Page 22 - The Outdoor Showman January - March 2025

CIRCUS NEWS
Arturo Gomez
The Argentinian
Arturo Gomez
family joined
Frank Gasser’s
Royale
American
3-Ring Circus
in October,
1985, for a 108-
performance,
31-site New
Zealand tour.
With wife Deloris, a former concert
pianist, and their three children: Gibbi,
Gypsy and Rodney, they performed a
fast foot-juggling (Risley) act.
Arturo’s stand-out act was as a drunken
slack-rope walker, including a foot-to-
foot somersault. Rodney, aged five,
featured in a classic rag-doll act.
After the 3-Ring Circus resumed in
Australia as Circus Royale, Arturo became
a founding coach at the new National
Institute of Circus Arts in Melbourne.
Over 30-plus years, he coached
hundreds of hopeful NICA performers,
in a wide range of circus skills.
Many achieved international,
professional-standard status.
In retirement he developed health
problems, leading up to his death.
His funeral, November 27 in Dandenong
South, brought together proteges
from all parts of Australasia.
RIP Nostrils the Clown aka:
Ralph Marchenko
Tony Maynard has passed on the sad
news that Ralph passed away last
month (due to pancreatic cancer.)
R.I.P Ralph Marchenko taken far too young.
Ralph’s Circus background
goes back many years.
Stepson of Stefan Krajcik, Ralph
Marchenko, grew up mastering a wide
range of circus skills at an elite level.
Stefan presented ponies and the elephant
Tanya with Frank Gasser’s Circus Royale,
Nostrils the Clown
AKA Ralph Marchenko and toured all Australasia with Sole
Bros Circus, Lennons and Ashtons.
Because he spoke six languages, he
became Ring Boss with the Edgley-
Bullen Great Moscow Circus.
Ralph first presented his juggling
act with Royale in 1979, later with
Robinsons, adding plate-spinning
and comedy as Nostrils the clown.
As Ravello, he was fastidious. Vehicles,
vans, ring props, costumes and
animals all glistened with polish
and sequins, super-professional.
Then for several years, twice a night,
he presented a twenty-minute comedy
plate-spinning (18) act at Adelaide’s
legendary Crazy Horse nightclub.
That act included everything: unicycle,
several sorts of juggling, clapsticks,
balancing, glasses-and-spoons -
probably the most diverse act of
its type anywhere. Super polish!
He bought property in Hoyleton,
South Australia and teamed up
with Kady, the Irish-born performer
who first came to Australia for
Steve Robinson’s Galaxy Circus.
Their dog-act, never smaller than seven
(mostly) poodles, was a showstopper.
As The Ravellos, they played almost
every major district show in country
SA and Western Victoria, repeating
by invitation, year after year.
They retired their show, to look
after a declining Stefan. Ralph kept
getting plum truck-driving jobs, lol
and Kady did nursing full-time.
Both developed serious health problems.
Ralph battled pancreatic cancer over
a long period and died in November.
He’s remembered as a popular credit
to circus and show business.
Circus Alphonse
A standing back-flip from on top
of a bucking mechanical cow!
Wheelies on-stage on a tractor!
Pass-juggling huge, heavy cowbells!
Definitely something different in a
Canadian family circus at Riverside
Theatre, Parramatta, January 3-13.
‘Animals’ was the production of French-
speaking Circus Alphonse, from Rodrigues,
Quebec, here for the Sydney Festival.
Founded by Carabinier Lepine, it had
two women, four male performers in a
mostly human-skills and rural-based sight
comedy and played to strong houses.
The describe themselves as ‘Ag Funk.’
In addition to climbing poles, the cast
played the music, live, and sang.
The mechanical bucking cow
had competition: a man in a cow
costume, doing acrobatics!
Audience loved it, so it’ll probably be back.
Back after 30 years
The last time Stardust Circus played
Rose Bay, on Sydney Harbour, there
were flying boats landing and taking
off right beside them. They still do!
Nobody had played there since - about
30 years, Jan Lennon reckons.
It’s surrounded by some of Australia’s
most expensive real estate, so
Woolahra Council is pretty particular
(and expensive!) Horses were out.
Goats were well-hidden up the back.
Stardust played it January 10th to
26th (Australia Day.) (To fit on site, Jan
and Lindsay had to buy a smaller van
and leave their big one behind.)
Then they called a break from performing
for the whole of February, so the mostly
Lennon-West families and crew could
holiday in Thailand, America and Bali.
Lindsay and Jan stayed back at the huge
Yarramundi property, on the Hawkesbury,
where they installed a new in-ground
pool, just in time for summer heatwaves.
When everyone’s back, they re-open at
St Mary’s, western Sydney, in March.
Cirque du Soleil
‘Kouza,’ the production that opened in
Brisbane late last year, moved to Sydney
before Christmas, for early this year.
It advertised being at “The
Entertainment Quarter”, actually
Sole’s Circus arriving in Adelaide, 1970
20 THE OUTDOOR SHOWMAN