I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: October 25, 2025] The Vampire Circus

I love a good circus.  This circus–vampire themed–seemed like a really fun thing to do around Halloween.  It was also near my daughter’s birthday so I thought it would be a fun birthday present.  Amusingly, she made other plans that night so we went with my son and one of his friends instead.

The short version is that this show was much like any other cirque–aerial work, strong men and balancing.  But the overall story was vampriric.  It wasn’t “adult” or scary, but it did play up the tropes of vampire lore (somewhat).  For instance, before one of the acts, the woman was wheeled out in a coffin, but otherwise it was an aerial act with ribbons.

This is not to downplay any of the spectacle, just to give it proper setting.

Although according to the website

Set in Bohemia during the 19 century, Count Dracula contemplates a plan for world domination, when he decides to open a traveling circus with his gypsy bodyguards. The Vampire Circus is a perfect cover-up to travel unnoticed and begin his world reign of terror and turn all humans into an army of vampires for global dominance.

I didn’t get any of that but I did get

Cirque acrobatics, comical audience interactions, contortionists, jugglers, acrobats, and raving cheers for a “Mad Graveyard Clown.”

For indeed, the host, the Mad Graveyard Clown was awesome.  His audience work was fantastic.  Our favorite bit was when someone came in late while he was on stage.  He immediately found the man and had the man hold up his (the clown’s) coat.  The man stood of to the side in the audience and every time he lowered his hand a bit, the clown spotted him and made him raise his hand.  He also had a really fun sequence where he brought two kids from the audience and had them use water pistols to put out a candle.  For the climax of that bit, he moved the candle right in front of the people in the front row and gave him a huge super soaker.

The show opened with two dancers in long coats–hot vampires.  They did a kind of tap dancing/juggling routine that was very cool, crowd pleasing and impressive.  But honestly, went on a little too long.

As I mentioned with  the coffin there were several acts in which a woman (possibly the same woman) was hoisted in the air to do interesting things on rope, fabric, etc.  This is always cool to see although there were far too many of these particular acts.  There was even the strong man who does a gymnastics routine up in the air.  This particular but was set apart because instead of ropes he was using chains which was new for me and, I thought, must have hurt like hell.

There was a juggler who was fun.  He did the usual–balls (I liked that he caught some in his hip pockets) and hats.  He was charming and funny if a little sloppy.  There was also a strong man who hoisted massive kettle bells around.  He even rested one on his chin which–what?

The finale was spectacular and new to us.  Two vampires on roller skates climbed onto a platform that was a tiny circle.  They then proceeded to spin while holding on to each other.  They upped the ante each time with the final spin having the two of them connected by some kind of bit that each held in their mouths.  The woman was then lifted in the air spinning around while held by her teeth.

Pretty fantastic.

Overall, the atmosphere was fun.  There was spooky music and cool scary backdrops.  Although, there was nothing scary about any of it (and that’s fine–it was definitely meant for kids to enjoy).  Since we have been to many circuses, we have seen many of these type of things before, so it wasn’t especially original for us.  However, my son’s friend loved the show.   And so did the rest of the audience.  It was definitely a big hit.  And I give them credit for coming up with a new theme around which to do cirque acts.