Performer Spotlight - the Amazing Anastasini's

This month we are spotlighting a family of performers who are accomplished circus performers as well as show producers. This family represents eight generations of circus know how.

Luciano Anastasini currently performs as "Luciano's

Pound Puppies" with an adorable and charming mix of mutts who as their name suggests came from various pounds around the country. The act is fast paced, colorful and inventive. Most recently they were featured on the PBS Series - "PBS Circus" which began airing late in 2010. Luciano also performs Diablo juggling and his wife Gladis is an aerialist.

Giovanni Anastasini is a ringmaster, Diablo juggler and aerialist. His daughter Chiara is also multi-talented, she performs a breath hand balancing, as well as hula hoops and aerials. Chiara's brothers Fabio and Guiliano are accomplished in their Risley act and have spent the last few years traveling around the world.

The Anastasini's produce and perform in a variety of venues as well as their own show. The can perform in circuses, cruise ships, fairs, festivals, corporate events and more.

Their show can be performed in a building, on a stage, outdoors or when you are ready to take your event to the next level, in their own European Big Top.

Having a Big Top Circus whether at a theme park, fair, corporate event or private party takes you to the next level. It is also a fantastic options for your guests. Did you know circus tents can be heated and air conditioned? A local vendor can be hired to climate control the big top!

Some of the venues the Amazing Anastasini's have performed at

include: The Big Apple Circus, Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus, Busch Gardens, Disney Land, the White House for President George Bush, Circus Conelli, Wild Adventures Theme Park, the Champlain Valley Exposition and many many more.

July 2010 in Review

A very busy July, lots of travel, and tons of heat and humidity! As always July began with a bang with one of the busiest entertainment weekends of the year here in the United States, the Fourth of July holiday weekend.

We began July on the road traveling to Houlton, Maine through one of the most picturesque parts of I-95. Houlton is just about as far as you go before I95 ends at the Canadian border. Its fair time in northern Maine and we paid a visit to the Houlton Fair and fair president Paul Cleary. We had a couple of shows returning to Houlton, Kachunga and the Alligator came to Houlton for the 3rd time in 6 years, this time bringing with the the ultimate in rare reptiles, an albino alligator born in Louisiana and one of less than 50 known in the world. All albino alligators live in captivity since their life expectancy in the wild is less than 24 hours due to predators and the fact that they have zero sun protection, exposure to the sun would cause a quick death.

Also returning to Houlton was Maximum Velocity, an action sports show featuring BMX riders and a flatland skateboarder. This year Maximum Velocity performed outdoors in front of the Civic Center. Maximum Velocity is a very popular attraction with young people who really enjoy the high flying, acrobatic BMX stunts and their parents enjoy the message of safety and safety equipment.

On Saturday we spent most of the day just south of Boston in the town of Stoughton, Massachusetts were we had two events in the same day celebrating the July 4th holiday. First was Kids Day run by Janet Jasmin formally Janet Salvaggi whom I graduated high school with in an undisclosed year. Kids Day is for the local children and there were lots of activities for the children including the music of the Bravo Bros. who also performed for the committee in 2009, Chuckwagon Mac Tales of the Old West, and Boris Koski who supplied balloon twisting, face painting artistry and a little Velociped riding to start of the bicycle parade. Later that evening Chuckwagon Mac stayed on for the fireworks celebration, after all what is more American than cowboys on the 4th of July. North American Amusements also supplied a midway at the event for the second year.
Sunday it was off to Groton, Connecticut to the U.S. Navy Base for Subfest 2010. Rockwell Amusements again supplied the midway with lots of rides for the whole family. Returning for an unprecedented fourth year was Bwana Jim's Wildlife show. Two all new shows for Subfest 2010 was Vicenta Pages and her Royal White Bengal Tigers and the Old Tyme Lumberjack Show.

Overall the entire east coast was in the midst of a heat wave over the weekend from Maine to Georgia where the Anastasini's finished up their run at Wild Adventure's Theme Park in Valdosta. The heat was an overall factor in the attendance figures at so many events once that mercury rises & the humidity becomes oppressive we find the attendance is similar to that of a day filled with rain.

On July 16th we opened up the South County Balloon Festival at the campus of the University of Rhode Island for the Wakefield Rotary Club. Two shows at this popular event this year, returning for a second year was Taylor Michael's Magically Medieval and his lovely assistant and wife Vicky. All new for 2010 it was the High Flying Pages trapeze family whose aerial artistry is a nice compliment for this type of event and audience. George Gritzbach, blues artist and Becky Chase, Americana provided an afternoon and early evening of music on Saturday night.


On Saturday the 17th after the festivities of the balloon festival we made a trek up to Boston's Hatch Shell for a show with Eddie Money who after a long flight delay in Chicago made it to the show by the hair of his chinny chin chin, as did we coming from the furthest reaches in Rhode Island. The audience was just tremendous, overfilling the famed Esplanade for this show presented by Oldies 103.3 Boston.

July 17th was the opening of the Barnstable County Fair. For the opening weekend we had strolling artist Brad Bodary with his Bronze Cowboy, Living Mannequin and other popular characters. Returning to the food court stage this year was the prop comedy of Lucky Bob who can really draw in and keep an audience. On Thursday evening George Gritzbach graced the food court stage on what turned out to be a record attendance night at the fair.

The weekend arrived with another tremendous blast of heat and humidity on the east coast as the Flying Pages trapeze act traveled to their second weekend at a hot air balloon festival. This time they appeared at the Quick Chek New Jersey Festival of Ballooning at the Solberg Airport. This is the largest hot air balloon festival outside of New Mexico and probably the most unique of any festival we have attended. The highlight of the event is always the sunrise and sunset launch of more than 125 hot air balloon but they also offer a large music stage with national acts as well as some variety entertainment to pass the hours between the launches. Their is a vendor and food concession area that compares to no other event, and they continue to amazing me with some what can only be called one of a kind offerings, that you won't see at any other event. The Quick Chek New Jersey Festival of Ballooning can certainly be considered a destination and is certainly worthy of your vacation or leisure time! Bring comfortable walking shoes as this event takes up the entire airport, leave your heels and flip flops at home!


We had some devastating news on Wednesday the 28th, Dondi the beloved Asian elephant belonging to the Schacht family passed away after a brief illness at Southwick's Zoo in Mendon, Massachusetts. She had appeared at many festivals, fairs, amusement parks, zoos, church events, some circuses and Renaissance Faires over the years that were all too brief.
The Schacht family dedicated the last 35 years to her care after she was taken as a calf from a lumber camp in Thailand. For those of you unfamiliar with the teak camps in Southeast Asian they can be hell for elephants and humans alike feeding the need for teak furniture, lumber, boat decking, etc. Elephants are used to knock down trees with their heads, carry the lumber miles through hot, humid, infested jungles to rivers, over and over again. They are used because these places do not have the machinery to pull off this type of labor. Elephants and humans die young and baby elephants are either taken from their mothers or killed if the lumber business owners feel the babies are taking away from their mothers work in the forest. Their is no regard for life of either the human laborers or the endangered Asian elephant.
Dondi was bonded to Phil, Francine, Joshua, & Ashley although Dondi had been introduced to her own kind she had little interest. Her human family and later on a couple a miniature horses is what she desired for companionship. Please keep the Schacht Family in your prayers their loss is devastating, they have lost not only their beloved elephant, but their way of life and also their co-worker, Dondi. They will be in our thoughts and prayers as they start over in life.

On the 29th of July the Tigers of Adam Burck opened at WestFair in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Adam and his wife Elaine have a nice mix of Royal Bengal Tigers, three golden tigers and three white tigers. They perform a great show educating the public on the natural abilities of tigers and bringing attention to the few remaining tigers left in the wild. Elaine tells me they really enjoyed their time at WestFair and they were well received by the fair goers.

Friday the 30th was opening day at the Northern Maine Fair in Presque Isle up in the crown of Maine. If you ever had a Maine potato chances are it came by way of Presque Isle a lovely farming community and only of the only cities in far northern Maine. The fair committee is dedicated to bringing first quality entertainment to the people who live in Aroostook county especially animal shows. This year we had Vicenta Pages and her White Bengal tigers perform at the fair this was Vicenta's second visit ever to Presque Isle she also visited with the Shrine Circus.

Although July was busy it passed far too quickly but we are now into August and enjoying our time visiting on the road.

Until our August review . . . we will see you all down the road!

September 2009 in Review

September has come and gone already. . . its been a whirlwind of events from coast to coast. We began September as we left off in August at the Champlain Valley Fair. The CVE as its known had a nice run of weather after a showery opening day. The fair was thrilled with both the Nerger's Tigers as well as the Anastasini Family Circus under the Big Top. A favorite of fair-goers at CVE was 3.5 month old Bengal Tiger Mazumi.

On Friday the 4th the Spencer Fair opened in Spencer, Massachusetts. Spencer is the quintessential New England Fair with a nice stage, grandstand area where the Demolition Derby rules, pulling events, family entertainment and tons of agriculture.

We have been working on advertising the fair for several years now buying their ads as well as producing the television, radio and print advertising. This years advertising them is "You'll Flip for the 121st Spencer Fair" to fit this years entertainment that featured an FMX Motorcycle show as well as the High Flying Pages trapeze act.

The following weekend we worked with Atlantic Music Productions to bring the Flying Wallendas to their first ever appearance at the Franklin County Fair in Greenfield, Massachusetts. The Wallendas were scheduled to play the fair Thursday through Saturday but after rainy weather modified some of the Wallendas show, Tino Wallenda generously offered the fair to stay an extra day (Sunday) to perform for the masses.

On Sunday the 13th we traveled up to Maine for the Oxford Fair where we had the High Flying Pages Trapeze family performing there for the first time ever. The Oxford Fair continues its growth, Suzanne Grover the fair manager their has done an amazing job over the past few years making upgrades to the fair including new buildings, bathrooms, betting parlors and adding days to the run to name a few. We were able to catch up with friends Stephanie and Jeff there who moved to Poland, Maine several years ago. It was their first visit to the Oxford Fair.

On the 19th Gordon attended the Massachusetts Agricultural Fair Association meeting which was held in the Massachusetts State Building on the grounds of the Big E on the second day of the Big E's run. We all took a ride out to visit the fair for the day, attendance that day was over 100,000 people. But it was especially nice to spend a little time with Mrs. Hanneford at the fair, whose show was looking great, not to be outdone by Mrs. Hanneford herself who celebrated a birthday at the fair, but she'd probably skin me if I told which one.

On Sunday the 20th we visited the Flying Wallenda's at the Guilford Fair in Connecticut. It was the 150th addition of the Guilford Fair to celebrate the Wallenda's put on a spectacular show featuring a Sky Walk between cranes by Tino over 100' long and 75' in the air. Also in the show were the Flying Cortez family and the Human Comet (JP's high fall on fire!).

Also on the 20th we had three acts booked into a corporate party held at Mount Wachusett. Western was the theme for the day, we had Tall Tex (Boris Koski on stilts), Cowboy Brian Dwyer also on stilts and the one and only Rattlesnake Dave Richardson and his West Texas Rattlesnake show. I hear all Dave's show had big crowds, people just love to be terrified by Dave's kids (the rattlesnakes).

The weekend of the 26th we had Dan Grady's Marionettes up at Mount Wachusett for their annual Kids Fest. This was a very nice event at the ski area with wonderful entertainment and samples for kids of all ages and their families. Saturday had big crowds during our visit, Sunday had some rain showers but Dan is so versatile he was able to modify his show and move from his outdoor stage (under a tent) to inside the ski lodge where everyone was able to stay nice and dry. Marionettes are really becoming a lost art, Dan's are among the best in the business, Dan had put a lot of work this spring into "renovating" some of his beloved marionettes which were created by Dan himself. Young children are just mystified by marionettes by they also go over well at arts festivals.

This year all of our acts have had to make the best of it at several events as we have had one wet summer which has continued into the fall! I have seen our acts go the extra mile this year to move shows inside or under cover or just get through it in adverse conditions all the credit goes to our amazing roster of acts who have sacrificed their comfort, their artistic integrity and sometimes their safety. The "Getting It Done" award goes to: Magically Medieval, the Flying Pages, the Flying Wallendas, the Nerger's Lion and Tigers and Dan Grady's Marionettes (I hope I didn't leave anyone out). The one good thing is audiences have been making the best of it and people as still coming out despite the weather, were all used to being a bit damp at this point.

On the 30th of September we had Johnny Gunn perform at Tommy T's club in Rancho Cordova California with special guest and his good friend Eddie Money. Johnny co-wrote many of Eddie's hits including Shakin', Johnny also played guitar on many of Eddie's albums.

September is also the month were we really get moving on booking for next season and this year has been very busy. Without giving anything away, I don't want to steal any one's thunder, I'll let the fairs and events make their big announcements, I can tell you what type of events are going to be "in" this year. We have had lots of requests for western events (back to celebrating the American heritage) both rodeos, bull riding and wild west shows. Animal acts are another very popular request as are tented circuses, music and aerial acts. Proposals are going out daily, contracts are coming in and there will be many, many repeat performances in 2010, which is already shaping up to be a very good and exciting year.

July 2009 Recap

July started out with a bang as it usually does with all the fantastic July 4th events! Best yet the July 4th weekend was the first weekend of the summer season that was without rain! Subfest at the Groton Naval Submarine base was well attended and as always the animal acts were a huge hit. This year the Rosaire's Bears were the hit of the event and crowds were pleased to see that the Bwana Jim Wildlife Show returned for the third year in a row. Bwana Jim and his wife Linda always do a great job making sure they have something new each year for the many events that have them as an annual part of their event. This year they added birds of prey to their show with an owl, a Red Tail Hawk and a Turkey Vulture. I have to admit I have never been a fan of vultures but this one totally changed my opinion of vultures, he sat so calmly and preened his feathers just as nicely as my own pet parrot. Also new to Subfest this year was the Anastasini Family Circus with their fabulous aerial rocket fantasy act as well as Magically Medieval who as been one of my most popular acts this year.

We had a brand new Fourth of July event this year in Stoughton which we were able to bring in rides from North American Amusements on July 3rd for the fireworks portion of the event which was generously sponsored by IKEA. On Saturday the Fourth the event had a Children's Day event in which we brought in Johnny Peers and the Muttville Comix as well as Chuckles the Kids Comic. Johnny went over extremely well and was invited back to perform again in 2010. Chuckles had huge lines for his balloon twisting, he also road his Velociped as Uncle Sam, face painted and did some magic tricks, he is truly a one man festival just by himself.

The Whaling City Festival in New Bedford was the second weekend in July were we had dozens of bands on two stages over the weekend. The festival was surprised by two of the best drawing bands were styles of music that they had never before featured, True Witness a Christian Rock family act as well as Buck T. Edwards which was Country. All the artists were very talented and probably the best line up the festival has had. Also appearing at the Whaling City Festival was Magically Medieval which continued to draw a nice family audience. The biggest struggle for the Whaling City Festival this year was the economy, the festival has no admission charge and depends on sponsors to pay for a large portion of the event. The event typically draws between 130,000 to 175,000 people which is just want sponsors are looking for, however sponsorship has really dried up for most events this year. Such a shame for a great event whose goal is to raise money for scholarships for students in New Bedford which is an inner city area.

My brother Jeffrey decided to get married in the height of our busy season (July 12th) which caused us to miss the final day of the Whaling City Festival as well as the Great South Bay Music Festival on Long Island in New York. We booked Eddie Money to play July 12th at the festival, we hated to miss the event but Gordon, myself and our son Justin were all in the wedding party so it couldn't be helped. Gordon also attended Kieran Ridge's wedding prior to Jeffrey's. The Great South Bay Music Festival is in Patchogue, New York and this year was their third year. We heard Eddie was well received and drew great crowds (as always).

July 17th saw two more events open, Barnstable County Fair who booked in Lucky Bob for the run of the fair as well as Eddie Money on July18th. The South County Balloon Festival sponsored by the Wakefield Rotary Club was also this third weekend of July, returning to this hot air balloon event was the Flying Wallenda's and new to the event was Magically Medieval! Magically Medieval's popularity is probably due to the fact that it is brand new, priced right and includes its own stage, sound and lights, big pluses for any type of event. Believe it or not they have never played a Renaissance Faire although it is certainly appropriate for one. Magically Medieval just seems to go over well at any event.

July 24 to the 26th was the Quick Chek New Jersey Festival of Ballooning where we had the Flying Wallenda's perform their famous high wire routine. Aerial acts really seam to go over really well at balloon festivals, they really fit the "up in the air" theme.

Close Encounters of the Exotic Kind (Tigers and Lions) opened up this week for a return engagement at the Bushkill Volunteer Fire Department's Carnival fundraiser. Vince and Pom Pom are really wonderful at what they do, their show is part education and part entertainment and always well received. Big cat acts are a major part of our business, Close Encounters is typically booked solid a testament to the wonderful job they do!

And finally, last but not least the Northern Maine Fair opened today with the Rosaire Zoppe Chimps as the headline animal act of the fair. Best of luck on your opening day up in Presque Isle!

Wow, what a month!