And for Resorts’ Next Act...
By David J. Spatz from: www.atlanticcityweekly.com
Sep. 7, 2011
ATLANTIC CITY — Cornell “Tuffy” Nicholas never could make it as a clown, so running off with the circus wasn’t a career option.
So Nicholas did the next best thing: he bought the circus. Actually, several of them.
“I was a much better acrobat than I was a clown,” says Nicholas, the owner, producer and self-described “show maker” of a company that presents several cirque-style programs. Two of those shows — Cirque Polynesian and Cirque Risqué: The Naked Circus — are encamped at Resorts Casino Hotel in Atlantic City through September.In late July, Nicholas had actually rolled out three circuses at Resorts in a massive, 1,800-seat air-conditioned tent pitched on a parking lot at the casino. But when Hurricane Irene began bearing down on Atlantic City in late August, Cornell and the casino decided to strike the tent and move two of the three shows into Resorts’ Superstar Theater.
“We decided it just didn’t make sense to put the tent back up for just a couple of weeks, so we moved everything inside,” he tells Atlantic City Weekly. “And I’m glad we did. The tent was great, but it’s much more comfortable and intimate [indoors].”
Nicholas and Resorts mutually decided to scrap the Great American Circus because the end of summer was looming and the family audience the show catered to was going to disappear as kids headed back to school.
Moving the productions indoors presented a new set of challenges to Nicholas and the cast of the shows. Instead of performing in a tent with plenty of overhead space for the performers, the shows had to be adapted for a showroom that has virtually no fly space over the stage.
That meant the so-called “strap acts” — aerial artists whose routines are performed high above the stage — had to adjust their performances for a stage with less than 15 feet of useable space above it.
“But as circus performers, that’s what we do,” says Nicholas. “You adapt to the space that’s available. It’s been challenging, but it’s also been a lot of fun.”
Nicholas is a circus brat, born and bred. His father was a longtime circus ringmaster who coined the circus-opening phrase, “Ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages.” His mother was a bear trainer who toured the world.
Born in Sarasota, Fla., the winter home of many circus troupes, Nicholas began performing in the circus as a child and went on to do just about every job there is under and outside the big top. He was an acrobat until he was sidelined by a circus accident at age 17 that fractured his skull.
He began working in circus concessions selling cotton candy and lemonade, where he realized there was more money to be made selling circus treats than hanging upside down from a trapeze 40 feet off the ground. It was safer, too. READ MORE AT:http://www.atlanticcityweekly.com/arts-and-entertainment/curtain-call/And-for-Resorts-Next-Act-129395958.html
So Nicholas did the next best thing: he bought the circus. Actually, several of them.
“I was a much better acrobat than I was a clown,” says Nicholas, the owner, producer and self-described “show maker” of a company that presents several cirque-style programs. Two of those shows — Cirque Polynesian and Cirque Risqué: The Naked Circus — are encamped at Resorts Casino Hotel in Atlantic City through September.In late July, Nicholas had actually rolled out three circuses at Resorts in a massive, 1,800-seat air-conditioned tent pitched on a parking lot at the casino. But when Hurricane Irene began bearing down on Atlantic City in late August, Cornell and the casino decided to strike the tent and move two of the three shows into Resorts’ Superstar Theater.
“We decided it just didn’t make sense to put the tent back up for just a couple of weeks, so we moved everything inside,” he tells Atlantic City Weekly. “And I’m glad we did. The tent was great, but it’s much more comfortable and intimate [indoors].”
Nicholas and Resorts mutually decided to scrap the Great American Circus because the end of summer was looming and the family audience the show catered to was going to disappear as kids headed back to school.
Moving the productions indoors presented a new set of challenges to Nicholas and the cast of the shows. Instead of performing in a tent with plenty of overhead space for the performers, the shows had to be adapted for a showroom that has virtually no fly space over the stage.
That meant the so-called “strap acts” — aerial artists whose routines are performed high above the stage — had to adjust their performances for a stage with less than 15 feet of useable space above it.
“But as circus performers, that’s what we do,” says Nicholas. “You adapt to the space that’s available. It’s been challenging, but it’s also been a lot of fun.”
Nicholas is a circus brat, born and bred. His father was a longtime circus ringmaster who coined the circus-opening phrase, “Ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages.” His mother was a bear trainer who toured the world.
Born in Sarasota, Fla., the winter home of many circus troupes, Nicholas began performing in the circus as a child and went on to do just about every job there is under and outside the big top. He was an acrobat until he was sidelined by a circus accident at age 17 that fractured his skull.
He began working in circus concessions selling cotton candy and lemonade, where he realized there was more money to be made selling circus treats than hanging upside down from a trapeze 40 feet off the ground. It was safer, too. READ MORE AT:http://www.atlanticcityweekly.com/arts-and-entertainment/curtain-call/And-for-Resorts-Next-Act-129395958.html
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