Just how Russian do you have to be to call yourself The Great Moscow Circus?

Well not at all, as I find when I catch up with Mark Edgley, who’s promoting the brand for a multi-stage new “Extreme” show, which is already in full flight in Gungahlin. 

It’s been on tour in Queensland, the NT, WA, SA, Tasmania and Victoria, but now it will settle in the ACT for the summer, with a quick side trip to Goulburn before Christmas, returning from January 4 to as yet unnamed locations in Mawson for three weeks and two weeks in Queanbeyan.

The circus has been a household name since 1965 and now together with the Webers, another famous circus family, it’s being presented by the Edgley-Weber organisation.

Edgley explains the branding very carefully.

The Great Moscow Circus first visited Australia in 1965 under the auspices of the company started by his grandfather, legendary circus performer Eric Edgley, and has continued every three to five years in Australia and NZ ever since, making it almost 60 years old.

When the Soviet Union collapsed in December 1991, the Edgley family purchased the name, now owned by them and the Weber Circus family, both Australian, with no affiliation whatsoever with the government of Russia.

His father Michael Edgley also brought many Russian ballet shows to Australia as well, but that association with Russia has stopped, too.

But with a brand name as recognisable as the Great Moscow Circus, he says, “you’d be mad to let it go”.

Covid grounded the circus in 2021 after which, due to what he politely calls “the sensitive political world situation”, they put together a team of carefully chosen circus stars for the first time.

“We have no association with Russia at all,” Edgley assures me. “We don’t even have Russian performers, although with artists from Armenia, Ukraine, Brazil, Colombia, Greece, NZ and, of course, Australia, we have a bit of an international flavour.”

“We’ve given this one the title Extreme Circus name mainly because of the BMX motorbikes, the wheel of death and the trampoline acts. 

“There’s a very new low-wire act direct from South America and we have other aerial acts performed by the Weber girls, Tianni, Tahlia and Tanika Weber.”

The live singers include musical star Elly Rowbottom, who acts as vocalist, dance and ringmaster, and the show is lit with techno-coloured lighting. 

To Edgley’s mind, the most extreme of the death-defying acts is the BMX show.

“It’s like a competition for the BMX performers, they’re improving their tricks every time they do a show – it’s just a test for them but for us it’s magic and we can see them close up,” he says.

One aspect of the show that Edgley believes audiences will relate to is the clowning. He rates their clown, Gagik Avetisyan, from Armenia, as the world’s funniest clown, with a bag of audience-engagement tricks up his sleeve.

“He’s just under 5 foot [1.5m] but as a clown, he’s big,” says Edgley.

“Don’t be confused with other circuses. Others come and go, but there’s only one Great Moscow Circus.” 

The Great Moscow Extreme Circus, corner Flemington Road and Ernest Cavanagh Street, Gungahlin, until November 17. Further dates in January will be announced.