Charles Chipperfield Circus

Last week the circus came to town, and it gave me & Chris the biggest belly laughs since we watched Grimsby at Vue. Our shared sense of particular brand of humour was one of the first things we found that we had in common, and probably explains why we both remained single for so long before we met each other.

The circus rocked up in Collett Park amidst the usual outrage on the Facebook Community Page – why on earth should the circus be allowed in our beautiful park when there is a perfectly good show-field across the road; dogs running … round park … unsupervised dog (poo) on the path – and so it went on: welcome to Shepton Mallet Charles Chipperfield Circus!

Chris and I had complimentary tickets and we went along on Thursday evening, meeting up with other ‘complimentaries’ and several paying guests. Although there were a few empty seats, there was a big enough audience waiting to be entertained.

The costumes were stunning, and we were captivated by the gravity defying balancing acts and precision timing high trapeze.

But the highlight of the show had to be the clowns; with the aid of a whistle and hand gestures, a dramatic love triangle was directed and played out with incredibly sporting members of the public, to the delight and sheer joy of the crowd. I laughed so much it made my tummy hurt – even more so than the Kettlercise class the night before!

After the show, the entire crew lined up for photos, and handed out discounted tickets to pass onto family and friends. The circus integrated perfectly with the town, and one of the performers even took part in the ParkRun on Saturday. After the circus had packed up and gone to their next venue, the only visible sign of their presence was a few yellowing patches of grass which will very soon recover. And not a trace of unsupervised dog poo to be found …