Circus Life!
Did you know that the United States Army once asked Ringling Bros. Circus for pointers on how to load, unload and travel with large amounts of equipment more efficiently?I was lucky enough to be a part of The Greatest Show on Earth™ for over 6 years. I that time I was paid to travel the world with some of the best entertainers on the planet.
Here is more from the video interview I did with world class corporate entertainer and the founder of Entertainment-Experts.com Tom Crowl on what it was like living in a circus.
Here is the transcript from the interview as posted on YouTube.
Published on Apr 25, 2013
Life as a Ringling Bros Circus Clown. If you've ever wondered about life in the circus, here is a first hand view. http://entertainment-experts.com
Bryan Fulton worked with the circus for years. Here is a look into his life during his time with the circus:
What was a day like when you were working for Ringling?
Um, yeah, we would wake up...and a lot of people don't realize but ninety-five percent of the people that perform with Ringling Brothers live on the circus train. they have a train that is, give or take a few feet, but it's over a mile long and it's pretty impressive when it's completely put together. And it houses everything from the circus wagons that hold the props and the equipment, to the animals, to the performers and to the vehicles that, you know, help, you know, build and tear down the shows. So it is, you know, just an amazing operating machine. And we would wake up, you know, and kind of do your normal wake up, get yourself ready for work and a lot of people, we would take a bus, they provided a bus that would go back and forth from the train, or some people had cars on the road. But people would take a bus, we'd go into the building...if it was a one show day normally we would go in three or four hours early just to make sure that all the props were set, you know, all the mechanics for all the props and all the rigs were set, and make sure that if you had supplies you needed to order or things you needed to do, you needed to get all that out of the way because as it got closer to showtime you would need to get into makeup and costume and once you do that you really don't want to be messing around with a bunch of props and getting messy and stuff like that. And, so yeah, we would do a lot of the maintenance stuff and then, you know, probably eat again. A lot of the stuff that we did was backstage so we had a lot of fun and a lot of morale building backstage. And then we would do the show, and then go home and just kind of unwind, and make each...it was all day just making each other laugh, pretty much.
So it was more on the technical end of getting ready, and you didn't have to really, I guess, worry about what you were going to do for work. You had the job.
Right. Everybody has a very set job and, you know, you're given that as we put the show together in winter quarters, you know, there's always a list of props that each person is responsible for, not just for setting but also for striking and putting them away and making sure they're in the same place, packing them for load out and then unpacking them when we load in. So you are, like, responsible for that whole entire set and if anything goes wrong they know they go to one person. "Okay, you know, this person was in charge of this, this and this." A very well-oiled machine, so you don't get that way without the inner workings.
Yeah. The question, I guess, that I have now is you're now on your own, you still have to order the props, you still have to take care of all the stuff, but now you have a whole another thing, marketing, to it. So I guess it's tougher then, you're saying, working on your own than with Ringling?
It is much tougher. That was one of the things that was kind of a smack on my head, that, kind of, I didn't even realize how much of a help Ringling was when they had their big PR team behind you, you didn't have, really, to do anything but show up and do your act. And then when you get out of the circus you figure, "Oh, I'll just throw up a website with my name on it, and people are going to want to search for a juggler and they're going to find me." No. There is so much more behind slapping a picture together and saying, "Hey, I juggle." Some people get work like that, you know, they're good networkers, they hand that picture out. But others, you know, they've got to do a lot more.
Bryan Fulton worked with the circus for years. Here is a look into his life during his time with the circus:
What was a day like when you were working for Ringling?
Um, yeah, we would wake up...and a lot of people don't realize but ninety-five percent of the people that perform with Ringling Brothers live on the circus train. they have a train that is, give or take a few feet, but it's over a mile long and it's pretty impressive when it's completely put together. And it houses everything from the circus wagons that hold the props and the equipment, to the animals, to the performers and to the vehicles that, you know, help, you know, build and tear down the shows. So it is, you know, just an amazing operating machine. And we would wake up, you know, and kind of do your normal wake up, get yourself ready for work and a lot of people, we would take a bus, they provided a bus that would go back and forth from the train, or some people had cars on the road. But people would take a bus, we'd go into the building...if it was a one show day normally we would go in three or four hours early just to make sure that all the props were set, you know, all the mechanics for all the props and all the rigs were set, and make sure that if you had supplies you needed to order or things you needed to do, you needed to get all that out of the way because as it got closer to showtime you would need to get into makeup and costume and once you do that you really don't want to be messing around with a bunch of props and getting messy and stuff like that. And, so yeah, we would do a lot of the maintenance stuff and then, you know, probably eat again. A lot of the stuff that we did was backstage so we had a lot of fun and a lot of morale building backstage. And then we would do the show, and then go home and just kind of unwind, and make each...it was all day just making each other laugh, pretty much.
So it was more on the technical end of getting ready, and you didn't have to really, I guess, worry about what you were going to do for work. You had the job.
Right. Everybody has a very set job and, you know, you're given that as we put the show together in winter quarters, you know, there's always a list of props that each person is responsible for, not just for setting but also for striking and putting them away and making sure they're in the same place, packing them for load out and then unpacking them when we load in. So you are, like, responsible for that whole entire set and if anything goes wrong they know they go to one person. "Okay, you know, this person was in charge of this, this and this." A very well-oiled machine, so you don't get that way without the inner workings.
Yeah. The question, I guess, that I have now is you're now on your own, you still have to order the props, you still have to take care of all the stuff, but now you have a whole another thing, marketing, to it. So I guess it's tougher then, you're saying, working on your own than with Ringling?
It is much tougher. That was one of the things that was kind of a smack on my head, that, kind of, I didn't even realize how much of a help Ringling was when they had their big PR team behind you, you didn't have, really, to do anything but show up and do your act. And then when you get out of the circus you figure, "Oh, I'll just throw up a website with my name on it, and people are going to want to search for a juggler and they're going to find me." No. There is so much more behind slapping a picture together and saying, "Hey, I juggle." Some people get work like that, you know, they're good networkers, they hand that picture out. But others, you know, they've got to do a lot more.
Author: Bryan Fulton is the VP of Talent and Production for All Star Talent, Inc. All Star Talent, Inc. specializes in providing top quality entertainment for trade show events and unique team building experiences all over the world. If you would like more details on when, where, or how to implement different types of entertainment for your next event you can visit us online at http://AllStarTalentInc.com/. You can also call (843) 491-4812 or email All Star Talent, Inc. at info@allstartalentinc.com today and one of our agents will help you look like a superstar at your next event!
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