A Home-Grown Circus in the European Style

If everyone loves a circus, how come Los Angeles hasn’t had one to call its own?

Two San Fernando Valley men, clown Dick Monday and event producer Tom Agostino, wondered exactly that and have remedied the deficiency.

Their recently formed L.A. Circus will appear in six performances this weekend at Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Van Nuys. Modeled on the one-ring, European style, the circus will present clowns, jugglers, acrobats, an aerial act and an elephant, all to the accompaniment of a live band.

All the action takes place in a ring 35 feet across set up in the hospital’s rear parking lot. There is no tent, and bleachers are set up around the ring.

“That’s one of the wonderful things about this kind of circus,” said Monday, 38, who began his clowning career with Ringling Bros. in 1974. “At Ringling you’re in a coliseum where you’re 30 feet from the action even if you’re in the front row. Here you’re five feet away. There’s not a bad seat in the house.”

This weekend’s engagement is the second in the circus’ existence. Performances will take place at noon, 2 and 4 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday. L.A. Circus had its debut this summer at a park in the Crenshaw District.

“There were children whose jaws literally dropped open at the start of the show and stayed there,” said Monday, of North Hollywood.

Admission is $3. There will be a separate, free fair nearby with clowns, stilt walkers, face painters and food and game booths run by nonprofit groups.

Agostino, 38, was a producer for the L.A. Festival, La Fiesta Broadway and other events before helping found L.A. Circus. The Woodland Hills resident said Canada’s Cirque du Soleil was a strong influence.

“The focus is on performance,” he said. “Circus got too big and too impersonal, too much along the line of freak shows and carnies. It’s time to bring back a circus where you’re closer to the action.

“So this is part of a revival. San Francisco has the Pickle Family. New York has its Big Apple Circus. Montreal has Cirque du Soleil. Now Los Angeles has the L.A. Circus, and we draw the talent from what’s available locally. A lot of them have performed regularly at Venice Beach.”

Agostino said the seven-piece band is in the Spike Jones tradition, lending a manic excitement to the show.

“Circus is one of few arts that encompasses music, dance, comedy, theater and feats of skill and daring,” he said. “It’s something for families to do together. . . . You get some cotton candy and popcorn, sit in the bleachers and watch the clowns.”

The city of Los Angeles helped start L.A. Circus with a $25,000 grant. In return, the circus gives workshops at parks, teaching juggling, clowning and tumbling. Organizers said that with the city’s ongoing fiscal crunch, L.A. Circus probably will have to support itself from here on out.

“We’re hoping that by next summer we can do a series of shows at four locations in the city,” Agostino said.

L.A. Circus begins at noon, 2 and 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at Valley Presbyterian Hospital, 15107 Vanowen St., Van Nuys. Tickets: $3. Call (818) 902-2986.