Support Your Local Circus

Weber Brothers’ Circus is one such traveling show. This circus began its life in Germany in the 1880s. Half a century later younger members of the Weber family began their first Australian tour, working hard to establish themselves as the best circus in Australia, and just over a decade ago they first toured New Zealand. They’ve now made this country their headquarters for their Australasian tours.

I went to see Weber Brothers’ latest show in the little town of Mosgiel, and got “VIP” seats in the second row. This is the place to be for circus-in-your-face. You can look straight in the performers’ eyes if you want; the clowns do some of their routines around you, and the “singer” towards the end of the show who has such trouble with his roving spotlight comes out and sits with the audience at one point.

Everything is on a small scale, yet there’s no sense of skimping. The music, and much of the dialogue, is pre-recorded but it’s well co-ordinated. The lighting effects are top-notch, as are the sound effects. And the costumes are in the traditional bright and sparkly, form-fitting mode, with not a sequin missing.

What’s in the Show?

There are eight Asian performers; a Brazilian juggler who doubles as one of the three motorbike riders in the Globe of Death; one of the Webers as La Jester, the clown who goes in search of laughter, and various other bodies who come and go.

I can’t tell you anything about who the Asians are, but like most Asian circus performers both men and women are extremely petite and exceptionally talented. The three boys and four girls perform a turn in the opening that involves swinging from seemingly fragile lengths of cloth, holding each other up in the air, holding several “each others” up in the air (!) and generally having a great time flying around our heads.

In the second half they use some devices whose name I don’t know – and I don’t know whether I can describe. These things consist of padded and presumably weighted sections at either end, and in between are flexible ropes, cords – something! Whatever they’re made of the performers swing them around their heads at great speed, toss them up in the air and catch them (usually after having done a couple of tumbles themselves) and generally work in such a co-ordinated fashion that you wonder if they spend 24 hours a day practicing.