Circus Performers Live Through Highs And Lows

As Cindi Cavallini swings and spins from two rings that hang 20 feet off the ground, she’s not pondering the fact there’s no net underneath her.

Instead, she’s probably thinking about what items she needs to put on her grocery list or wondering what kind of mischief her 2-year-old son is getting into.

While crowds of people ooohed and aaahed Thursday as she swung 20, 30, 40 feet in the air, flipped and hung upside down - for Cavallini, it was just another day at the circus.

The 29-year-old is an acrobat, a horse and elephant trainer - not to mention a truck driver, mother and a college graduate.

Her life and the lives of the other Carson & Barnes Circus performers are a mixture of adventure and boredom, excitement and fatigue.

In nine months, they will travel to more than 200 cities and perform at least twice a day, seven days a week. They will also go sightseeing and raise their children.

“It’s not a 9-to-5 job you can leave and go home and get away from,” said John Moss, the circus ringmaster. “It’s more of a lifestyle.”

Many of the performers come from families who have been in the business for generations. Others truly ran away to join the circus.

“The sawdust gets into your veins and then it gets into your brain,” said Nick Weber, a former priest turned circus clown. “It’s not just that it’s the only thing you know, it’s the only thing you want to know.”

Standing inside the tent Thursday, Cavallini talked about how she loved animals when she was a child, how she enrolled in a California college to attend their animal training program.

She didn’t know what she wanted to do after school until a small circus hired to care for animals.

Within a week they needed her to perform with the elephants.

“I thought, ‘No way, I hate going out in front of all those people,”’ she said. “It was weird, all I saw was the elephants. I didn’t even see the people.”

Nick Weber, 55, studied conventional theater before turning to the circus as a 30-year-old man. Rather than entertain the elite few who could afford the theater, he wanted to bring his art to the masses.

For 22 years now he has traveled - with his own circus and Carson & Barnes.

But the circus life is hard. There are thousands of miles to drive, animals to care for, a huge tent to raise and take down every day.

“It’s very tiring, you have to fight off fatigue and boredom,” Weber said. “It’s tough not to let the huge number of faces become blurred.”

For circus people, belonging to the big top is more than just a job - it’s a family.

“It’s like living in a small town of 200 people,” said Hazel Frazier who has worked in circuses since 1957 and raised six children.

Frazier runs the cook tent while her son trains the tigers and her daughter does aerial acrobatics. Cavallini is married to one of her fellow acrobats.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo