You are a big favourite with audiences, and very interactive. How would you describe your relationship with your audience?
Empathetic! In the circus, you see many people doing amazing feats and acts, so the clown acts as a device that the audience can relate to, bridging the gap between the world of the circus and the real world. I have a go at things and mess it up and the audience can relate as they think that’s what would happen to them if they gave it go. But in the end, I always pull it out of the bag.
‘Running away with the circus’ is such a romantic notion but I imagine it’s really hard work. How would you describe life on the road with Giffords Circus?
Well for a start I had to catch a bus as it was too far to run! So that wasn’t very romantic or glamorous, stuck on a coach for eight hours to London. But I did meet my lovely wife Sharon at the circus and had a wedding in the big top. Life on the road can be very up and down – you work really hard and sometimes in really difficult conditions such as the weather, but you have the most amazing community that you live with and such an amazing camaraderie.
