SILVERS CIRCUS

the changing world of the circus

By Caleb Cluff
23 May 2016

Silvers Circus is an Australian institution. Founded by Anton and Anna Gasser in 1976, it was less than two years before they first performed in Ballarat, near Lake Wendouree in 1978. They’ve come back each year since.

Circus life is the stuff of myth and romance, of the trapeze and the lion tamer, the strong man and the clown. But the world has changed. Today the modern circus has released the animals, the elephants and monkeys. There’s a focus on human skills and daring - and yet the appeal of the clowns and the illusionists remain.

Most of circus life is hard work. When they are not performing, circus members are maintaining their equipment, pulling down or putting up tents, dealing with the public or simply travelling. It’s a unique lifestyle, unchanged in many ways from the past and yet always in evolution.

We spoke to five members of Silvers Circus about their lives.

Dominik Gasser

Motorcyclist, aerialist, clown, director

I'm Dominik Gasser. I am one of the Globe of Death riders, perform in an act called the Wheel of Steel and also do some clowning. And I direct the show. I do a little bit of everything here.

It's the eternal question: how does someone end up in the circus?

Well I'm a sixth-generation in a circus family. My father came over from Switzerland in 1970 and my mother as well, and they fell in love with Australia. So they set up Silvers Circus which was founded in 1976.

How did you start?

Basically my older brother Tony, he was performing in acts like the flying trapeze. When I was a little kid I watched him perform that, and then I started learning the flying trapeze. Since then I've learned the motorbike, clowning and stuff like that.

How old are you?

I'm 36

You must have to be incredibly fit to do everything at once.

We are circus fit as the saying goes. It's a fitness that you won't get from a gym or crossfit, you know, or weights. It uses different muscles altogether. So you need to be - basically we call it circus fit - it’s very fit and lean and strong.

How many months of the year are you on the road?

Silvers is on the road for 10 months of the year and then we start a show up at Caulfield Racecourse called Santa's Magical Kingdom and that runs for a month. It goes all through November.

So you pretty much live on the road.

Yes, and we cater for that lifestyle with custom-built, American, fifth wheelers which are like forty-eight foot semi-trailers. It's very comfortable living.

Do you ever get the feeling you'd like to settle down or is that it's just not something that enters your mind?

Traveling with the show - which we call home - is settling down. We've a holiday home in Mornington on The Esplanade. We have a 20-acre property in Gisborne where the show does its maintenance, and if I’m there for any more than two or three days I need to get out and travel.

Six generations: 120 years. What's changed in circus life that you know?

With Silvers, I suppose what paints a picture is the sawdust. We've removed the sawdust which once would cater for the animals. We have got rid of the animals; Cirque du Soleil taught us that we can do great circus without animals. We've raised the stages and those raised stages now give the audience a great view from any angle of the tent. You can bring in bicycle acts and you can have Emily working on the German Wheel. She's always got a nice flat surface to work her apparatus on.

It's about the sound as well. I like to think that the inside of the big top is more of a theatre these days. The sound is complemented by the lighting, the costumes and it's a very modern show. We have modern slicks for our signage, although our backdrop is still a handpainted one from many years ago. That’s a dying art.

Is there still a risk? I've seen the globe of death act. It's terrifying. There has to be risk involved for the performers.

We at Silvers love sourcing artists that don't like to use safety harnesses. There's always, from the audience's point of view, a 'well if they do miss there's a harness there' attitude. Australian audiences are quite critical. You know that Aussies are some of the best sportspeople in the world and we're all for taking the risks on the rugby field or motorsports or anything like that. Aussies don't mind seeing people who get hurt every now and then. They sort of punt for that.

So the Wheel of Steel has no safety harnesses. The girls on the wire don't use any, and so you know - do we push the limits.

You know I saw a show in England a few years ago and all the performers were wearing hard hats, they had all these regulations. It’s more fun here.

Malcolm Kern

Stagehand

What do you do with the circus?

A bit of everything. Pretty much backstage work: set up props, pull down props and make sure that acts are ready to go on stage and and so on.

It must be of a lot of work just putting up and pulling down the Big Top?

Put up and pull down is four days of pretty much nonstop work. The big top weighs 18 or 19 tons. It's supported by these four king poles; they are rated to 42 tons.

How do you put it up?

Well the poles themselves are all done electrically, the king poles go up electrically. The tent itself, the cupola is winched up by hand but the bail rings outside the four king poles get lifted by motor. Sometimes it’s four days’ work for a week-long show. We left Bacchus Marsh after a week show.

How did you end up with Silvers? Is it in your blood?

Long story short: I’ve got green blood. I was an army brat as a child; I was in the army as well. I’ve travelled all my life. Fifteen years ago, sixteen years ago I was at unemployed looking for some work. I was in Wagga at the time and Silvers was in town. I had a driver’s licence and away I went. I haven't been here the whole time, this is my third time with them. I’ve been back here now twelve months.

So what's unique about circus life?

Meeting new people every day. Easiest, simplest answer. I enjoy people contact. I've always done it. I used to do show work as well, as in showgrounds; putting up rides.

What's the difference between doing showground work and doing circus?

Circus is - it’s not so much repetitive as constant. You know - it's the same job. Everywhere you go, whether it's bitumen, grass, dirt - whatever. It’s always put up the same way, it’s always pulled down the same way. The routine becomes a part of your life.

Probably one of the best things about circus life is you go to bed in the night, and the last thing you see is the lights go out on the tent. You get up in the morning, the first thing you see is the tent when you open the door. So it just becomes a natural life.

Emily Ryan

Performer, German Wheel

How long have you been performing, and what inspired you to get into the circus?

I’ve been performing for about 12 years now. It was just a random comment from an old friend of mine. I was a gymnast for ten years when I was younger, and she said there was a school that was looking for people so I signed up. I dropped out of university. I was doing teaching.

What is the ‘German Wheel’?

Obviously it's from Germany; it's actually a sport over there, it's a competitive gymnastic sport. The style I do is completely different. I've created my own style and involved dance and other elements into it, so it's very fluid.

It's been around for 150 years I think, something like that. So it goes back a fair way.

You make it look easy.

Well I reckon it's my job to make it look easy. I mean it's the rhythm. It's the rhythm of the wheel and it's allowing yourself to be fully immersed in that rhythm. Because if you don't do that then you're constantly going against the weight of the wheel and then it just doesn't work.

That’s quite philosophical.

Yes, yes.

Is there anything you find troubling about being on the road eleven months of the year?

Lots of things. I think it's just missing out on a lot of family events: weddings, birthdays. I work with other companies as well, so I'm in and out. I'm off to Cirque du Soleil later this year.

Do you have an agent or do you do your own contracts?

I do all my own contracts, all my own stunts.

Multitalented! I should let you get on with your busy day.

Yeah. I have to go grocery shopping. It can be mundane.

Margaret Petersen

Circus secretary

Can you can tell me a little bit about how long you've been with the circus?

Thirty-six years. It's a lifetime, isn't it?

How did you come to join?

I ran away, actually.

I've known a lot of people over the years who said they wanted to run away to the circus but never really did. You did!

I did - and I haven't left since I joined the circus.

Where did you run away from?

Melbourne, from Oakleigh. From a normal suburban household.

When the circus came to town?

No - I went to it. It's a long story

I wanted to travel and being a post-war baby, we didn't travel in those days, so I always had that spirit of adventure in me. I wanted to go overseas and work, so I did my training in a normal office environment and then I applied for a job in England. I got my ticket and I was ready to go, and my girlfriend said to me ‘you don't have to go overseas to see the world. You need to go and see Australia, and here's a job for you’. It was in The Age and it was an Australian circus advertising for a secretary.

So I ran away and joined the circus and got the job.

Is it a family?

It's very much a family, yes. You're on the road virtually always all the time here, and you travel with the circus.

Have you had a family as well?

I married an animal trainer from Germany in 1972. I lost him to Parkinson's. He had two children who are still in the circus, and the grandchildren are now in the circus. They are spread across four different circuses. We're very proud of that.

Is circus life easier or harder than in the past?

Whether it gets harder or it gets easier, I'm not sure. How they did things 60 or 70 years ago was physical hard work, harder than it is today.

It's constant, you know you're getting to bed, it's all cozy it after the show. All of a sudden a wind comes up, so you're up again, on with the gear and outside into the elements looking after the tent.

Emma Avery

Performer, tight wire

How did you come to Silvers Circus?

This will be my fourth year with Silvers. I went to school and then I went to NICA which is a circus school in Melbourne, and I trained there for three years and I got my degree in Circus Arts.

What’s life like being in a travelling circus?

I live in a thirty-foot caravan that travels with the show. The greatest thing is being on stage. When you get the response of the audience, it’s such a great feeling and it makes all the hard work worth it.

How did you come to be a performer?

I did gymnastics when I was younger, and then I did dancing and then found out about the degree. I went 'that's what I want to do with my life'. I'm from Port Macquarie originally. My specialty is tight wire - no harness.

No harness? It must be a bit dangerous.

I have knocked myself out a few times. I'm usually pretty good. I have, maybe one fall a year - but I'm usually pretty focused and I train a lot.

What do you do to get away from the circus?

It’s a very tight tight community. I go off and explore the town, or I go bushwalking, I do a lot of things away from the circus.

Circus life is the stuff of myth and romance