October 4, 2019

Zippos Circus – #Review #AD

We were gifted tickets to go to review the opening night Zippos Circus on Tuesday in.

The boys have been super excited to go since we got the tickets, we love the circus although Boo isn’t a lover of clowns but luckily Zippos don’t have clowns instead they have Paulo dos Santos who was amazing. He was one of the funniest performers any of us have seen and all of thought he was hilarious including Boo, who was laughing out loud at him doing his dancing and playing around with the Ringmaster Norman Barrett MBE.

As it was the opening night we were worried that it might have been difficult to get into but actually there was only a small queue for the circus and the refreshments, we had candy floss and popcorn vouchers gifted to us. Nothing took long as the staff were completely organised and within minutes of queuing to go in everyone was being let in and told were to seat.

We were seated in the top row and it meant that we could see absolutely everything within the ring area and it didn’t matter if someone sat in front of you, you were still able to see completely clearly! Which is a huge bonus when you have kids with you.

There was no delay with timings and the circus started right on time and the energy was amazing, it was a feel good night and you could get the gist of the evening as soon as Paulo dos Santos came onto stage. Then when Norman Barrett MBE arrived the show was his, he is a fantastic ring master and you can see why he is in his 21st year, the man was born for the role and is fantastic at his job.

Actually every single performer is fantastic at their job. You sit watching them and you do feel like you are seeing the best of the best, whether you are watching an aerial net display, juggling, motorbikes riding around in a dome, knife throwing acts, acrobats or budgies performing! Yes that’s right I said budgies, everything and everyone performs to their best ability.

Looking at the boys watching the performers was amazing, most acts were met with “wows” “that’s so amazing” “it’s so cool” or totally silence as they were completely dumb stuck with what was actually happen.

They walked out of the circus declaring it was the best circus they had seen and Boo wanting the acts to come to his birthday party.

To be totally honest there wasn’t one part of the circus where I thought this is a bit meh, and started getting a little distracted. This circus completely keeps your attention.

But at the same time it keeps a family feel, in the middle of the show, Norman Barrettasked for people who had birthdays on the day and spoke to four of the audience who all had birthdays. He invited them all into the ring, two took up the opportunity, he introduced all the birthday people and then asked the audience to put their torches on on our phones and to hold up the flashing lights that you could buy there. We all sang happy birthday while waving our lights in the air. It was such a simple family orientated thing but really had a lovely touch to it. It really made you feel that the circus is very much still about the people that visit!

I loved that.

One thing that I really loved was that we got to see so many things that we haven’t seen before at previous circus we have been to. I have never seen the acrobatics, such as the Revolution Troupe and The Timbuktu Tumblers that were done at Zippos, or knives being thrown that are on fire by Toni and Nikol, or a aerial net performance by Noemi Krich. I certainly haven’t seen motorbikes in a dome before, especially five of them, like The Lucius Team nor have I seen a contortionist quite like Elbernel Ebby at Zippos and I know for a fact none of us have ever seen Budgies like the ones Norman Barrett MBE brought out at the end of the show.

It really was a night of firsts for us all.

And that is what made it all so amazing.

It is definitely a circus I would recommend and is one that I would pay the full price for as I really do think it is worth the money.

Zippos haven’t tried to change the mould they are a circus holding onto their traditional values and are still very much still about the visitors and showing us the things they love to do, and that makes it so very special.

So should you go if you get a chance, oh my god yes and remember if you book online you can continue to get a discount code of 30% if you order your tickets online.

Zippos Circus is touring until the end of October you can see where they are and get tickets here.

Each show is two hours long with an interval, under 2s are free if they are not in a seat, and tickets start from £7.50 per child and £9.00 per adult (15 and above) and with the discount code ZIP50 you can get 30% off all your tickets!