No Clowning Around
Circus owners in the UK are up in arms over a new immigration policy the government has instituted which prevents many circus acts from entering the country. This is particularly accute among clowns and trapezes artists from Mexico and China. It seems that the Brits who have attended circus schools in their own country don’t look on fire walking and fire blowing as a long term career, but as a hobby. A recent situation arose when two young Chinese male trapeze artists were allowed into the country, but the young female that they were supposed to throw back and forth was denied entry. Well, of course you can only pretend to be throwing someone back and forth for so long before the crowd starts to get a little restless; no matter how high in the air you are. So, unless the home grown Brits start taking their fire breathing a little more seriously, the future of the circus in the Isles is dim.