Page 23 - The Outdoor Showman magazine July - September 2025

RODEO NEWS
Eroni’s ballet
Aerials and lights
Sally & Dougie Ashton
Eroni’s new top
The show earned good reviews
for its quality, but to quote an
old show saying, “Kind words
butter no parsnips.”
They shuttered it in Tamworth, NSW,
in May, paid off staff and drove
vehicles the 700 kms to Brisbane.
It’s in the shed until next year.
Daring on Wheel
When sixth-generation performer
Joseph “Pepe” Ashton started doing
a forward somersault at the top of
a spinning Wheel of Death, it was a
“first” for Australia - and one of a new
handful, anywhere in the world.
That was when he nudged 50,
five years ago, at “Infamous,”
the pioneering cabaret-circus
he founded a decade ago.
Bekki Harrison-Ashton, Pepe’s
sister, a leader in that show,
was the first Australian girl to
do a triple on flying trapeze.
Now it’s gone another generation
of breaking records.
Her son, Ricky Ashton-Harrison,
now 18, is doing the Pepe front
summy, on top of the spinning
Wheel at Stardust Circus.
Stardust’s in Sydney, playing
Rosehill Racecourse (almost a
second home!) for six weeks over
winter, to sustained good houses.
The show features a mostly-full ring -
up to 12 in the signature teeterboard
act (now almost 30 years old!) and nine
in the opening and later aerial ballets.
Liberty pony, dog, goat and
pig acts are also what brings
family audiences back.
Hudson at Hudson’s
North Queensland is always the
top Australian winter run.
Not sensational financially
this year, with a dragged-out
Federal election, but good solid
business for Hudson’s Circus.
They played a tight new site on the
Riverway, Townsville, for a record
five weeks. Townsville gets better
every year, Shane Lennon says.
On the way back South after
Cairns and Mackay, they played
Moranbah, Emerald two weeks,
then Rockhampton for the August-
September School Holidays.
When his son, Hudson, started with a
solo ride in the Globe, he was only six.
He kept getting better. This year
(on school holidays) he’s been
doing over-the-top loops.
This year, the other riders are
confident enough to ride three-in-
a-cage with him. He’s only 13.
Vale Dougie Ashton
The last of the Royal Flying Ashtons,
featured in the Cecil B. De Mille oscar-
winning movie, “The Greatest Show on
Earth,” has died, aged 96, in Australia.
Dougie Ashton-Hay (always
known as Ashton,) was a top
acrobat in the family act, before
he became a world-renowned
clown-musician (with acrobatics.)
He toured for years with the
Ringling Bros-Barnum & Bailey blue
unit, then to Europe, Asia, back
to Australia in the late 1970s.
His wife, Sally, a partner in
Joseph Eroni (Maynard)
laughter for 52 years, brought
a dazzling cloud swing act with
them, and they both tutored and
mentored many aspiring artists.
Everywhere they went, they
generated laughter, born-into them
and highly-professionally trained.
Anyone who worked with them
over the past 70-odd years knows
how much Doug’s company
will be missed. RIP Dougie.
Where are they?
•
Silvers Circus, Adelaide September
holidays.
•
Great Moscow Circus: Swansea,
NSW, August 31, Death-wheel
performer Jewin fell, hospitalised,
back showing. Maitland NSW, Sept
12-21’Newcastle 26/9-12/10. Circus
Royale, ‘Sesame Street,’ Caulfield,
Melbourne, school holidays.
•
“Infamous” cabaret-circus, Manly
NSW, September.
•
Brophy Bros: Goondiwindi, 5-7 Sept
North Lakes, Brisbane, 19/9-5/10,
Westfield,
•
Fred Brophy, OAM, last of 20
years’ showing at Birdsville Races,
(retiring!)
•
September 3-13.
•
Ashton Entertainment, Capalaba
Qld, to 31/8.
•
Le Aerial, Melbourne, October,
theatre.
•
Stardust Circus, camden NSW,
to 31/8, Earlwood 5-14/9, around
Sydney to end of year.
•
“Lassu” cabaret circus (Merrick
Ashton), Townsville, September.
•
Circus Rio: Gippsland, Victoria,
September, then north.
•
Circus Latino:
Melbourne.
By John MacDonnell
Eroni’s liberties
THE OUTDOOR SHOWMAN 21