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Who built the circus? Under the Dome: the history of circus art. Do you know that

The word “circus” was known back in Ancient Rome, but it did not mean exactly the type of art that we understand by this term now. “Circus” was a round structure where games were held: horse races, chariot races, sports competitions, gladiator fights. The people of Rome came to the circus for the spectacle. The first stationary circus known in history began to function in Rome in 7 BC. e. and was hailed as one of the wonders of this city. It is not known exactly how many people the circus building could accommodate, but it is believed that this figure exceeds 150 thousand.

This is what the Circus Maximus looked like in ancient Rome

The first stationary circus began operating in Rome in 7 BC. uh


At the same time, traveling circus troupes consisting of jugglers, acrobats and tightrope walkers were also known in Ancient Rome. They gave their performances in markets and squares, and never performed in real arenas. For a long time, circus art was divided into two types: for the people and for the aristocracy. In the first case, tightrope walkers, clowns and gymnasts demonstrated their skills to the crowd, presenting simple skits. In the second case, these were real theatrical extravaganzas with performances by professional riders and trained horses, scenes of battles and a vibrant show.

Closer to the beginning of the Middle Ages, the actively developing theatrical art and other ceremonies pushed the circus away from the position of one of the main folk entertainments.


Circus performers performing, medieval German engraving

Circus art existed separately for the people and the aristocracy

Its revival occurred at the end of the 18th century. The program of the first performances consisted almost entirely of figure riding, horse exercises and horse training. You could watch these shows at the Astley Amphitheater in England - the world's first stationary circus in the modern sense of the word. In 1768, entrepreneur Philip Astley bought a field in the Waterloo area and built a round arena on it where he gave equestrian shows. He then added performances by clowns, trained animals, jugglers, tightrope walkers and musicians. Over the course of several years, Astley's shows became famous in Europe, and he was invited to perform in France and other countries. It is Astley who is called the “father of the modern circus.”


Performance at Astley's Circus

The modern type of circus appeared only at the end of the 18th century.


After England, the circus spread to France, and from there to other European countries. This art also reached the New World - the first American circus opened in Philadelphia in 1793. One of the fans of this entertainment was President George Washington. The emergence of traveling circuses - tents - helped popularize the performances. The life of nomadic circus performers was not easy, but the director of such a tent could easily get rich quickly if things went well.

In Rus', the first semblances of circus performances could be seen at fairs and folk festivals - buffoons performed comic scenes and brought out trained dogs and bears for the amusement of the public. It is known that in 1619, a certain Ryazan man demonstrated a tamed lion to Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich. The first permanent performance venues were built in Russia in the 19th century: in St. Petersburg in 1827, and in Moscow in 1847. They were built of wood and did not last long. But the first stone circus building appeared on Tsvetnoy Boulevard.


Circus building on Tsvetnoy, early 20th century

Clowns, gymnasts, riders and trainers were invited to perform at the opening of the arena. On this stage, clowns Kozlov, Babushkin, Bim-Bom, as well as brothers Anatoly and Vladimir Durov gave their performances. A significant part of the program was occupied by performances with horses: the animals waltzed, walked on a tightrope, and, on command, simultaneously reared up and jumped over each other. By the way, the circus began working for children relatively recently: closer to the beginning of the 20th century. Special programs were developed for children's audiences: ballets, pantomimes, round dances and dances.

President George Washington was one of the circus' fans.


After the revolution, in 1927, the first State School of Circus and Variety Arts opened in Moscow, where many Soviet circus stars were trained. In addition, during the years of political repression and terror, the circus did not decay, but, on the contrary, received powerful government support.

Clown Pencil

During the Great Patriotic War, many circus buildings were damaged by bombing, but by order of Stalin, separate funds were allocated to support the lives of performers and animals. During the war, circus performers gave performances in hospitals, mobilization points and train stations, before sending units to the front. On May 9, 1945, Soviet circus artists gave a performance on the stairs of the Reichstag.

Typically, a circus is associated with a characteristic round tent, in which colorful entertainment performances are performed, including elements of circus art - for example, tightrope walking and acrobatic acts, juggling, dancing, performances of clowns or trained animals. However, the circus did not always look the way it does today, and its history goes back to antiquity. In Ancient China, circus art was represented by the performances of acrobats who maintained balance while performing complex exercises: in the Chinese circus there were no acts involving animals. In turn, ancient Roman circuses - monumental structures for several thousand spectators - were primarily places for competitions of horse-drawn carriages. Later, after the invention of the folding circus tent, traveling circus troupes appeared. Nowadays in the circus, in addition to classical acts, you can also see a variety of special effects - not only pyrotechnic tricks known for centuries, but also computer-controlled ones.

Circus Maximus.
In Rome, the circus was an open structure with an arena surrounded by multi-tiered stands. Spectators were shown exciting acrobatic stunts, dancing, battles, horse riding, in particular chariot racing. The word "circus" (Latin circus - round) appeared because buildings were built in a shape close to a circle so that a treadmill could be placed in them. Such spectacles were very popular in ancient times: the largest circus, the Roman Circus Maximus, accommodated 250,000 spectators, several times more than the Colosseum.

Circus tents.
The circus in its familiar form appeared only in the 18th century. The first stationary circus, where performances by artists and trained animals regularly took place, was built in 1772 by the Englishman F. Astley in Great Britain. Soon after the construction of a folding tent in the shape of a cone or ellipse, called a big top, the tradition of a traveling circus began to develop. And the French word tent began to be used to name the traveling circus itself, which traveled with performances from city to city.

The magic of the body.
Circus art is much older than the Roman spectacles that attracted thousands of spectators. For the first time (3500 BC) it appeared in China. Chinese circus performers mainly demonstrated balancing act, acrobatic and gymnastic performances, as well as juggling. It is these numbers that the Chinese are famous to this day. The Chinese circus is a spectacle in which performers demonstrate incredible body flexibility. However, in the Chinese circus there are no trained animals.

Circus parades.
The arrival of the circus was an important and anticipated event. To announce their arrival, circus performers often organized parades, featuring brightly decorated animals, powerful athletes pulling loaded carts, stilt-walking acrobats and fire eaters. The parade procession was closed by the characteristic circus vans in which traveling performers traveled.

Traveling artists.
In Europe, circus art flourished in the Middle Ages, when traveling circus performers and performers appeared. Their performances took place in large arenas, in tents, or simply on city streets during fairs and folk festivals. The audience was especially delighted by the tightrope walkers performing dangerous tricks while maintaining their balance on a rope stretched directly above the street between the roofs of houses. The traveling troupes also included jugglers, fire eaters, mimes and comedians.

Clowns.
The modern circus is, first and foremost, entertainment, so the performance of clowns is an obligatory element of it. Children's favorites - brightly painted actors in huge shoes with fake red noses are designed to make the audience laugh. It's not easy, and often requires a variety of talents - acting, music and gymnastics. The most popular representatives of this group of circus performers are acrobats and mimes - “red” and “white”, whose images are derived from traditional comedy characters - Harlequin and Pierrot.

Dangerous job.
Equilibrist and acrobatic performances require extraordinary skill, which comes only as a result of many years of training, as, for example, in acrobatic trapeze tricks under a circus big top, invented in France in the mid-19th century. This requires an accurate sense of timing, dexterity, strength and flexibility of the body. No less difficult numbers are riding a unicycle, which requires an exceptional sense of balance, as well as throwing knives at a target. Every incorrectly performed movement is associated with a huge risk and can threaten the artist’s life.

Trained animals.
In most circuses around the world, performances by trained animals have long become classic acts. The program may include performances of dogs riding bicycles, seals juggling balls, and horseback riding. Particularly popular are numbers involving dangerous animals - for example, bears, lions, tigers and elephants. The sight of a trainer putting his head into a lion's mouth is heart-stopping, but just as thrilling can be the sight of huge elephants standing on two legs like small dogs.

Do you know that:

  • In the old days, spectators were very attracted to the performances of fire eaters.
  • Under the huge circus tent there are seats for spectators and an orchestra, as well as an arena for the performers.
  • In addition to the regular circus, there are also “Circus on Water” and “Circus on Ice”, in which circus performers perform tricks in water and on ice skates.
  • The cars that circus performers use to travel from city to city are usually covered with colorful advertisements.
  • One of the most famous clowns was Grok (1882-1959). He began his career performing in circuses and cabarets with his father. Grok performed all over the world and played the role of a sad clown fighting evil inanimate objects, starred in several films and wrote several autobiographical books.
  • Many people believe that showing trained animals is cruel. In order for animals - such as lions - to become obedient, safe and follow human orders, they have to be trained for years using the most ruthless methods. Animals are often kept in inappropriate conditions, such as cages that are too small, where they are unable to move and play freely. Therefore, some modern circuses are returning to Chinese forms of entertainment - without animal performances, only with fantastic acts of superbly trained people.

The birth of circus art is shrouded in darkness - whether it came from fairs or from churches, no one knows for sure. And documents show that it quickly filled the streets. Acrobats dance on the friezes of Egyptian tombstones. Juggling and tightrope walking as an ancient art of the Far East were documented at the court of Kublai Khan long before Marcus Polo. Dancing with bulls adorns the walls of the Knossos Palace in Crete, and in every state famous for its cavalry - or Mongolia - brave antics on the back of a frisky stallion were a source of pride. As for lions, tigers and bears, we find these and other predators in the records of the menagerie, about cheetahs and crocodiles dear to the hearts of the pharaohs, trained by Egyptian priests.

Dancing with bulls (it was from them that the famous Spanish bullfight later originated) had a cult significance, like Greek drama. In Dorian Hellas, acrobats and mimes performed clowns both during holidays and on weekdays in the streets. The phallus was the main element of the costume. Holy or not, buffoonery on this matter was far from decency.

When, several centuries later, on the other side of the Adriatic, the statesmen of Rome built the first real circus building, there was no time for jokes.

“Panem et cirsenses,” loosely translated as “bread and circuses,” was a formula for pacifying the Roman crowd. And behind this there was a bloodbath in the arena. For example, the outdoor oval hippodrome of the Roman circus delighted 150,000 bloodthirsty spectators with the spectacle of carnage between chariot races. Elephants, bears and wild cats died by the dozens—sometimes hundreds—in a day. Subsequently, in the Colosseum, convicts and the first Christians followed the same path. With the march of the Roman legions north, the circus of violence spread across Europe. Amphitheaters were built in Verona, Capua and Pompeii, in Sicily and Spain, in Arles, Nimes, Bordeaux and reached Britain - in order to turn into quarries after the decline of the empire.

Jesters and MImes

The word “circus” itself has disappeared from many languages. The circus as a mass spectacle was not able to recover at a similar level until the twentieth century. The Roman circus died, but its last ones went their separate ways. During the Middle Ages, trainers and acrobats traveled throughout Europe, Asia and Africa, spending the night on carts or under fences, entertaining people at village fairs, and even crowned heads when they wanted it. King Alfred loved the “parade of wild animals”, with jesters and magicians. William the Conqueror brought a group of magicians from France. Thirty-seven Hannibal elephants, the only ones that survived the great campaign from Carthage, gave birth to a group of trained pachyderms in Europe - an amazing thing, because elephants do not breed in captivity.

The archivist of the French Center for National Circus Arts, Jean Villiers, discovered traces of the circus in medieval church carvings. When 13,000 people work hard to build a cathedral, he says, the natural need for entertainment is inevitably satisfied by whole bands of jesters. Pickpockets did their job, while other tricksters had fun with open gapes (such things were called in the Italian manner “jumping on a bench”). The bench served both for keeping an eye on the crowd and for performing magic tricks. Rope walkers pulled their ropes between the cathedral spiers, others, who understood mechanics, turned the handles of the mechanisms at performances of mysteries - plays of religious content. Many of them were accused of witchcraft and burned alive, and others turned out to be more agile - like, say, those wits who even taught their horses to bow to the image of the cross.

Medieval laymen passionately loved such spectacles. The clergy showed less enthusiasm, but tolerated the circus performers as pilgrims who had gathered for All Saints' Day. Begun at abbeys and gatherings, the fairs subsequently invaded the neighboring meadows, where merchants and entertainers pitched their kingdom of colorful tents. Once a year, a Christian could take care of his own soul, wallet and pleasure at the same time.

The most popular was St. Bartholomew's Fair, which was held at a monastery on the outskirts of London. In 1133, an abbot named Reyer, who had once been Henry I's jester, asked for royal privilege to hold a three-day fair. The Fair of St. Bartolomeo lasted 700 years, becoming something of an annual circus inspection.

Reyer had a reputation as a miracle worker. A hundred years later, other tricks came into fashion: one woman did a stand on the points of two swords, another walked on stilts, carrying water in a jug on her crown and a child in her arms.

Bartolomeo's fair lasted up to two weeks, and then up to six. Under Henry VIII, religious motives were forgotten. Rows of tents formed streets, they were paved and finally fenced. In 1614, playwright Ben Jonson described the splendor of these tents - with rattles, whistles, rattles, pipes, puppets, cages of rats, wooden horses, dancing dogs, toy eagles, ravenous wolves, bulls and hares beating drums.

Fifty years later, the biggest entertainment was “rope dancing.” Modern tightrope walking is a child’s toy versus the craftsmanship of the seventeenth century: horses and elephants walked along the tightrope, some Italian jumped on the tightrope, holding a duck on his head, pushing a cart where two children and a dog were sitting, and even singing a canzone.

Each fair was famous for something of its own: some showed jokes, others showed dolls. The Bartolomeo Fair became the headquarters of traveling talents who wandered overseas for a year. It was also a base for traveling menageries, an object of constant love for the British - great friends of animals.

PARADES AND CLOWNS

The circus parade - or its prototype - was restored and flourished in Renaissance Italy. The traditions of the Ancient Roman triumph were remembered in 1500 by Cesare Borgia, and a few years later by the Florentine guild of merchants. Masterfully reproduced flotillas, carrying allegorical or comic figures, sailed majestically through the streets of Florence and Milan. They were stuffed with fantastic machines, rotating spheres, boats and balls, where sweet-voiced cherubs sat. For one such holiday, Leonardo da Vinci made a mechanical lion that walked on two legs and opened its mouth full of lilies. In Siena, twelve ballerinas jumped out of the belly of a large golden wolf.

Another gift from Italy to circus art was the figure of the clown. Dozens of comic types performed in noisy street theaters. The classic pair of clowns - two servants - makes the audience laugh today in almost every circus in the world. Harlequin - or the smart rogue - is a truly ancient character, coming from early ideas about the devil and his stupid victim, gradually turned into a melancholy crazy Pierrot in a wide white robe, with a whitened face, Pierrot, who is an incorrigible romantic.

WITHOUT ARENA - OPEN AIR

This continued until the end of the 18th century, until London ended with it. The creation of the circus in its modern form is unanimously attributed to Philip Astley, a great lover of horses, the son of a cabinetmaker. One fine day, Astley received a reward for his services from the French Queen Marie Antoinette - a medal studded with diamonds. After his death, he left his descendants two magnificent amphitheaters - in London and in Paris. Astley also bequeathed to them a remarkable display of horses, acrobats, gymnasts and jesters in a 42-foot arena - which is still the standard.

However, Astley's talent blossomed on a muddy field near Westminster Bridge in London. He then had two horses, two flute players and a woman who beat a tambourine and threw a hat around. In just two years, he covered his stage with a roof and called this structure “Astley's British Riding School.”

For 150 years, equestrianism was the key to the development of the European circus. It absorbed everything. For Astley and his followers, the horse was what the motorcycle is for modern bikers: on its back they dreamed of leaving the earth and reaching the heavens.

The paradox of all revolutions - in the circus or elsewhere - is that advanced ideas quickly become obsolete. Every new circus must reinvent the wheel. The Americans invented the three-ring circus, subjugated it to the canons of high art and declared it a grandiose world show. Hollywood contributed to this, and now the American circus has become synonymous with monumental kitsch. In other countries there was an excellent scale of values ​​- here high individual skill was cultivated, which is the achievement of the old school circus - from the famous Moscow Circus to the Kneisives in Switzerland or the French circus family Grüss.

from lat. circus - circle) - a type of art whose specificity lies in the creation of art. images using movements, tricks, acting. One of the foundations of the latter is the eccentric. Solving, as it were, a super task, demonstrating masterly fluency in a difficult-to-master subject (animals, space, one’s own body and feelings), the circus performer creates according to the law of eccentricity, revealing the highest human capabilities. The components of the circus image are also music, makeup, and costume of the performer. The circus performance includes acts of different genres (acrobatics, balancing act, gymnastics, pantomime, juggling, clowning, illusionism, musical eccentricity, equestrianism, animal training, etc.), and the action, as a rule, takes place on a round platform - an arena with a diameter of approx. 13 m, around the structure there is an amphitheater for spectators. In Ancient Rome, where modern history originates. Ts., the arena had the shape of an ellipse, where chariot races, performances of jugglers, tightrope walkers, and comedians were demonstrated, and the stands could accommodate up to 250 thousand spectators. Nowadays there is a type of circus performance on stage. Therefore, numbers, variety and other performances with the participation of circus artists also bear the general name - Ts. The origin of circus art is associated with rituals, games, the development of everyday and professional skills (walking on ropes to test their strength, training horses for cavalry, fighting elephants, etc.). Professional troupes of acrobats, tightrope walkers, and jugglers were known in ancient times. Greece, Ancient Rome, Byzantium, China. During the Middle Ages, traveling troupes of circus performers gave performances on the streets of cities and villages. A circus performance that became the prototype of modern times. Ts., developed relatively recently, with the discovery at the end of the 18th - beginning. XIX century the first permanently operating stationary centers. One of the chapters. expressive means of circus art - a trick. Most circus tricks are characterized not only by an eccentric character, but even by an element of absurdity (Absurdization), since their execution violates the usual logic of behavior. Demonstration of compositionally constructed tricks, subordinated to a specific concept, accompanied by music, with artistic elements. design, constituting a separate complete performance of artists, called. number. Modern programs Ts, consist of numbers of different genres - sports and acrobatic, with trained animals, illusion, reprise and clownery. However, no matter what emotions the daring stunts of acrobats, gymnasts, animal tamers evoke in the audience, ch. and the indispensable character, mind and heart of Ts. is the clown. The mask of a popular clown expresses the psychology of his contemporaries, accurately senses and conveys what is serious and what is funny today. Using the techniques of buffoonery and grotesque, the clown works in the same vein as artists of other types of art. We can say that the clown is a comic mirror of time. And the more accurately and deeply the clown mask covers, analyzes and expresses time, the greater the popularity of the clown among the audience. Bright, cheerful art in general is always modern. In its best examples, seemingly unexpected and even absurd actions and actions of circus characters transform the modern arena. information in its moral and social aspects, creating a unique picture of reality. And the outwardly too flashy costumes and variegated colors of Ts. in their own way reveal the character of modern times. fashion and ideas about beauty.

Every child knows what a circus is - it's laughter, fun, clowns, smart animals, magicians and clever acrobats. But rarely can any adult explain what the features of circus as an art form are. After all, we most often imagine it as a fascinating spectacle, a show. But in fact, circus performers spend their entire lives mastering not only skill, but also art - the ability to convey emotion and evoke aesthetic feelings in the audience.

The emergence of the circus

The name “circus” comes from the Roman oval grounds, where various folk festivals, competitions, and shows were held. In those days, the Romans loved to watch people compete in strength, dexterity, and various skills. This is how a special type of spectacle appeared, which today is called a circus. But it only became the way we know and love it in the 18th century. In Paris, a special round building was built to display the art of horse riding and acrobatic sketches. Later, the Italians picked up this idea and added numbers with animals and mimes to the performance program. What a circus is, people in Russia learned at the end of the 18th century. In 1764, an English rider visited Moscow on tour, and this show marked the beginning of the opening of several stationary circuses. By the mid-19th century, such sites were built in many Russian cities. Gradually, the scope of the show expanded, traditional programs were formed and circus professions emerged. The modern circus is a complex synthesis of the entertainment industry, art, management and technology.

Circus as an art form

Researchers see the origins of the circus in ancient competitions of strength and dexterity. It was formed as a way to demonstrate special skills that often had no practical application. Experts who characterize circus as an art primarily pay attention to the lack of any effectiveness in the actions of the artists. They do not compete to win prizes, but rather allow one to see a person’s capabilities and experience aesthetic pleasure. The main expressive means of circus art is a trick, it is designed to evoke emotions in the audience: laughter, surprise, fear, delight. All this makes the circus similar to other types of performing arts: theater, cinema. In the arena, a person shows nature’s ability to metamorphose, only the object of these transformations is not stone, clay or paint, but the person himself. He creates eccentricities according to the laws, demonstrating the highest The main principles of circus art are: reprise, trick, act, super task, eccentricity.

Circus structure

Special art requires a special space. The circus is not just a round building, but a complex structure with numerous possibilities. The circus arena is the heart of the site. Traditionally, it is round in shape, about 13 meters in diameter. The spectators' seats rise up from the stage like an amphitheater. In modern, stationary circuses there are often several arenas for different types of performances: horseback, illusion, light, ice, water. But the arena is only the visible part of the circus. Behind the scenes there are many office spaces: dressing rooms, rehearsal rooms, areas for keeping animals, costume rooms. Technical services also play a large role in the design of the theater: lighting, equipment mounting, scenery, curtain - all this serves to ensure that the viewer sees an unusual and complex performance.

Circus professions

When we hear the question “what is a circus,” we remember people of different professions. Each of them requires special skills and abilities from the artist and is a special art, with its own laws, secrets and traditions. The classical circus program includes performances by various artists; they can be classified according to the main means of expression and materials. So, there are people who work with animals - these are trainers, with the human body - jugglers, tightrope walkers, gymnasts, tightrope walkers. There are also special professions that are at the intersection of skill and technology - these are illusionists. The highest level in the circus professional hierarchy is occupied by clowns, who combine acting, pantomime, and buffoonery. But circus performers cannot work without theater servants, who take upon themselves the provision of various services and assistants.

Jugglers

As is already clear from the name of the profession, jugglers first appeared in France. This word literally means "amusement". Initially, people of this profession sang songs and danced in market squares and fairs. But juggling as an activity dates back to Ancient Egypt. Clever manipulations with many objects fascinated the audience, causing surprise and admiration. Today, a rare circus performance is complete without these artists; their performances have become an essential element of circus art. In their performances, jugglers surprise the audience by throwing many different objects into the air, and also use balancing act, comic and acrobatic elements to complicate the trick. Juggling can be paired or solo; performers not only throw and catch objects, they can simultaneously rotate them, alternate them rhythmically, throwing them to a partner. The rhythm of juggling forces the audience to keep an eye on the flying objects, and the artist’s dexterity evokes feelings of delight in them.

Equilibrists

Another artist, without whom it is impossible to imagine a circus performance, is the tightrope walker. This genre of circus art is based on a person’s ability to maintain balance on unstable surfaces. Traditionally, tightrope walkers performed various movements on ropes, balls, and cylinders. Often the artist combines the ability to maintain balance with acrobatic, comic actions, as well as juggling. Even in ancient China, performances of tightrope walkers were very popular. In many cultures of the world, folk entertainments were often accompanied by performances by tightrope walkers. There are such variants of this genre as performances on a ball, on a wire, on reels, on ladders, on a trapeze (stein trap), on unicycles.

Illusionists

Magicians or illusionists are representatives of a profession that has glorified circus art. The basis of the genre was sleight of hand. Artists who knew how to perform magical manipulations with various objects, such as cards, were mandatory participants in medieval fairs. Modern illusionists, in addition to the ability to make amazing movements with their hands, use various technical tricks to mislead the audience. Among the magicians there are real world celebrities, whose names are passed down from generation to generation. Such illusionists include Harry Houdini, Alessandro Cagliostro, the Keogh family, Uri Geller,

Clownery

Ask any child what a circus is, and you will get the answer: Masters working in this role have become a real symbol of the circus; without them, performances are impossible. The beginning of the profession was laid in the institute of buffoonery, because jesters were at the court of all royalty. Their task was not only to entertain, but also to ridicule vices, while the jester, the clown, could tell the truth to anyone. The art of a clown is often built not on humor, but on irony, buffoonery and grotesquery. The exaggerated manner of playing goes back to the traditions of farcical performances at fairs. The clown should not only make people laugh, but also mock, but at the same time his performance should not be cruel or offensive. Often clowns perform in pairs, where the roles are clearly distributed. In the Italian theater, these roles were assigned to Pierrot and Harlequin, in the Russian tradition they are the Red (cunning and rogue) and White (an important, prim gentleman) clowns. Conflicts constantly occur between them, which are funny scenes that fill the pauses in the performance. In the circus world, clowns are considered to be the artistic elite. They often include elements of juggling, acrobatics, training, and pantomime in their performances. Among them there are real, greatest actors. The most famous clowns are M. N. Rumyantsev (Pencil), V. Polunin, Yu. Nikulin and M. Shuidin, who worked in pairs, L. Engibarov, O. Popov. Any circus show can be saved by a clown who appears in the arena whenever there is a pause in the program.