The Night the Audience Came to My Party

We were travelling the South of England with a small Circus owned by Charlie Waite and his family.

For a small dog and pony show it was well set up. Charlie had two talented children who performed a number of fine acts and we were touring one of the nicest parts of England.

The show even had a performing goat, something I had not encountered before. The only trouble was the the goat liked to eat everything within range. This included clothes on the washing line, and one one memorable occassion, the wiring under one of the trucks.

The route took us through Kent to delightful seaport towns like Ryde. But it was a small show, requiring all hands on deck for work and so we were very busy, day after day.

The day of my birthday I thought everyone had forgotten. No one said anything to me and as it was show day as usual, we had two shows, a matinee and a night show.

The weather was very fine for an English summer. In the few times we had to real we would all lie around on the grass and swap yarns. It was certainly one of the friendliest and happiest shows I have ever known.

Most days we did a matinee and a night show, on a string of one night stands, which meant a very intensive day of building up, showing and pulling down before moving onto the next place. Fortunately the distances between towns and villages was very short.

I did my act in the night show as usual, then, as I was taking my bow, Charlie Waite came into the ring with the mike and announced to the audience that Jojo (me) had turned 21 today and the whole audience was invited to help celebrate!

You should have heard the cheer that went up...I never got such good applause in my life!

The circus crew and performers brought on a birthday cake and they had me blow out the candles in the ring. The audience came pouring into the ring to congratulate me.

There was a huge cheer when my father handed me the key to the caravan tied with a big pink bow. I had been coming and going as I pleased for years, of course, but the audience loved it.

It was great...I had many happy time with the circus but I will never forget the night the audience came to my 21st birthday party.

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