Circus!: Mud, Mayhem and Myth

"Circus!: Mud, Mayhem and Myth" is a multi-media one-man show featuring personal anecdotes and film clips that bring alive the mud, myths, mayhem, and magic of circus from someone who has lived the life and returned to tell the tales!

Rob’s own historical films, wacky adventures and engaging stories of wild characters he has known vividly recreate what life is truly like under the big top. This program illuminates the relevance of circus culture to rural life over the past 200 years.

About Rob Mermin

Rob Mermin

Rob Mermin, international performer and founder of the acclaimed touring youth circus, Circus Smirkus, knows how to charm an audience.

Trained by world-famous mime Marcel Marceau, and Marceau's own teacher, Etienne DeCroux, Rob calls upon his three decades of experience as clown, mime, actor, acrobat, magician, trainer, author, teacher, director, impresario and host to take his audience to that joyful world of innocent joy, fun, magic and wonder that is at the heart of the circus arts.

Rob illuminates the connection between the elaborate style of silent film acting and the music hall and theater techniques of the same era. His presentation is lavishly illustrated with clips from over 50 classic silent films, interspersed with live demonstrations of mime technique related to silent film acting.

Rob brings alive the rich history of the traveling "mud show" that crisscrossed Vermont every summer throughout the 20th Century. Film clips of the old shows are enlivened with anecdotes, lecture, and demonstrations of circus techniques.