The Great Benjamin Circus will be making a stop in Yellowknife on July 21 as part of its Canadian tour. This week the circus is in Dawson Creek, BC, a city with a population of around 13,000.
Louis Leonard does booking and marketing for the circus and says they like to visit some of the smaller communities in Canada, as well as the cities.
“We like it all,” says Leonard. “We like big towns, we like small towns, people are people… and we like the people. That’s basically why we go to small towns.”
The next stops for the circus will be Beaverlodge, Sexsmith and Spirit River in Alberta before it makes its way to Yellowknife, the northernmost stop on the tour.
It’s an almost 12-hour drive from Spirit River to Yellowknife.
“It’s quite a hike up there when you’re travelling down the road with a tent and semi trucks and pickup trucks and trailers and stuff like that,” says Leonard. “It’s a little bit of an adventure, which we like as well.”
“I feel we’re privileged to be able to see this beautiful country and meet people from different walks of life, it’s amazing,” he says.
Leonard says the circus show has all kinds of thrill-based acts and performances.
“You know nowadays animal circuses are not very well looked upon,” says Leonard.
“We’re a non-animal circus, so we built our show on thrills. So we have motorcycles inside of a globe of death, which is like two-three motorcycles riding at the same time inside of a big steel cage where they crisscross and do different figures.”
There will also be acrobatics acts, juggling, a Russian swing, and trapeze artists.
Originating from Mexico and the U.S., Benjamin Circus is headquartered in Sarasota, Florida.
The company is made up of third generation circus performers, and the grandson is now running the business, Leonard says.
“His grandfather who was an American from Dallas, Texas, married a Mexican lady and they were circus performers, so they built a show and it’s been going down the road for three generations now,” he says.
Not all of the performers are related, but a good core of the troupe are family, which is why they focus on entertainment everyone can enjoy, says Leonard.
“We try to give what we call family entertainment and give a reason for families to go out together and have a moment together,” Leonard says.
The circus will be performing three shows at the multiplex arena on July 21st.
