Circus Acts Quotes

It's an amazing thing to watch a lizard fold a moth into its mouth, like a sword swallower who specialises in umbrellas.

There was a TV special every year called 'Circus of the Stars,' and I did three consecutive ones - one as a juggler, one as a high-wire performer, and one as a high hand balance.

Circus dogs jump when the trainer cracks his whip.

I didn't learn fire-eating to conquer my fears. I learned fire-eating because I desperately wanted to be in show business.

You know what my earliest memories are? Going from one burlesque town to another. My father was in burlesque.

I don't have any juggling or fire-eating skills.

When I wasn't wrestling, I was always at the circus or at a show watching all these people - 'how do they make their stuff work for their audience?' That used to fascinate me as a child.

In the early days of the Libertines, we used to put on Arcadian cabaret nights. There'd be some girl climbing out of an egg; we'd try and get a couple of mates to tell a few jokes, performance poets, and then we'd play in the middle of it all. More people were on stage than in the crowd.

I started performing in 1950 at the age of 16 when I joined the Burton Lester's Midgets as a performer. Shortly after, I became a DJ with Mecca Organization before joining Billy Smart's Circus as a clown and shadow Ringmaster.

I liked doing live things, and with the Circus we had a live audience.

The show business has all phases and grades of dignity, from the exhibition of a monkey to the exposition of that highest art in music or the drama which secures for the gifted artists a world-wide fame princes well might envy.

There's about one sword-swallower per 2 to 4 million persons in each country.

This circus games aspect has existed since the beginning of my career.

When my brother and me got into performing in the late '40s and early '50s, it was a sensational opportunity to learn from our elders. Every show we played had a dancer, a comic, a juggler, a singer, an acrobat. I came to appreciate virtuosity in all forms of the business.

I don't perform. Seals perform.

When I was a kid I joined the circus. I did that. It is true. But it's not like you think. There was a guy, he had his own circus. His name was Carol Jacobs and he owned it. It was a small thing.

You know it's a good show when you involve fire and dolls and unitards.

If the most important thing for your project is to put on a circus, then you have less chance of winning things.

I can put my legs behind my head, but that's pretty much it. An early agent said to me, 'If you can put your legs behind your head, let's say you're a contortionist!' So I got sent out for everything twisty and bendy. It's a good conversation starter.

I've had 79 to 80 years of show business. I started when I was 5 with a man called Tom Mix. I didn't have time to go to school because I was in silent movies, I was in radio, I was in burlesque, I worked with the circus. I'm all show business!