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Nino from Circus Flora Bringing Zoppe to Valley of Flowers Festival
Nino the Clown, a former fixture with Circus Flora in St. Louis, is bringing his Zoppé an Italian Family Circus to Florissant in early May to help the city commemorate the 75th anniversary of its name change from St. Ferdinand to Florissant. Zoppé an Italian Family Circus, which pays homage to the first circus that traveled the cobblestone roads of Italy centuries ago, will give several free performances at Florissant’s annual Valley of Flowers Festival May 2-3.
The Valley of Flowers Festival, which opens on Friday, May 2 and runs through Sunday, May 4, will feature the only scheduled appearance by Nino the Clown in the St. Louis area in 2014.
Nino, whose real name is Giovanni Zoppé, is the sixth generation of his family to lead Zoppé an Italian Family Circus. A one-ring circus that honors the best history of the Old World, Italian tradition, it traces its roots back to 1842 when a young French street performer named Napoline Zoppé eloped with an equestrian ballerina known as Ermenegilda to Venice and founded the circus that still bears their name.
Zoppé an Italian Family Circus performs in its own, 500-seat, black-out tent, which will be erected at the James J. Eagan Civic Center at the corner of Parker Road and Waterford Drive. “No seat is further than 20 feet from the action,” says Zoppé. Free, public performances of the 60-minute circus will be held at 7 p.m. on Friday, May 2 and at 11 a.m., 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. on Saturday, May 3.
Pirate School, Bubble Bus Back
Additionally, a “pirate school” taught by professional actor David Engel will be staged at 8 p.m. on Friday, May 2 and at 12 noon and 3 p.m. on Saturday, May 3. Other acts to be featured at the annual Valley of Flowers Festival include Babaloo Music and Fun, Kincaid Karacter Puppets, RW Magic and the Cinco de Mayo Band. A ‘bubble bus’ will be available from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, May 3 and tours of the “Gypsy Rose III Pirate Ship” will be held throughout the day from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, May 3.
“We are thrilled to offer visitors to our annual Valley of Flowers Festival the opportunity to see one of the greatest examples of the traditional Italian circus still performing,” said Thomas P. Schneider, Mayor of Florissant. “Nino the Clown has delighted audiences for decades in St. Louis, around the country and throughout Europe.”
Based in suburban Chicago, Zoppé an Italian Family Circus features 20 circus artists, including aerialists, acrobats, jugglers, dancing dogs, equestrian ballerinas and Nino the Clown. The circus is propelled by a central story. This year’s theme has Nino unsuccessfully trying to join the circus, and his humorous attempts to perform under the Big Top.
As the New York Times has described it, “the Zoppé circus evokes something from a picture book…the show is frozen in a time long before the high-concept, high-dollar Cirque du Soleil.”
The 47-year-old Zoppé, who survived a near-fatal fall 25 years ago, says that “nobody knows what a real circus is. (Ours) is like the circus was 100 years ago.” As its Zoppé an Italian Family Circus web site notes, the venerable troupe became one of the legendary circuses in all of Europe, more of an event than a show.
Zoppé, who was the youngest performer ever inducted into the International Clown Hall of Fame, estimates that 250 of his family members have worked in a circus, most of them as bareback riders. Zoppé himself at age 9 was the youngest performer ever to do a somersault on horseback. His first love, however, is comedy, becoming a professional clown at the advanced age of 10 years old.
“My character name, Nino, was actually my nickname when I was younger,” he told a reporter several years ago. “In Italian families, when you are a boy they attach ‘ino’ to your name, and so I was Giovannino — Nino. Nino is really just me, my child self, a human being with flaws, except playing all of my faults larger.”
The City of Florissant presents its Festival performing arts events with financial support from the Regional Arts Commission and the Missouri Arts Council. For more information on the family performances scheduled for the James J. Eagan Civic Center grounds, contact the Florissant Civic Center Theatre box office staff at 314-921-5678. For information visit: www.florissantvalleyofflowers.com .
