuse from my father to last a lifetime and wouldn't tolerate it any more , during build-ups and pull downs there's a lot of shouting and yelling but most of time it's an emotional outburst and not aimed at anyone in particular and yes, I'm as guilty as everyone else, sometime it just gets too much and you have to explode but in my experience most of the time it's deflated with humour and is not a huge problem ,
It's the measured abusive response of someone who has run out of a logical or convincing argument that proves to be the proverbial 'Straw that breaks the camels back ' for me . My greatest teacher in this was my stepdad Ron as I wrote in Chapter 2 ( go back and read it again in case you missed it ) ! .
PS The Chipperfield's endgame, I had to go back a few days later to sort my wages and also my % from the mobile shop I had with Jim and John jnr , the show was at Romford so I parked outside and went round to settle up and say goodbye to those I'd missed out with my hurried departure including Dickies mum and dad who had known me all of my life and had both been exceptionally nice to me during my time on the show, on my return to the car Dickie was there, we didn't exchange any words he just kicked my car. !
I went back to Rosaires farm wondering what to do next, quite a few Circuses were around so I went visiting and had a couple of offers for the next season which was 5 months away so I worked a few clubs to take me through the winter while I made my mind up, ! 1975 saw me with Robert Brothers Circus , Michael Austin was on the show and when I arrived I found he was in Viet-Nam with a boxing Kangaroo , he got all the good jobs !
This was a very different show, more of a 'them and us' between the directors and the artists, once again I was in a strange position because they were from the Fossett family the same as me so we were cousins a couple of times removed but I had spent a decade away from Circus and in an age without social media or instant communication it was a case of 'out of sight out of mind' . My responsibility as RM was also a lot less, I was basically a compere, I had no control over the show itself, it started when Bobby Roberts Snr gave me the signal to start , the ringboy's answered to the family not too me and I was not involved in the actual programming of the show all things that were part of my job on Chipperfields.

I managed to steer around the in-house politics which is a part of every circus and probably every business in some form or another and the season progressed fairly well .
I bought Michael Austins 4 wheeled showmans waggon which was more comfortable than my little one and a few weeks into the season I heard that Timm Delbosq a friend from my youth was back in the UK from a couple of years in Scandinavia and was working odd days for a small circus not far from us, Bobby jnr and I went over to see him and he was doing a spinning plate act in a one pole tent , all through his act he kept looking at the pole in the middle of the ring until finally he grabbed a plate , ran out of the ring after a couple of seconds came back in and shook the pole as though there was a plate on top , funny gag , end of the act he took all the plates off the props in the ring took a bow and as he walked out he kicked the king pole,== a plate dropped from the top and he caught it ! Funniest thing I'd seen for years , after the show Bobby had a chat with him which resulted in Timm coming to work with us, If I remember he took over presenting the wild animals , he was and still is an accomplished animal trainer and he recently retired after an illustrious career working for some of the most prestigious circuses in Europe. Before his return to the UK he had a burgeoning film career in Scandinavia but gave it up for his love of circus . Anyway he arrived on RBC ( Robert Brothers Circus, acronyms are easier than the full thing ) with no transport so he moved in with me for the rest of the season, It was a bit like 'Men Behaving Badly' but awkward if we chatted up any girls after the show, two sex-bombs-- one caravan , OK I'll wait for the laughter to die down and carry on when you're ready.
Just to clear things up , the next season Timm had his own transport which was great and made 'dating' easier , all was well until the day I got up and everyone was giving me really bad looks and moaning to me about the noise of the baby crying all night keeping everybody awake, I didn't understand until I discovered that Timm had had a 'date' In his waggon who had a small child who cried a lot , I was still confused until I found
he had put the pushchair under my veranda .

For the winter RBC had two shows out, one went to Spain as 'Circo de Inglaterra' the other went to Leith in Edinburgh , you know Leith, where the polithe dithmitheth you ? ( another one for the oldies ) Timm went to Scotland with my lorry and waggon , I went to Spain and 46 years later I still don't know who got the better deal .

Thats it for 7, back with 8 as soon as I can remember what happened.