Life the universe === ( you know the rest)
This is the 9th 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
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