Paul O' Grady Fleas

I looked at my flea circus site google analytics stats this week and noticed that there was a bit of a change. Rather than my usual 20-30 hits per day, I recieved 301 on Wednesday.

My first speculation was that perhaps the showing of a flea circus on the Paul O' Grady show had sent a bunch of people in my direction, there were a lot of google hits but there were 241 from a site called StumbleUpon.com. For those of you who don't know stumbleupon is a way of sharing interesting sites with other people who have similar interests so it looks like I must have been mentioned there. Sorry Paul/Malcolm you can't claim credit for this one.

Anyway, hopefully my digibox recorded the Paul O Grady show as I did not have time to watch it as I was donating blood (for people not fleas) last night. I'll let you know more once I've seen the show.

Paul O'Grady 29th November 2007

The Paul O'Grady show on Thursday 29th November 2007 will have a guest Flea Circus performer and pupetteer, Professor Malcolm Jephcott from Devon. The show starts at 5pm on Channel 4.

It's been a life long ambition for to Paul to perform a flea circus so next week Malcom is training him on how to handle fleas and perform the acts.

Max von Sydow named after a Flea

In a recent interview the actor Max von Sydow comments that he was named after a flea. The swedish actor appeared in Conan the Barbarian, perfored for Bergman in The Seventh Seal, won an oscar for Pelle the Conqueror and more recently appeared in Minority Report and Rush Hour 3.
Max was origionally named Carl Adolf after his grandparents but in the 1940s the name became less popular. During swedish national service he performed for his comrades in an imaginary flea circus. And the star of that circus was a flea called Max. Following this the colonel of regiment started calling him Max and the name stuck.

Flea Circus Pinup

Last week, Malcom Jephcott, one of the UK's premiere flea circus performers was interviewed for Chat Magazine. This unlikely pinup is fit as a flea and in the frame for a quick chat in this weekly "real-life read". Malcom shows his grand finale act, "The Flea Parade" to Chat and a hundred person strong audience before tells about his show and performing pedigree.

The travels of L. Bertolotto

Thanks to two other researchers I have found out two more places where L. Bertolotto performed with his Industrious Fleas.

On his tour of the UK Bertolotto stopped in Cheltenham, the 'Cheltenham Journal' for 15 Sept 1834 advertised the performance at "No. 22 Pittville Street, where his wonderful little menagerie will go through all the feats which have, for the last three years, astonished and delighted the lovers of curiosity in the Metropolis."

Further afield Bertolotto advertises his Industrious Fleas at "1 door north of the Marvin House, over the bookstore". This performance in Saratoga Springs, NY contained fleas mascarading as the Presidential candidates Buchanan, Fillmore and Fremont. This dates the performance to be around 1856.