Q&A with Karl Shaw, author of The First Showman

Gandey World Class Productions has celebrated over a century of entertaining audiences with spectacular shows like Gandeys Circus and Cirque Surreal - both currently enjoying runs in Dudley and the intu Trafford Centre respectively until 3rd November. But paving the way for the Gandey success story, for more than four decades Philip Astley managed and performed in the world’s first modern circus. In this week's blog, we find out some interesting facts from Karl Shaw, who lives in Astley's hometown Newcastle-under-Lyme, and is the author of 'The First Showman', set to be published later this month... 

An artist's impression of Philip Astley, the founder of modern circus. 

Q: Tell us about Astley's claim to fame as the founder of the modern circus and original 'showman'...

A: Before the big tops, a hundred years before P.T. Barnum sold a ticket, Philip Astley was the world’s original circus mogul, a natural born showman with an eye for every kind of popular entertainment. Unlike Barnum he didn’t foist spectacular frauds on gullible patrons. If he promised to show you a man (or woman) standing on their head in the saddle, riding around the ring while covered in bees, that’s exactly what you got and then some.

Q: What do you think made Astley so successful as a businessman and showman?

A: Everyone agreed that his most outstanding characteristic was courage. This he displayed in all the crises of his life, in combat and in the ring and in the many adversities and financial reverses which threatened to overwhelm him.

Q: Did he have any nicknames?

A: He was known by many names: Big Philip, Father Philip, Amphi-Philip, ‘the most handsome man in England’. Over six feet tall with a voice like a foghorn, he was impossible to ignore or forget. 

Q: What else do we know about Astley and his personality?

A: To his rivals he was a crude, ignorant, autocratic bully. Others were amazed by his stamina, or just amused by his bluntness and his simple devotion to king and country. 

By his customers, the paying public, he was universally adored. In an age that wasn’t yet obsessed with celebrity, his name was known in all four corners of the United Kingdom and in towns and cities right across Europe, where he built jerry-built amphitheatres, crazy structures made from ships’ spars and fir-poles that burned like matchwood. 

Q: How was Astley's circus different to the circus today?

A: Astley’s circus was not quite as our parents and grandparents would have known it. They would have been puzzled by the almost complete absence of children in the audience, but much of it would be reassuringly familiar. The ringmaster with top hat, the colour, the spectacle, the excitement, the stirring music, the clowns and acrobats, the forty-two-feet ring. 

An illustration of Astley's Amphitheatre.

For the best part of a hundred years Astley’s Amphitheatre (he never called it a circus) was a regular fixture on London tourist itineraries, a must-see destination for all classes. Long after his death and well into the late Victorian era, the Astley name was one of the best known and most successful brands in show business. He left his mark on the history and literature of the age: ‘Going to Astley’s’ was a familiar storyline used by Dickens, Austen and Thackeray.

Q: What was his life like away from the circus ring? 

A: He ran away from home and his bullying father to join the army and became a war hero twice over. When he wasn’t managing his business empire, he published hand-illustrated maps of the battlefields of Europe or wrote books on horsemanship and magic tricks, hob-nobbed with royalty and organised Britain’s first hot air balloon ascents. Anecdotes about ‘Old Astley’ were a staple of London legend. Even allowing for exaggeration, he was a character as improbable as any invented by Dickens.

An advertisement for Astley's Amphitheatre.

Q: Why isn't Astley as famous as other showmen like P.T. Barnum?

A: For all Astley’s adventures and his achievements his name was largely forgotten. If not for the efforts of a dedicated few, determined that the 250^th anniversary of the first modern circus should not pass unnoticed, it’s possible you may never have heard of him. 

The First Showman book tells the extraordinary story of Philip Astley.

The First Showman tells the story of how a young trick-rider staked out a ring, hired a clown and gave birth to the modern circus and how his struggle to stay one step ahead of his rivals in the greedy and cruel world of Georgian England gave rise to the greatest show on earth. You can buy the book here. 

Author Karl Shaw.

If you want to witness 2019's 'Greatest Show' then make sure you don't miss the Gandeys Circus Halloween Spooktacular on Flood Street, Dudley, on until 3rd November. 
And for circus with a contemporary, extraordinary twist get the family down to Quirki by Cirque Surreal at the intu Trafford Centre, also being performed until 3rd November.