The Circus at the Edge of the Earth: Travels with the Great Wallenda Circus

Pauline Carey is an actor, playwright, and fiction writer. She is the
author of Magic and What’s in a Name?

In 1997, Charles Wilkins traveled with the Great Wallenda Circus on a
tour through Northwestern Ontario and Manitoba. He asked questions,
listened to stories, made friends. He walked in looking for excitement,
and came away with a book that gives us a documentary look at what
really goes on in circus life. Loyalty and mutual admiration certainly
exist, but fear, loneliness, and sheer hard work are also a large part
of it.

Ricky Wallenda, the circus owner, is a member of the famous family
whose tragic 1962 accident on the high wire has become part of circus
history; his grandfather died in a fall from the wire at the age of 73.
Bobby, who describes himself as “a fat guy with a bad attitude,” is
the elephant trainer whose first thought in a new town is to buy up huge
stores of food for Judy, his blind elephant; Wilson works with tigers
and habitual danger; Larry, the music director, learned the blues from
Art Hodes; Liliana, who works the rings, dreams of performing with La
Cirque du Soleil; Daniella, who can keep 30 hula hoops in play, phones
her boy friend in another circus whenever she has the time. Many of the
acts are families; they work together not only to stay together but also
because relatives are the most likely to risk their lives for each
other.

In his straightforward style, Wilkins relays the shop-talk of these
extraordinary people. We learn about shoes, poles, and wires used in
high-wire acts, financial crises behind the scenes, the toilet-training
of animals, the tricks used to make an act appear more dangerous than it
is, and the reason why tigers don’t do comedy. We hear of
heart-stopping power failures during performances, and of trainers’
scorn of animal-rights protesters who may signal the end of the circus.
The book includes a map of the tour route and many small photographs.