THE BALLOON MAN

Here Now - Living the circus life

John Pugh

By Si Cantwell

Si.Cantwell@StarNewsOnline.com

April 14, 2012 

Shortly after dawn Thursday morning, John Pugh watched as workers prepared to raise the circus tent he designed. The six center poles, each 55 feet tall, were already up.

The canvas – actually a heavy vinyl manufactured in France and designed to withstand winds up to 80 or 90 mph – was carefully laid out on the ground. Soon the fabric began to rise, pulled by wires and pulleys.

The big top covers an area the size of a football field.

Cole Bros. Circus of the Stars had performed the night before in Havelock. As soon as the 7:30 p.m. Wednesday performance was over, workers began packing so the show would be ready for its first Wilmington performance at 4:30 p.m. Thursday.

"We're the ones who travel by night," said Pugh, who owns the traveling show based in DeLand, Fla.

Like the circus' performers and crew members, Pugh, 73, lives in a coach nine months of the year, traveling with the show.

He likes living in a coach.

"Once I had to put it in the shop," he recalled. He lived in motels for two weeks.

"I was so glad when I could get back into our coach," he said. "I know where everything is."

These days his wife, Brigitte, usually stays in Florida. They met in the circus.

He's been with Cole Bros. Circus since 1961, when he joined as an acrobat. After an injury kept him out of the show in 1963, he became assistant manager. He's owned it since the early 1980s.

Show biz is in Pugh's blood. He started out working with his father, a promoter in Europe.

Like everyone I met at the circus, he loves his work.

"It's like running a dream," he said. "The circus is a city unto itself."

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