Fleas on Etsy

I've found a few flea items on Etsy, here's the best of this week's selections



Flea Pin
Flea Greeting Card



Flea Cushion
Dot's Flea Circus Limited Edition print
Better than a flea circus origional print
Dark Alphabet - B is for Bonfire
Flea Circus Collage

A bit odd...

"Ripley's Believe it or not" have just published a new book "Enter If You Dare".

I've checked and there's a good double page spread on flea circuses past and present with lots of photos and pictures. A nice "ask the expert" section covers the topic in detail.

It's available to buy now from the London Odditorium and I'm sure it will appear in bookshops soon too.

For more information, contact RipleyBooks

Boys' Life Feb 1975

The cub scout magazine, Boys' Life had a nice little article back in Feb 1975 on making a "No Flea - flea circus". It describes making a stage and how to perform three tricks; raising a telegraph pole, high dive and a strong flea pulling a railway wagon. It also has an article on how to dress like a ring master which would be an idea costume for a flea circus performance.

Chuck Caputo Electronic Flea Circus

Chuck Caputo is quite well known as a flea circus maker as he's been making them for some years now. I've seen his circuses appear on Ebay and raise a good value even second hand.

Chuck's latest circus is electronically controlled and includes a good selection of acts including a very patriotic flag raising and a novel firing cannon.

Children's Festival

Madame Tiptop and Felix Flip-flop have been performing their flea circus at the Children's Festival in Belfast. The flea circus from Cahoots NI theatre is well known for it's attendance at such events and for visiting local hospitals.

Industrious Fleas in the news

News just in.... well from 1832 so I'm a little late.

Thanks to the British Library British Newspapers 1800-1900 archive, I've been chasing down those pesky Industrious Fleas. The great advantage of newspapers as a source is that they are dated and detail locations too. There is one drawback which is that the papers of the time liked to print snippets from other regional papers so there's a bit of duplication between the articles. I'm currently working through 40+ articles and will be updating the L.Bertolotto Flea Circus History page over the next few month.

A large range of newspapers have reported on L. Bertolotto's Industrious Fleas over the years, in locations such as:

Star Inn, Oxford,
No 4. Castle Street, Liverpool,
Exchange Ante-Room, Manchester,
Gallery of Arts Drawbridge, Bristol,
Assembly Room, Exchange, Belfast,
The Crown Hotel, High Street, Portsmouth,
The Subscription Rooms, Exeter,
11 Castle Square, Brighton,
6 Lune Street, Preston,
Somerset Gallery 151 Strand, London
Bordelese Gallery, London?

A couple of the adverts have an amusing poem.

The Fleas, the Fleas, the merry Fleas:
Let us flea to see the Fleas;
Over land and over seas,
The cry is, Have you seen the Fleas?



The articles also report of Giuseppe Paris at 63 Prince Street Edinburgh in 1834 and Kitchingman with a performance on the corner of Maddox Street and Regent Street in 1869.

Some interesting tangents to investigate too such as a court report on "Mr Augustus Rynam, who previous to 1854 kept on exhibition called the Industrious Fleas" and a few red herrings such as a ship called "Bertolotto" from Odessa.

Flea Circuses and alternative events

Flea Circuses are often associated with carnivals, freak shows or other colourful forms of entertainment. For example, Flea Circuses have been performed at Huberts Museum and Coney Island.

A recent example of this was Ms. Karla Chameleon's Flea Circus at the Steampunk themed event "The Great Exhibition" from "White Mischief". Where Ms. Chameleon walked around like a cigarette girl, entertaining the crowds with a portable circus.



Comming up next month, is Indulgent Decadence a Burlesque night at the Red Shoes Theatre in Elgin. Circus Maximus has been asked to perform at the event.