THANKS FOR VIEWING OUR ARCHIVE

This is the archive of articles about the Acme Miniature Flea Circus.

Check the archive listing to the right to see some of the articles that have been written about the show.

Please note the archive is incomplete, and does not reference EVERY mention or review of the show.

To find out more about the show, visit http://www.trainedfleas.com

To see videos of the show, visit our Youtube page:  http://www.youtube.com/@trainedfleas

Spanish Book about Flea Circuses features Acme Flea Circus

 A book published in Spain in 2022 features the Acme Miniature Flea Circus.  To the best of my knowledge it has not yet been translated into English.

Book is available online on Amazon.com here: https://amzn.to/3zCAWcX

Excerpt of some of the pages about the Acme Miniature Flea Circus is here.

If you want to read the rest, please buy the book, it's really good!

Platt House Newsletter December 18, 2017

This article appeared in an email newsletter sent out to the Platt House community. The Platt Student Performing Arts House, named for Marc E. ('79) and Julie Beren Platt ('79) is the home of University Life Arts Initiatives and the Performing Arts Council at the University of Pennsylvania.

Alumni Spotlight on Adam Gertsacov, C'86

Adam Gertsacov is a professional clown.
Photo credit: Bill Wadman

We recently checked in on one of our PAC alums: Adam Gertsacov. Check out this article from Smithsonian Magazine about his modern-day flea circus!

At Penn, Adam majored in theoretical communications with a minor in theatre arts. After balancing Marching Band and theatre for two years, he launched fully into theatre, working with iNtuitons and Penn Players. Adam also worked for the Library and the Annenberg Center and was the Arts House program coordinator in Harnwell for two years. 

Adam has always felt the importance of the arts. He was inspired by his mom, a teacher, who used to take mistakes and turn them into art. Finding value and meaning in the mundane truly moves him. Adam explored his love of experimental theatre at Penn and beyond, working at the Guthrie and studying acting and directing at Trinity Rep Conservatory. In 1989, he attended Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey Clown College and discovered his passion for being a clown and the sideshow arts. 

In addition to his flea circus, Adam is always pursuing multiple projects including "Buffoon Anonymous", a fictional autobiography of a clown who needs to quit, but can't; "The Barbie Oedipus", a version of Oedipus Rex using Barbie dolls as actors; and "Artistic Antics", a freeform clown improv show. Adam serves as the Clown Laureate of Greenbelt, Maryland, despite making his home in Chicago. As if that weren't enough, he is also working on revamping an old show about PT Barnum to make it more interesting for kids, and he is planning a new podcast. You can check out his blogs here and here. 

Adam's advice to Penn students interested in pursuing the arts beyond college: “It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. Feel free to risk it all, but don’t burn it all down. It’s not all or nothing, all the time. Take artistic risks, but don't be afraid to take care of yourself, to have fun, and to do some easy stuff also. The last thing the world needs is another fizzled artist, so take your time and keep on working on your craft."

More info about Adam is available at http://www.acmeclown.com or http://www.trainedfleas.com

Smithsonian Magazine Website November 29, 2017

Revive the Charm of an 1800s Show with These Modern-Day Flea Circuses

Take a trip to the (very small) Big Top

By Jennifer Billock

Come one, come all, to the show of the century! See jugglers, tightrope walkers, chariot races, and more. Admission is just the cost of the magnifying glass you’ll need to see the teeny performers! That’s right, a magnifying glass—because this is no ordinary circus. This is the time-honored tradition of the delightfully buggy and hopefully not itchy flea circus.  But please, as Chicago-based Acme Miniature Flea Circus ringmaster Adam Gertsacov says...leave the dogs at home.

Gertsacov started his flea circus (“with a lot of flea bites,” he told Smithsonian.com) in the early 90s, but the origins of the show itself reach back much further than that, all the way to watchmakers in the 1500s who were said to have wanted to impress crowds with their ability to make tiny working mechanisms. The first was London watchmaker Mark Scaliot who, in 1578, is credited with having made “a lock consisting of eleven pieces of iron, steel and brass, all [of] which, together with a key to it, weighed but one grain of gold,” Barkham Burroughs wrote in his 1889 book, Encyclopaedia of Astounding Facts and Useful Information. “He also made a chain of gold, consisting of forty-three links, and, having fastened this to the before-mentioned lock and key, he put the chain about the neck of a flea, which drew them all with ease. All these together, lock and key, chain and flea, weighed only one grain and a half,” Burroughs continued. Watchmakers continued the practice through the 1700s, harnessing fleas to tiny handmade chariots or other items the insects could pull across a small stage.

Then in the 1830s, performing fleas hit the big time. Italian-born Louis Bertolotto opened a new circus show in London, called Signor Bertolotto’s Industrious Fleas. The insects were the perfect stars for the miniature circus, mainly because they were so ever-present in society that in order to find your own troupe of artists, all you really needed to do was look under the bedcovers. Bertolotto’s performances reflected political events of the time; he even recreated Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo with 435 fleas, all wearing outfits for battle, riding in golden saddles and carrying tiny swords. With that mock battle, flea circuses were cemented as one of the leading attractions of this era.



According to Gertsacov, the most famous flea show in history was arguably Professor Heckler’s. He performed it first at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, then he and his son (who continued his father’s work) took the act to Times Square, where the fleas performed until 1957 in Hubert’s Dime Museum. Gertsacov paid homage to the Hecklers with his own Times Square flea circus in 2001, only two blocks from where the Heckler show was once held, before taking his circus worldwide.

“I want to evoke the idea of the old Victorian-style flea circus,” Gertsacov said. “I don’t want the show to be about stupid pet tricks. Of course, the show is about the fleas. But on some level, it’s about the experience of the show and going back in time to see an old-fashioned showman doing an old-fashioned show.”

Alas, the world has become evermore technologically advanced, and around the 1940s and 50s, the demand for true flea circuses began to decline. “As television became popular and as human fleas became rarer, primarily through the use of modern appliances such as the vacuum cleaner and the washing machine, the flea circus has become harder and harder to find,” Gertsacov said.

Luckily, we can still get in on the fun today in a veritable revival of the Victorian-era flea circus. Gertsacov takes his show all over the world based on booking requests, but lately has been hosting circuses at the Garfield Park Conservatory in Chicago. His fleas do three main tricks: “They pull chariots in a chariot race, a flea walks on the tightwire while balancing a miniature chair and pole, and there’s a death-defying finale, where the fleas get shot out of a cannon through the flaming hoop of death and into their lavishly decorated trailer,” he said. Gertsacov’s show lasts about 45 minutes and also includes an illustrated lesson on fleas, “flea verse” poetry, and a flea market beforehand selling what he says is the world’s smallest show program.

“The program is a guaranteed collectible item, guaranteed to go up in value at least 10 percent over the next 10 years,” he said. “If you don’t believe me, come back in 10 years and I’ll purchase it back from you for 11 cents. On some level, if you haven’t been bamboozled by the flea circus guy for a dime, have you really seen the show?”

On the east coast, flea fanatics can catch Maine’s Dr. Wilson’s Flea Circus—An Extraordinary Entomological Exhibition Featuring Trained Fleas Executing Acts of Skill and Daring,” where the fleas push heavy objects (“the equivalent of a grown man pushing a weight of twenty-three tons,” the website says), tackle the flying trapeze, and rear up on their hind legs like miniature angry bears.

Heading somewhere else in the world? The international flea circus directory lists more than 30 shows in the United States alone, and even more abroad in the UK, Ireland, Australasia, Europe, Israel, Mexico and South Africa.

“The flea circus, like other sideshow and circus skills, is a direct connection to a simpler time unmediated by electronics and filled with the simple ability to wonder at the marvelous world around us,” Gertsacov said. “I would argue that the ability to wonder is one of the things that separate humans from beasts.”

Read the original article

WGN TV News July 22, 2016

Circus with tiny stars big on fun

POSTED 7:45 PM, JULY 22, 2016, BY AMY RUTLEDGE

CHICAGO -- Adam Gertsacov doesn’t use that many performers in his show, but in the 20 years he has been touring around the world, he says he has perfected the art of what he calls the study of fleas.

Today, his circus performed at Berger Park for some Chicago Park District camp kids and offered a little education and a lot of entertainment.

A chariot race, a highwire act and cannon heroics were all part of the show.

Adam says his fleas live for about 24-months and require three to five months of training before hitting the big stage.

The show started in 1996 and has been performed in 37 states and five countries.

Two years ago Adam and his family settled in Chicago.

This summer the free show can be seen at four different Chicago parks as part of the nights out in the park program.

July 27 6 PM Touhy Park (7348 N. Paulina Ave)
August 4 6 PM Adams Park (1919 N. Seminary Ave)
August 10 6:30 PM Oriole Park (5430 N. Olcott Ave)
August 12 3:30 PM Gladstone Park (5421 N. Menard Ave)
Cost: Free (seating limited, please arrive early)

More info:

http://www.chicagoparkdistrict.com or call (312) 742-7529 or (312) 747-2001 (TTY).
http://www.trainedfleas.com

---

FILED IN: FEATURES

Fascinating Nouns Episode 46

Professor Gertsacov is featured in an hour long podcast on the Podcast Fascinating Nouns.

FROM THE PODCAST PAGE:
 Prof. A. G. Gertsacov is a man of many talents, an his ‘Acme Miniature Flea Circus’ is just one.  He is a Waylon Smithers-esque aficionado of Barbies, graduate of Comedia Dell Arte, and an expert in the ways of ‘Punch and Judy’.  I sit and talk to him about those things, as well as fleas believe it or not.  While having an unrelenting resistance to divulging proprietary information, I do manage to get out of him a few things like what defines a talented flea, what are their capabilities in human terms (superhero in short), and how he feeds them!

00:00

00:00

Use Up/Down Arrow keys to increase or decrease volume.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

See the podcast on its original page

http://fascinatingnouns.com/ep-47-the-acme-flea-circus/Use Up/Down Arrow keys to increase or decrease volume.

Mention in the Urbacher Letter

Urbacher Letter Archive December 2012

Acme Flea Circus

(click images to see larger)

 The Acme Flea Circus is an authentic Victorian-style flea circus. Ringmaster Adam Gertsacov presents "The Most Miniscule Show on Earth!" A posted sign warns "No Dogs Allowed." Flea Circus (0:41)

World's Maker Faire: September 9, 2012

Video shot by the well known juggling entrepreneur Brian Dubé.

Here is the original post:

http://newyorkdailyphoto.com/nydppress/?p=13633
I performed two shows a day at Maker Faire for two days in an outdoor setting, which is not ideal for the show, but worked out okay.






TEXT FROM ORIGINAL POST:

Fleas or Teased

Posted on December 4, 2012 by Brian Dubé

New York City was home to one of the most astonishing things to those unfamiliar – the real flea circus. Most are familiar with the phrase, however, there are only a handful of flea circuses at the time and fewer yet that employ actual fleas, so it is very unlikely that any given individual has seen one of these performances first hand.

Yes, real human fleas, pulex irritans, were trained to pull miniature chariots and perform circus acts, rotate ferris wheels, and kick balls. Minuscule harnesses made from thin gold wire were wrapped around the neck of the flea. The harnesses were then attached to a variety of objects. Fleas are renowned for their incredible strength and are able to pull up to 160,000 times their own weight and jump 150 times their own size. Their lifespan, however is typically only months, and so new recruits must be found and trained. And, they must be provided a diet of human blood. Typically, owners of flea circuses just let fleas feed from their arms.

The flea circus flourished in the Victorian age, however, the harnessing of fleas goes back much further. The first to harness fleas were watch makers who demonstrated their skills in fine metal working skills. Mark Scaliot is 1578 is credited with locking a flea to a chain with “a lock consisting of eleven different pieces of steel, iron, and brass which, together with the key belonging to it, weighed only one grain.”

One of New York City’s great institutions was Hubert’s Dime Museum, which occupied 228-232 West 42nd Street near Times Square from the mid-1920′s until 1965. The building which housed Hubert’s was a schoolhouse, designed in the 1880′s by McKim, Mead & White. Hubert’s was a phantasmagoria of some of the greatest novelty, freak, sideshow, and variety acts and the home of the last working flea circus in the United States – Heckler’s Flea Circus. Heckler’s occupied a section of the basement and required an additional admission. It was here that the Heckler family plied their trade. The circus was started by native Swiss William Hecker circa 1923 and sons William Jr and Leroy (“Roy”). Roy took over the operation in 1933 and continued to operate the flea circus until he retired in 1957.

So, when I attended the World Maker Faire on September 29, 2012 and happened upon the Acme Flea Circus very unexpectedly, you can easily understand why I was stopped in my tracks and jubilant that I would at last be able to see a real flea circus. Adding to the serendipitous encounter was that the performer, Adam Gertsacov, already knew me, having been a previous customer of my business. I stood alone at his booth and it was a good 30 minutes to showtime. However, I was very passionate about seeing a flea circus in person and close up, so I stood and chatted with Adam while he prepared for his show. He told me all the details of the flea circus. I was later to learn that Adam was one of the most educated clowns in America – not only was he an alumnus of Barnum and Bailey’s Clown College, but he was also a graduate from the University of Pennsylvania and held a master’s in theater and communications from Rhode Island College.
Adam assured me that I need not be concerned about having a “front row seat” since his show was designed to insure that all audience members were guaranteed to see all the details of his performers. This perplexed me, since I had learned that flea circuses like Heckler’s typically provided audience members with magnifying glasses. Historical photos showed him surrounded closely by a small number of viewers. How would Adam accomplish this at a distance? Theater.

Adam’s show involves a lot of theater, history, and clever quips and bits, including a “flea market” where small items are sold to the audience, whom he then proclaims has been adequately fleeced. The act consists of his two fleas, Midge and Madge, who engage in a chariot race and a tight-wire act. Children laughed and squealed, however, credulity was strained when the fleas were shot from a cannon through a hoop of fire to land inside a miniature Airstream trailer.
I became intrigued and through a little research learned that a number of flea circuses currently working do not use fleas. At least one, Hans Mathes’s flea circus at Oktoberfest (you can see an actual video below), has real fleas. As to Adam Gerstacov and his Acme Flea Circus, in the end, I just decided to suspend and see it as an enjoyable piece of theater, not worry whether I had seen trained Fleas or had just been Teased 

Travel & Leisure Magazine: July 28, 2011

http://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/worlds-strangest-circuses

 

World's Strangest Circuses

 

Prev

1 of 12

Next

Daniel Boud

Forget any fear of circus clowns. The strangest shows on earth feature backflipping cats, race-car stuntmen, and burlesque puppeteers.

From August 2011 By Danny Deza

At London’s Hoxton Hall, acrobats scamper up each other’s shoulders to form a pyramid—although it hardly looks human. The performers are unrecognizable beneath elaborate ant costumes complete with antennae and googly eyes.

Circuses have always been a bit offbeat, but they’ve morphed well beyond the classic three-ring spectacle of clowns and animal tamers. Today’s strangest circuses are small and innovative. Some, like the Insect Circus, push the boundaries by incorporating burlesque or performance art, while others are reviving near-extinct sideshow traditions for a new generation.

“Circuses were once the biggest shows in town,” says Marc Hartzman, author of American Sideshow. “People didn’t have the same mediums of entertainment that we have today.” As audience interest drifted in the 1970s, circuses began adapting, particularly in the U.K., the U.S., France, Canada, and Australia.

A painter by trade, Mark Copeland founded the U.K.-based Insect Circus in 2002, designing fantastical costumes for the acrobatic “ants,” a winged trapeze duo that go by the names of Baron and Baroness Flutterby, and others. He is especially proud of a stag beetle shell worn by three performers. This lumbering six-legged “insect” takes on a matador in an act that resembles a Spanish bullfight.

Still other circuses get their strange factor from sideshow elements like sword-swallowers and actual insects. Adam G. Gertsacov, creator of Acme Miniature Flea Circus, practices a craft that dates back to the late 1800s. After graduating from the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Clown College, he wandered from circus to circus until he got some career-changing advice. Legendary clown Avner Eisenberg told him to “focus on the fleas,” and Gertsacov hasn’t wavered since. He trains 12 fleas at a time to perform tricks like being shot out of a mini cannon into a Hula-Hoop dubbed “the hoop of death.”

For truly death-defying stunts, look to Delhi, India, where the Diamond Maruti Car Circus has become infamous for performing while hanging out of speeding vehicles. For 25 cents, you can peer over the edge of a pit and watch performers on motorcycles and in cars zoom in circles as they grab hands and stand up on their seats—an unbelievable performance that also qualifies as one of the world’s strangest sports.

Even in an age of entertainment overload, the world’s strangest circuses share the ability to keep you on the edge of your seat. Here’s a sneak peek at their shows.

===========

Acme Miniature Flea Circus, New York

Inspired by Hubert’s Flea Circus in Times Square, which closed in 1957, Adam Gertsacov pieced together the tricks of the flea trade from his circus mentors. The Acme Miniature Flea Circus’s bloodsucking insects have tumbled their way through four different countries and 38 states since the mid-1990s. The only thing Gertsacov asks from his audience? No dogs allowed.
Strange Factor: Two fleas race to a finish line while pulling a chariot. Other less fortunate fleas are shot out of a mini cannon into a Hula-Hoop called the “hoop of death.”

Journal News: Wear Your Glasses To This Circus

Cover of the Journal News Weekend Section July 15, 2011

Wear your glasses to this circus
by Paul Bousche

Midge and Madge have performed alongside Adam Gertsacov for over 25 years.
They have joined him on his far-flung travels, which have spanned 38 states and five countries from Canada to Brazil, putting on shows night in and night out. You might be wondering, what's the big deal?
Well, the big deal is that Midge and Madge aren't really that big at all. In fact, they're fleas.
Weighing in at an average of 0.1088 grams each and at only half the length of a fingernail, these "tiny performers" have been pleasing crowds around the world for decades as part of Gertsacov's Acme Miniature Circus.
Gertsacov, Midge, Madge and their circus will be at the Hudson River Museum on Sunday as part of its Victorian Day.
Along with the tiny show, families can play Victorian-era games like nine-wicket croquet, lawn bowling, pick-up-sticks and marbles.
Believe it or not, Gertsacov, the merry ring leader of the spectacularly small Acme circus, actually started out as a clown. And he has the degree to prove it. He graduated from the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Clown College in 1989, which was statistically harder to get into than Harvard Law School.
"I never knew how difficult it was to get in when I applied, but I realized my love for performing and gave it a shot," says Gertsacov, a Rhode Island native who now lives in Yonkers.
But how did his attention turn to fleas? Gertsacov realized early in his clown career that circus clowns were not at the top of the three-ring heap.
"I wanted to be the main clown, but the lion tamers were getting all the attention," he says. "So I knew I had to branch out on my own. I began to look for my own unique act."
During his search, Gertsacov became intrigued by the flea circus, which was a big form of entertainment back in the Victorian era. "There was no television or social media, so this was what kept people entertained," he says.
The research wasn't easy as flea circuses of the past weren't very well documented. "I immersed myself in fleas for over a year and a half and figured out the show."
The last popular American flea circus, according to Gertsacov, was Professor Heckler's of Times Square, which left New York in 1957.
Today, Gertsacov's educated insect stars pull chariots, dance on a tightrope, and perform other circus-like stunts.
While he does not reveal his method of training (a proprietary secret, he explains), he assures the curious and the civic minded that he uses only methods of positive reinforcement to teach the insects their routines.
"I treat them as if they are my own flesh and blood," Gertsacov says. "And in some ways, they are."
There is also a pre-show "flea market" in which miniature props are for sale.
"I have mini 'Save The Fleas' bumper stickers. Hey, it worked for the whales," he says.
About Midge and Madge: They are members of the Pulex irritans species — that is, human fleas that can live for 24 months, a long life as fleas go.
And yes, they are females because lady fleas are a little bigger than their male colleagues and easier to train.
Midge and Madge, who arrive in their own mini Airstream trailer, will enjoy careers from 16 to 18 months before retirement.
Gertsacov says his Acme Miniature Circus is great entertainment and all ages are welcome — just don't bring the dog. Gertsacov says he doesn't want them to steal the show — literally.

The American Scholar: A Speck of Showmanship

The American Scholar has an article about flea circuses entitled

A Speck of Showmanship

Is that Pulix irritans pulling that carriage, or is someone just pulling our leg? By Ernest B. Furgurson 

It is a long article about different flea circuses and the long history of flea circus. Acme Miniature Circus is featured towards the end. The full article is here:

https://theamericanscholar.org/a-speck-of-showmanship/#

Excerpt of the relevant parts about the Acme Miniature Circus:

Adam Gertsacov, of Providence, Rhode Island, and Yonkers, New York, wants to give his Acme Miniature Flea Circus performances “the aura of a sideshow in the 1890s,” a feeling that many flea managers share. They like being part of the long, romantic tradition of show business. Though they typically operate out of a handy suitcase that opens into a midway with flags, carousel and Ferris wheel, they consider themselves colleagues of the great sword swallowers and prestidigitators of the past, part of the fabled world of “learned pigs and fireproof women.”

Gertsacov delves into flea circus history; indeed, he has helped make it. He studied acting and matriculated at the Ringling Brothers clown college before an old trouper told him to “get rid of that clown stuff; get yourself some fleas.” He could picture the act: “You’re so big, they’re so little.” This was not advice that Gertsacov wanted to hear, but he followed it, and eventually presided over the “triumphant return of the flea circus to Times Square” in 2001. He performed there for several months before taking his attraction back on the road.

Show people tend to loosen up under friendly questioning. Jim Frank, who lives in Laurel, Maryland, puts flea circuses in three categories: “One, dress ’em up as familiar people—Lincoln, Napoleon—see how small I can make a costume; two, hook ’em up with brass wire to pull chariots and such; and three, present fleas that cause things to happen, cause reactions—imagine the expressions on Benny Hill’s face. That’s my bracket, the illusion bracket. People tune their shows to their own skill level. Some use gearing, clockwork, small motors. . . . But if I’m outside, any speck of dust can be a flea. A puff of breath and it moves, and they’ve seen the flea. There are many ways to influence kids to see an illusion.”

Gertsacov agrees. Without putting the conversation off the record or even on deep background, he admits that “part of the fun is the secrecy. Obviously it’s hard to see fleas. People watching say, ‘What am I really seeing?’ I like that. You haven’t really been to a flea circus unless you’ve been bamboozled by the flea-circus guy. It would be interesting to watch real trained fleas, but only for three or four minutes. That’s not enough these days when you can Google insects and see them mating, up close and personal. My show is about showmanship.”

He enriches it with an illustrated history of the flea, reciting classics of the flea canon and ending with the shortest poem of all:

Adam/Had ’em.

It’s a rare showman who can squeeze a living out of a flea circus. But if it paid off for enthusiasm, Jim Alberti of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, would be chartering his own jet instead of piloting his pickup from bluegrass concert to school fundraiser to county fair, handily supplementing his Social Security check. His father and grandfather before him ran flea circuses, and Jim is blessed with a spouse who understands that the bug is in his blood. He was teaching at the North Carolina School of the Arts in 1988 when he told her he’d like to quit and do his show full-time. “We could do that,” she said. “I’ve seldom loved her more,” Jim told me.

After failing to catch him at the Merlefest in Wilkesboro, North Carolina, and the James Riverfest in Lynchburg, Virginia, I finally met him on a sweltering day at the annual Folk Festival in Lowell, Massachusetts. He was setting up his show on a sunbaked concrete walkway far out on the fringe of the festival; as I helped him erect signs, I thought he could never draw a crowd there. But a couple of passersby slowed down out of curiosity, and a few more stopped when he donned his derby and red vest, signs that the show was about to begin. He has a line of patter to accompany his chores. His fleas go south for the winter, he says. “They have a condo in Florida. It’s a French poodle.” By the time he introduced his star performer, Captain Spalding, to do his daring double flip into the tank, dozens of kids had appeared, snaggle-toothed, freckle-faced, like the resurrected cast of an old Our Gang movie. They listened open-mouthed to his patter and seemed mesmerized as he wove his hands to illustrate what was happening.

As Jim says, “It’s not easy to make something out of their imagination—a little like James Joyce taking a thought and making a book out of it.” His performance may or may not have equaled Ulysses. But as I watched the kids watch him, it was clear that Jim, like Scalliot, Boverick, Bertolotto, and Heckler—not to mention Adam—had ’em. 

Minnesota Public Radio: Whatever Happened to the Flea Circus?

What ever happened to the flea circus?

Posted at 2:24 PM on May 22, 2009 by Sanden Totten

Professor A.G. Gertsacov Photo by Dennis Hlynsky

A few weeks back a visitor to this blog found our Skribit page and asked this question: "Are there still flea circuses?"
The flea circus is an act where real human fleas (Pulex irritans) are harnessed and trained to perform tricks. At one time the flea circus was pretty common, say around the late 1800's and early 1900's. But today, you can go your whole life without running across a single human flea . . . let alone a flea circus full of them.
But that doesn't mean the art of training fleas is dead! It's just a bit harder to catch these days. We spoke with one seasoned "flea-man", Adam Gertsacov, also known as Professor A.G. Gertsacov, the leader of the ACME Miniature Flea Circus. He told us about his show, what to feed a flea circus performer and why vacuums may have been partly responsible for the decline of the great flea circus side show.

Copy and paste the HTML below to embed this audio onto your web page.

Audio player code:
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://minnesota.publicradio.org/www_publicradio/tools/media_player/js/swfobject.js"></script><div id="minnesota_news_features_2009_05_22_flea_circus_20090522_64s_player"></div><script type="text/javascript">/*<![CDATA[*/var so = new SWFObject("http://minnesota.publicradio.org/www_publicradio/tools/media_player/s_player.swf", "minnesota_news_features_2009_05_22_flea_circus_20090522_64s_player", "319", "83", "8", "#ffffff");so.addParam("quality", "high");so.addParam("menu", "false");so.addParam("wmode", "transparent");so.addVariable("name", "minnesota/news/features/2009/05/22/flea_circus_20090522_64");so.write("minnesota_news_features_2009_05_22_flea_circus_20090522_64s_player");/*]]>*/</script>

sponsor:

Have to see it to believe it? Check out the ACME Miniature Flea Circus website for dates and locations.
Come see (or squint to see) the circus!
Photo by Jaime Murphy

ChicagoLand Television- Metromix

FLAMINGO HOUSE BLOG POST

reprinted from http://flamingohouse.net/?p=2257

The Acme Flea Circus

By denise | March 7, 2009

I know, I know, it’s been a whole week since we went to the flea circus and y’all have been dying to hear about it. I’m sorry. I’m a busy woman. And, I felt a little uncomfortable about blogging something like the Acme Flea Circus after hearing about Chuck’s family. So, it’s been a week and I’m still too darn busy but I have had a bit of blogging fever so… yea, the Acme Flea Circus…. omg… awesomeness.

Consider this a public service announcement. The following post contains use of the word freak in a way that might make some people uncomfortable. Your uncomfortableness is not my goal. In my household, the use of the word freak is not a negative or derogatory thing. We, the Flamingo House inhabitants, have embraced all things freaky and all people who society currently or has been known to label as freaks. We like the freak. More freaks should exist. Everyone should embrace their inner and outer freak and strive to become more freak-like. If this makes you uncomfortable, you might simply choose to stop reading. Or you may continue reading at your own risk.

Before I tell you why the Acme Flea circus gets an “omg…awesome!” from me, I have to tell you a couple of little stories. First, the story of TW and the fleas.

(SOME PORTIONS OMITTED)

So yea. We have the woman who invented fleas and her daughter the circus freak. God or some higher power was paying attention when he influenced me to open a Daily Candy newsletter (something I never ever do) to discover the Acme Flea Circus would be performing in the Intuit, just a few short miles from our home. Fate! Cosmic something or other. I purchased six tickets.

At this point, I have to say that not all Flamingo House inhabitants were thrilled with the idea of the Flea Circus. RJ was not unhappy about the idea, she just wasn’t enthusiastic. Prince J, however, was downright bitchy about the idea and there was much “it’s not fair! why do I have to go!” all of which lasted right up until the moment we took our seats at the Flea Circus.

Prince J and RJ sat in the second row with me. TW, Liz and TW’s mother sat in the front row in front of us. As people came in and found their seats (sold out show with people turned away who thought they could buy their tickets at the door!) the ringmaster wandered around with a little tray selling the tiniest programs for a dime a piece. TW bought six and we all sat down to read them. But the print was incredibly small and it was a little dark. Luckily, the ringmaster had thought of that and he had tiny little magnifying glasses for sale, and he walked around selling those too.

Which of course led him to sell flea tattoos, postcards, photographs and the much coveted bumper sticker. The “flea market” before the “flea circus”. It was incredibly amusing and both of the previously disgruntled teens were fascinated by the showmanship of the ringmaster.

And then the show began - with Midge and Madge, the most brilliant and talented fleas ever. They even have their own Airstream! (sweet!) Midge and Madge had a race - our side of the room rooted for Midge, the other side for Madge. There was much cheering and jeering and in the end…Midge! The winner!

There was a brief stop in the flea action for the ringmaster to read us a very informative book about the history of fleas.

And then Midge walked the tightwire, something our little circus freak enjoys (though not as much as she enjoys the Spanish Web.)

Another brief stop for some “Flea Verse” and uh oh… Madge escaped from the Airstream or was flea-napped! Thankfully, the ringmaster found poor Madge hiding in a woman’s hair.

Did I mention both teens were amused by this performance and could not keep from smiling, even though they tried - when they realized both their mother and I had noticed them actually enjoying themselves.

Then, the finale - Midge and Madge would be shot from a cannon, through a ring of fire, into their Airstream!

Ohhhh scaryyyyyy! Very tense moment…. they made it! Much cheering ensued.


We all, and I do mean all, had a fabulous time.

Chicago Tribune: Wear long Sleeves. The flea circus is in town.

Wear long sleeves. The flea circus is in town.

By Lauren Viera |Tribune reporter

February 27, 2009

The circus is coming to town.

Wait just a minute, coulrophobics; you can relax: This circus is clown-free. There aren't any bearded ladies, strong men or tigers jumping through fiery hoops, either. We're talking about a sideshow-size tribute to some of the tiniest wonders of the world: fleas.

On Thursday, professor A.G. Gertsacov and his Acme Miniature Flea Circus hopped into Intuit: The Center for Intuitive & Outsider Art, where they're in residence through the weekend. The Acme circus fleas pull chariots, dance on tight wires and perform other death-defying feats.

We think.

Although Gertsacov, the show's self-proclaimed Flea Master, swears his Victorian-inspired circus uses real, live insects, we were skeptical. So, we called him up to ask.

"The only thing I can say to people who don't believe it," Gertsacov says, "is to come down and decide for yourself."

Such is the business plan of the Acme Miniature Flea Circus: It succeeds primarily based on the curiosity of its patrons. And, of course, the talent of its performers.

Gertsacov first stumbled into the ... er ... flea market more than a dozen years ago. After graduating from the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Clown College and traveling for a few years with an East Coast-based troupe producing a show with a combo box turtle/imaginary flea circus act, Gertsacov sought out career advice from renown clown Avner Eisenberg, under whom he studied. "Focus on the fleas," Eisenberg advised. "You're so big; they're so little. You love the fleas. That's your show."

And so it was.

Gertsacov began researching his act, recruited a set designer to build his show apparatus and invested in pulex irritans (a.k.a. human fleas), whose average life span reaches 24 months. He uses only female fleas, which are slightly larger than male fleas and, according to research, typically easier to train. While Gertsacov isn't sure whether that's true, he's going with it. "One set of [human] fleas can perform for nearly 18 months," he says, noting that cat fleas—which are much more common in North America—have only an eight-week life span. Which, he says, isn't enough time to train and perform.

As for the training, that's Gertsacov's secret.

"The word 'training' is a funny thing," he says. "I'm not training them to do rocket science. What they do in my show is natural behavior. And to coach them in context, they do these tricks in a way that makes them entertaining. Do they know that they're racing chariots? No, but I train them to pull the chariots on command, which they do 85 percent of the time. There's always a 15 percent chance they won't perform."

So what happens when they don't?

No biggie, says Gertsacov. "That's showbiz."

lviera@tribune.com

Chicago Sun Times: Flea Spirit Brings Smallest Show on Earth to Town

Flea spirit brings smallest show on earth to town

February 27, 2009

BY DELIA O'HARA dohara@suntimes.com

The question Professor A.G. (also known as Adam) Gertsacov is most commonly asked about his flea circus is, "Do you have real fleas?"

The second most common question is, "Really?"

Professor A.G. Gertsacov looks
on as one of the stars of the
Acme flea circus does a dance
on the tightwire.

ACME MINIATURE FLEA CIRCUS

6:30 tonight; 2, 4 and 6 p.m. Saturday
Intuit: The Center for Intuitive
and Outsider Art,
756 N. Milwaukee
Tickets, $8-$12
(312) 243-9088; www.art.org

And the third is, "Come on, you don't really have fleas, do you?"

To which he rejoins, "If you don't believe me, come on down and see for yourself."

The New York-based Gertsacov has brought the Acme Miniature Flea Circus to Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art. Performances tonight and Saturday are in conjunction with "The Picture Tells the Story: The Drawings of Joseph E. Yoakum," an exhibit up at Intuit through June 27. Yoakum, a highly regarded Chicago outsider artist, claimed to have spent his working life as a circus roustabout and took up art only when he retired.

The circus is the stated link between Yoakum and the flea circus, even if the connection is a bit tenuous -- none of the drawings in the show depict circus scenes. It's possible the flea circus is coming to Intuit mostly because it's the kind of loopy entertainment that might be expected to delight people who love the creations of self-taught artists.

"It's going to be fun" says Jerry Stefl, Intuit's Education Chair. "Everybody I've talked to has heard of a flea circus but no one has ever seen one."
Intuit specializes in showing the creations of self-taught artists like Yoakum. Another show there now is "Sticks," works made of everything from twigs to toothpicks.

"Self-taught artists are working from an inner passion," Stefl says.
You could say the same thing about Gertsacov, an actor and longtime clown who has overcome a number of obstacles to produce the Acme Miniature Flea Circus, which has two female flea performers, Midge and Madge. The major obstacle, according to Gertsacov, is that fleas are about as big as the period at the end of this sentence.
"It took me two years to figure out how to do this," he says.
Gertsacov will not reveal his hard-won secrets -- how he has prevailed on fleas to perform, that is -- but fleas are very strong jumpers. The trick is to get them doing something that puts that attribute to work, says Gertsacov, who adds that his training methods are humane.
A highlight of the flea circus is the "chariot race" between Midge and Madge, which takes a minute and a half and covers 13 inches. For a finale, the fleas are shot out of a cannon into their "lavishly decorated trailer," Gertsacov says.
"The journey of my show is not about pet tricks, although they are pretty interesting and impressive and worthy of note," Gertsacov says. "It's more the journey of the audience, as they come to love the fleas and cheer for them madly."

Dennis Hlynsky, a friend and professor at the Rhode Island School of Design, created the set and props. The fleas don't wear costumes.

Researching flea circuses, Gertsacov, 44, learned that they appear to date from the early 19th century. William Heckler brought his famous flea circus to the 1933 Century of Progress World's Fair here, and a Heckler son had a flea circus that was a fixture in Times Square until about 1956.

Midge and Madge are members of the Pulex irritans species, human fleas, which are relatively long-lived, as fleas go. They still have a performing career of only about 16 to 18 months, so Gertsacov has young jumpers in training at all times. He gets them from the same type of catalogue supplier research labs use.
They're cheap to feed -- every 10 days or so, the boss pricks his finger and sets them up in a little case for lunch. They don't actually bite him anymore.
It's very important that the flea circus performers all be females.
"I don't want to start an infestation," Gertsacov says.