THE BALLOON MAN

Run away and join the circus for work

No clowning around: Clowns earn $40,000 a year to start, and they're in short supply now.

By Kim HjelmgaardMarketWatch

Sunday, Apr. 03, 2011

LONDON It used to be enough when all else failed to simply run away and join the circus. And in today's mediocre hiring environment, it turns out the circus may still be a reliable source of job openings. "There's lots of employment opportunities in this field. It's an unusual field, admittedly, but we offer a very unusual training," said Marc Lalonde, the executive director of the National Circus School in Montreal, one of North America's top schools for the "circus arts." Lalonde said the National Circus School has an extremely high success rate in finding work for its graduates because there are more jobs available than the industry can find suitable applicants for. "In some years," he said, "nearly 100 percent of our students find work within the first few months of graduating." Still, the life of a circus artist isn't always easy. Pay will vary widely by discipline, and it can be a short-lived career.Read more: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/04/03/2191933/run-away-and-join-the-circus-for.html#ixzz1IS5XPLD9