Nearing the last laugh

Clowning around has been their family business for centuries. But the demise of the circus could mark the end of an era.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark - The Rossi family is used to the clowning around. Always has been.

Twelve-year-old Victor Rossi was 5 when he joined the circus. His father, Hector, was 3 when he started. Uncle Yann? He was 6. Grandfather Pierre became a clown as a 3-year-old.

One thing has been constant in this family of Frenchmen: If you're a Rossi, you perform. They have lived the circus life for more than 300 years, passing the torch from one generation to the next like acrobats on swings.

Now, though, they fret that tradition might be in danger.

"Twenty-five years ago there were a lot more circuses - good circuses. Now there are too many distractions. Too many artists and not enough circuses, I am afraid," says Yann, 37.

But the show hasn't run out. The family spends about 340 days of the year on the road, performing seven days a week with various circuses throughout Europe. They are in the midst of a six-month tour of Denmark with the Arena Circus.

"It is a life, and the circus is a life in itself," Yann says. "I was born in a clinic, yes. But the truth is, I was born in the circus."

Victor spends his mornings doing assignments from correspondence school. His afternoons are devoted to practicing music and juggling, while in the evening he learns the craft of clowning.

He aspires to follow his father and uncle, the family's stars. Yann, the most gifted musician of the family, is the solemn straight man. Hector plays the fumbling clown.

Their act changes every season, but it always draws on the family's 17th century traditions and on the premise that one man makes a mess while the other tries to straighten out the mess.

It is part Charlie Chaplin, part Marx brothers, part Louis Armstrong, and many parts Family Rossi. It is, simply, life.

Yann is often asked if life on the road is empty, even lonely.

"I tell people I don't have any friends, but really I have many, many friends," he says.

"Most people, they stay in the same village their entire lives - they never meet anyone new. We meet new people every day. They come to know our story and we get to know theirs. What could be better than that?"

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