Everyday Life Under Big Top Is No Circus

Behind the glitz that is the circus, life for married couples and others who work under the Big Top is no circus. It is a world of constant work and dedication.

This community-on-wheels employs 150 performers and 200 handlers, riggers, seamstresses--even a traveling priest, the Rev. Jack Toner.

The troupe is on the road for two years, with perhaps a month off. Mail is forwarded, eventually, to the arenas where they perform. Animal trainers Lee and Judith Stevens had a $300 phone bill in March.

The comforts of home go with them. Co-workers often are neighbors, as well: sleeping, cooking, doing laundry on a circus train that carries them from city to city. To help preserve family ties, relatives plan their vacations around visits to the circus.

When they are not performing, practicing, making costumes, building props and caring for animals, some circus folks use their scant time to fish, sightsee, play golf or watch movies on their VCRs.

Many of them travel with pets, although Marcia and Luis Palacio, who perform with ferocious animals at each show, left their cat and dog--”spoiled, fat, lazy” and admittedly undisciplined--at her mother’s home in England.

Some, such as the Stevenses, travel overland--discreetly pulling into campgrounds with their baboons in an unmarked trailer.

“We look like Joe Tourist going down the highway,” said Stevens. “It’s home; the dirt changes under the wheels--that’s all.”