Families have always held a special place in the culture and history of
the circus.
Yes, you will find great individual performers and hucksters in the annals
of the circus. Had it not been for the brilliant and boisterous salesmanship
of B.T. Barnum during the 19th century, the modern circus of today would never
have been born.
But the circus business has mostly been a family business, from the high-flying
trapeze acts of the Wallendas to the original Ringling brothers, who were
among the most shrewd and successful business people of their time.
You will still find many family acts performing under the big top, or wherever
they may find an audience for their acts.
Mary Evanoff and her daughter, also Mary, are part of this tradition and
history. They often perform together along Pier 39 in San Francisco. They
put on a show that combines storytelling, juggling, mime and pole walking.
Evanoff has been performing with her daughter almost since the day she
was born. And there were many times, especially as Mary was growing up, when
she had to stop being a performer to be a parent right in the middle of her
act.
One time, when her daughter was two and a half years old, she strolled
on the stage to tell Evanoff, her former husband and an audience of 1,500
that she, well, had to go somewhere.
"Mamma, Daddy, I have to go potty."
"Somebody from the audience took her to the bathroom and brought
her back that particular time," Evanoff recalled. "It was very sweet. To her,
the stage was home, so she didn't recognize that there was a difference
having a crowd in front."
Another time, her daughter interrupted a performance because she wanted
some crackers.
But Evanoff recovered, and she says audience members later told her that
they were amazed by how she managed to keep the show going.
Evanoff became a performer in 1980 when she met her former husband, a tightrope
walker and mime. She soon quit her job with a film development lab to join
him off and on the stage. "I would never have been a performer if that had
not happened," she says.
She had no real experience at the time, and was just recovering from a
hearing impairment. But nothing stopped her, not even her petite stature.
(She is 4'10".)
She has worked all across the world in the last two decades, including
Japan and Australia. She also has appeared on local and national television
shows. But Evanoff says she is not really interested in the publicity and
attention that has come along with her fame.
"With most performers, they need the attention, they need the applause,
they need the response from the audience," she says. "For me, I give [the
audience] something so that they have enjoyment, so that they can laugh, so
that they have a good time."
Thom Britain and his group of performers have the same goal. But this is
where the similarities end.
Evanoff's act is geared primarily towards families. The act Britain
and his Modern Gypsies put on is more edgy. It features escape tricks, beds
of nails, fire-breathing and glass-walking.
"We do a classic American sideshow," says Britain from his home in Birmingham,
Alabama.
Sideshows dominated popular entertainment in North America a hundred years
ago because they featured acts, often humans with physical deformities, that
had one overriding goal in mind: to freak out the audience. And people loved
it.
Those days are long gone. But some elements have survived and found their
way into the act of the Modern Gypsies. And in a way, the show reflects Britain's
fascination with the history of the circus and its role throughout human history.
Britain developed this interest at an early age, as he would read anything
and everything about the ancient circuses of Rome, the gypsies of Europe and
the fakirs of India. In fact, Britain says he would have become a history
teacher, had he finished his college degree. He didn't, of course, because
he decided to become a circus performer.
After an apprenticeship, he began performing in clubs and bars on weekends.
He often worked for free in those early days, but the thrill of a good performance
was enough of a reward.
"That feels great when people like what you love," he says. "When they
have never seen it and when they have no clue what they are getting into...and
when they stand at the end of it, they love what I love."
He says his parents -- "they are real liberals" -- also enjoy his work,
although his mother cannot watch him walk across broken glass.
Circus performers have to constantly come with up new ideas. Otherwise,
they risk losing their audience and the chance to earn a living.
And that is the eventual goal for Britain and the other group members.
But until that happens, they all still have to support themselves through
"real" jobs.
"We have never really wanted to make a living off of it," he says. "It's
probably the toughest way of making a living because you are completely responsible
for everything. You have to promote yourself...and you literally have to book
yourself from job to job to job."
But the group is starting to get ahead. They just landed a gig in Oman,
and there is a chance that they might perform in Lebanon.
There is no question that circus performers may have to spend a lot of
time on the road to make a living.
Just ask Decker Ladouceur.
He toured across the globe for more than a decade with several large circuses
as a trapeze artist. He is now the director of a circus school. "It's
a lot of wear and tear on the body," he says.
"It's exhausting. Driving from destination to destination is very
tiring because when you get into town, the first thing you do is set up your
equipment. And that can take up to six hours, depending on the venue. You
might sleep a couple of hours, and then perform that day or night."
So working in the circus is not as glamorous as it appears. "The glamour
part is when you get to perform," Ladouceur says. "Everything else is just
brutal on the body, and it is exhausting. It adds years to your life, no doubt.
But there are good years."
There are good years because you spend a lot of time around interesting
people who share the same goals and passions.
"It's a huge family," says Ladouceur. "And within that family, you
have your brothers and sisters and your parents. And you have disputes with
them. You have arguments. You have frustrating moments with them. And then
you have their compassion as a brother [and] their relationships as siblings."