Big top, big thrills

Geoffrey Berhault has been performing since he was four years old. He is a second-generation circus performer with a background in dance, theatre and acrobatics.

His specialty is the tightwire, where he combines dance, jumps and flips on a 10-millimetre-wide cable.

Originally from France, he studied at two circus schools in Paris and has performed globally. He and his wife, Desire Cardinali Chaves, a contortionist, hand balancer and aerialist from Portugal, are co-owners of Europa Super Circus.

Being a circus owner is… completely different to being a performer. You have so many more responsibilities, a lot more problems. You have to always find a solution, resolve it fast and also cheap.

When I was a performer, I should’ve looked at what other circuses were doing… it would have prepared me better, but I was just focused on my own performance.

My wife Desire and I started Europa Super Circus in April 2025… she is the co-owner with me. We were both working around the world in circuses for more than 10 years and we decided to create our own show. We both perform, produce and manage. We do everything.

We also have our own acts… we have to make sure to practise. But now because I’m doing a lot of the operations — setup, driving the truck, shopping for concession foods — my act is a little bit less than before when I was just performing.

It would be too dangerous to do it like I do before… I could hurt myself because I don’t have as much time to practise.

My wife is the producer… she is better than me at planning. Our main concern is to make sure everything and everyone is ready, because people are coming to see us for a show.

There are nine acts in our circus… we have mostly aerial acts. There is a crew as well. Someone to do the lights, someone to do the concession food stand. We all travel everywhere together.

The clown is my father-in-law… he does comedy while we set up between the acts, so everything goes smoothly during the show.

To audition for the show, performers send us videos of their acts… the best way to do it would be people coming in, but it is really complicated to do it like that. So for now it’s mostly online. You can have like 50 or 100 people sending in videos and from there you choose.

We are a really good show… we are lucky to have these performers.

Life in a circus can be complicated… we see each other every morning, we are together every day all the time. But everybody mostly has their own trailer so they eat there and they shower there.

Some performers don’t have their own accommodation… so I bought a bunkhouse trailer with five rooms. They share bathroom but they still have their single room. I wish I could have more of those that I can put more performers there.

We have 10 trailers in the circus… we drive for around six hours every week to different locations. We are moving all the time.

We have been travelling since April…. We are not going to stop travelling until November. We have not had a week off since we started.

We are on the road always… we mostly travel on Mondays. On Tuesdays we stop at a new location and set up the tent. Everybody will give a hand to put the tent up.

Biggest challenge when touring a circus… is setting up the tent and setting it up well. Arriving somewhere on time and setting up the tent for the first night can be stressful. Something can always happen; a motor can break, or a pole can bend or there can be a big wind so you need to wait to put up the tent and then you are not ready on time.

The tent is 32 metres wide and 15 metres high… there are five big main pieces of plastic, which is the main piece of the tent. It is all one big piece held up by four king poles, which are the towers. Then there is the round cupola that goes in the middle of the four towers.

It takes eight hours to set everything up… normally we would use motors to put the tent up, but as we are just starting, we don’t have the budget for motors, so for now we just use something called a wire grip hoist. We have one or two people by each tower and we have to do it manually, with manpower.

But as soon as the tent is up and the performers are there… I know we are going to be OK because we are going to do what we do and I know people are going to like it.

Usually in a circus they would use bleachers for seats but we have chairs… we have 600 chairs inside. People like it. They say they feel really close to the performers.

I started performing young… I was doing a little bit of everything, acrobatics, trampolining.

My parents are both performers… my mom is a classical and modern jazz dancer and my dad does classical dance also, and then he started doing flying trapeze.

My dad opened a circus school… I did a little bit there with him, learning everything, like general acrobatics. Then my dad put a tightwire in my garden, just for me to try and I started doing it.

In France, they have a big circus school… which has the usual school lessons in the morning and in the afternoon you have circus. All of it counts towards your final exam scores. I auditioned for that and they accepted me.

The longest time I have stayed in one place is… two months, maybe three months maximum. I am always on the move. I like this life.

Even now, if we are in the same place for two weeks… I want to move. I want to see more, I want to do more.

I would love to take my circus to Asia… I have performed there and it would be crazy to bring my own show there.

Usually in circus, in Europe they close during summer… but in North America they close during Christmas. We are going to finish in the middle of November. I wish we could do a Christmas show for December in the U.S. Next April we will start again.

One day I might just go back to being a performer… right now everything is non-stop. I mean, I like it because it’s never boring because something always happens.

Now the big thing is that I want to do is make the circus better… make a bigger show for next year.

Interview has been edited for length and clarity.

av.kitching@freepress.mb.ca