Welcome to the greatest show on earth – the circus. But behind the grand big top, the show lights and spectacular acrobats are the people at the heart of the enterprise. The circus has its own world in itself and the people there have a life more exciting than any circus show can hope to achieve.
71-year-old, Mike Austin has been in the circus all life – he is from Circus Ginnett, one of the oldest circus families in Europe, who began in the early 1800’s.
If you’re born into the circus, life is anything but ordinary. He began his career in the circus when he was just 9-years-old, doing a bare back riding act.
He beams, “Growing up in a circus is the best life in the world, you can’t beat it”
Mike Austin’s great-great grandparents started Circus Ginnett in Britain just after the Napoleonic Wars. His ancestors were members of the French Calvary who were captured at the battle of Waterloo and became French prisoners of War. They were brought to England on prison ships. When they were released some of the Ginnett’s stayed in England.
It was Jean Pier Ginnett who started in show business with his Pony and Budgerigar show in Ludgate circus, in London.
Ginnett’s grew to become one of the UK’s largest circuses between the years of 1890 and 1930. They closed down during World War One, when around 200 of their horses were confiscated for the war effort.
The Ginnett’s were also the first ever western circus to visit China.
However In the 1940’s their circus was closed after almost 150 years of Ginnett’s circus. It was Mike Austin himself who re-opened the circus with his wife Jounita in 1989, along with their son and daughter – Nina and Patrick. As Mike and his wife decided to retire, they passed on their knowledge to their children. It is Nina and Patrick who are now keeping the Ginnett tradition alive by running the circus.
Mike Austin now resides in his farm in Kings Lynne, Norfolk, along with the rest of his circus family. Being at his home, surrounded by old black and white pictures of his grandparents circus and framed newspaper cuttings it is clear to see how much the circus is a part of him. He lives breathes and talks the circus.
During his career, Mike has had numerous acts, including bare back riding, a boxing kangaroo, a high wire act and he also performed as a clown.
Working in a circus isn’t an easy life, there are no holidays and they are constantly travelling from place to place. But for Mike this has been part of the excitement, he has travelled all around the world and was even in Vietnam during the War with his boxing Kangaroo act when Saigon fell in 1975.
Growing up in a circus is a very different way of life, continually travelling Mike went to a different school every week in a new town. He was often just given a book to read. He jokes “I’m a very good reader, but a rotten speller.”
His grandparents went to school like he did and so have his children as he strongly believes that, “The circus is the best school in life.”
Mike not only fell in love with the circus life but on the circus. He says the best moment of his life was meeting his wife, Jounita – a trapeze artist and contortionist who belonged to a Hungarian circus family. They have been married for 35 years.
But not all of his memories have been fond ones, his best friend, Gordon Howes, was mauled to death by two lions during a training session in Ireland in 1978.
Mike looks at the floor solemnly as he holds out the tooth from the lion that killed his friend. He describes how Gordon’s three children were watching as the lions attacked him; his last words were ‘take the kids out.’
The use of wild animals has sparked much controversy over the years with animal welfare organisations persistently fighting for a ban. There was public outrage in March last year, when footage showing a Romanian groom beating Britain’s last remaining circus elephant, Anne, was released, at the home of the Bobby Roberts Super Circus.
This led to MPs winning a majority vote in parliament to introduce such a ban, but since then no law has yet been implemented. Now only around 37 wild animals remain in British big tops.
The Ginnett’s used to have elephants, lion’s camels, and up to 80 horses in their shows – Mike laughs, “Now I’ve just got down to one pony and a dog.”
It became too difficult to have animals in their shows, Mike has seen his fair share of animal protesters and many councils have banned animal circuses from renting their land.
He says, “The public like to see animals, whatever the animal rights people will tell you. If you say to people what’s your favourite act in the circus, I can guarantee they will say it’s the horses, the lions or the elephants, they won’t say the clowns or the trapeze artists. But if you say to people do you think it’s cruel? Now, you put them on a different foot – they don’t really know how to answer you.”
Even though Ginnett’s no longer uses wild animals in their shows they are a strong believers of animal circuses as Ring Mistress Nina Austin explains, “My family have a big belief of using animals in circuses. Circuses began with a horse act, and the people loved it. It’s missed – it was something you don’t see every day. Just because one person has done something wrong, doesn’t mean we all have. Our animals were our life and we loved them.”
Circuses have been around for generations and are believed to have originated in 18th century England, by equestrian Phillip Astley, who established the first permanent and travelling circus.
Over the several centuries that the modern-day circus has been alive, owners and performers have had to continuously adapt in order to attract audiences. TV killed live entertainment, and circuses had to find new ways of attracting audiences.
In recent years traditional circuses have become fewer in number and there has been a shift towards big scale productions with companies such as Cirque du Soleil, which focus upon acrobatic skill rather than wild animal acts. Productions like this have re-invented the concept of the circus for a modern era.
But as Mike says it was the circus families who began this tradition and who form the heart and soul of the modern circus.
He says “I’m not a business man I’m just a circus man, I just do it because it’s a way of life. There have been people who have come into circuses and made far bigger success of it than the circus families. But the circus families are the ones that they have learnt from – only they have learnt to do it better.”
With new rules and regulations, Mike has witnessed a change in circuses over the years, for traditional circuses families like his it has become a lot more difficult to keep the business going.
They do not receive any funding or support from the government and the rise in petrol prices means that their transportation costs are a lot higher. Ground rents have also risen in price.
Mike explains, “Last year we broke even. A lot of the circus families have never made good livings out of it – the ones who have made the money are the private people because they’ve looked at it from a different angle. Whereas we tend to think my granddad wouldn’t have done it like that.”
But all of this hasn’t stopped them from carrying on.
As Mike explains, “If I didn’t do it, what am I going to do? I don’t want to do anything else, so you keep doing it. My son doesn’t want to do anything else either.”
For those born into the family businesses, it is clear that the traditions are stronger.
Mike’s daughter Ring Mistress Nina, is determined to keep her father’s legacy alive, she says. “We like one big happy family. We have good days and bad days. But when it’s good it’s the best life in the world.”
Here is a slide show of Circus Ginnett’s christmas show at The Whitehall Garden Centre in Bristol:
http://www.flickr.com/slideShow/index.gne?group_id=&user_id=&set_id=72157629063696248/show&text=
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.
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