The Meaning of the Circus by Bouissac Paul

Author:Bouissac, Paul
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury UK

Remembrance

Remembrance is more than memory. It is the ritualistic re-enactment of the past. It resonates in the whole body in a kind of trance that reawakens old sensations and feelings. When I meet Charlie Cairoli Jr., the memories we share take hold of us. He insists on keeping the “Jr.” after his name. He performs under the same makeup as his father. Occasionally, he plays the same gags with the same props in traveling circuses or summer camps that include shows in their program of activities. Often, people from the audience come after the performance to tell him how relieved they are that he is still alive and well. They had heard he was dead. The new resident clown in Blackpool tries in vain to create his own legend. His name sounds like a cheap ice cream brand. I don’t go to the circus there any longer. Remembrance can be painful.

Charlie Cairoli, the father of Charlie Jr., was not emotional about his own father, the celebrated whiteface clown Jean-Marie Cairoli (1879–1958). In those days, the whiteface clown could kick and hit the hapless auguste in order to draw laughter from the crowd. Some clowns were subtler than others. Charlie often told me that he gave his children the freedom to decide what they wanted to do with their life. “My son went to school. After that, he worked in a factory for several years. Now, he is in the act because he made that decision.” In traditional performing families, kids were indeed trained to work in the show at an early age, willy-nilly. They were a basic economic resource for their parents who, in the past, would age without the social net provided by modern civil society. A life on the move has no time for school. As resident clown in a stable circus, Charlie could break away from the tradition and follow his sense of fairness. “We were used by our parents. We had no say. They claimed they loved us”? Charlie answers his own question with a gesture expressing both doubt and anger. “Even now … look at the two sisters who do the aerial act in the program this year. They are beautiful young women and good artists. But their parents keep them under close watch. They are not allowed to go out and date. The parents are afraid that they could fall in love, marry, and leave the act. It makes me sad.”

In the ring, with his bowler hat, his well-tailored suits, his tongue-in-cheek dignified demeanor, and his whimsical smile, Charlie Cairoli embodied the perfect gentleman-clown for several generations of Blackpool vacationers. Later, television brought him national and international fame. Without his red nose, after the show, the locals would recognize him and greet him as the good fellow he was. His clown persona, though, would keep inspiring the happy dreams of his public and already belonged to the legend of the circus.

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