Hit Circus of Horrors for Black Box show

Arts Week with Judy Murphy

The company that stormed into the finals of Britain’s Got Talent and then became a West End smash hit, is marking its 21st anniversary with a tour which will see it visit Galway on, May 30. Circus of Horrors will present Welcome to the Carnevil at the Black Box Theatre at 8pm on Monday, May 30.

The founder and director of the Circus of Horrors is John Haze, who learned how to eat fire as an 11-year-old boy here in Ireland.

John was born in a circus in England but then left in a caravan with his mother at only six months old after his father bailed out on them. With that beginning, it seemed that he was not destined for life in a sawdust ring.

However, his father re-entered their lives when John was 11, and contacted an Irish circus offering their services as fire-eaters and fakirs. They got the job, although John could not fire-eat. But he learned quickly and although his father left again after two years, John was bitten by the circus bug. He stayed on for another six years and was only lured away by music, hoping for a career in rock ‘n’ roll.

As time went on, he started to add more and more theatrics to his music until he created the phenomenon that is the Circus of Horrors.

Its profile increased hugely after the Circus of Horrors reached the finals of Britain’s Got Talent –  to this date it is the only circus to do so.

Its appearances on various subsequent TV shows, including This Morning, Ant & Dec, The One Show anda Royal Command performance, have turned what set out as a cult show into a household name – taking the extreme to the mainstream.

In 2014, it became the first circus to appear in London’s West End for more than 100 years. Last year, the company returned to The Fuji Rock Festival in Japan and became the first ever UK circus to appear in Moscow when it ran for five nights in the 3700-capacity Stadium Live. That was followed by a 100-venue UK tour including 10 nights at London’s O2.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.