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In 1948, Alberto Zoppe left his native Italy for
America, bringing with him a family-circus tradition that dates to 1842. Today his son,
Giovanni, 39, is the driving force behind the Zoppe Family Circus, one of the last old
fashioned, lamily-run, one-ring circuses left touring the United States.
Everything is spinning so fast today, we want the audience to forget about everything
and just step back in time with us,” says Giovanni, die circus’ producer and liead clown.
The Zoppe circus is unapologetically authentic, ftom its intimate S(X)-seut tent with
wood-plank bleachers to a performance that includes small-animal acts, trapeze acrobatics
and the kind of grand-gesture, silent comedy perfected by Charlie Chaplin.
Giovanni Zoppe
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# by JIM DISTASIO
Staging the
Family Circus
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A typical show features 15 to 25 performers, all of them family and
friends. In addition to Giovanni (who plays Nino the Clown), his motlier,
Sandra, and father, now 83 and recovering from a.stroke, the regulars include
sister Tosca, an equestrian; Toscas husband. Jay Walther, the ringmaster;
sister Carla, a dog trainer; and Carlas husband, Rudolf Heinen, a former
lion tamer who now performs with canines. The traveling entertainers also
include cousins who specialize in juggling fire and a group of college-age,
non-Zoppe circus performers that Giovanni lovingly dubbed "the Prego
Troupe” because “they're fake Italian, just like the sauce."
Related by blood or not, they're all members of the Zoppe family, says
Giovanni. “When circus performers believe in the true artistry of what we're
trying to do, tlce ties are as thick as bkxxl, if not thicker,” he says.
“Were always together, always counting on one another,” says Tosca,
who even found love on the road. She met her husband, Jay, wlx> didn't hail
from a circus background, during a performance in New Jersey. "I went on
the road with them tor what I thought would be just a year,” Walther says.
"Thirteen years later, it’s still phenomenal.”
Keeping a circus on the road is challenging, even for someone as
youthfully exuberant as Giovanni. Unlike most big-budget arouses,
the Zoppes act as their own crew, pounding in the stakes and raising
the large tent themselves. "When you're performing in the ring and you
know you physically set up the surroundings, it's a whole new level of
satisfaction," Giovanni says.
The set-up is performed quickly, but with great care, and sometimes
ends only a lew moments before die Zoppes don costumes to greet audience
members as they enter the tent.
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Equestrian Tosca Zoppe, Giovanni's sister, is married to the ringmaster.
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