A Review of "Marvellous"

Plot:

“Marvellous” is based on the true story of Neil Baldwin. Baldwin was diagnosed with “learning difficulties” at school, but didn’t allow the label to discourage him from achieving as much in life as his heart desired. We meet Neil working as Nello the clown in the circus. He goes on to get a regular role at Keele University, advising and helping students, and is employed by his beloved football team, Stoke City. Along the way, his mother worries profusely whether he will be able to look after himself after she dies. 

Review:

Before I begin, I guess I better put in a mild caveat. A TV film like “Marvellous” is probably not going to get the most unbiased of reviews from me. It focuses on the life of someone who I never met, but nevertheless I know plenty of people who do know him. This includes the great Norman Barrett, a dear friend of my family, who features in a brief cameo at the film’s conclusion and is also mentioned a few times, including his MBE status. These are all anachronistic, but that takes nothing away from the nature of the film. Norman’s budgies are also a plot point. For the most part, the film shows circus in a good light, which is a refreshing change. Only the ringmaster of the first circus is presented as something of a villain. This is becoming a bit of a cliché now along with the assumption that the ringmaster is traditionally the owner of the show. Nevertheless, many of my circus friends and family were smiling when the film won the Best Single Drama category of the 2015 BAFTAs.

Smoke and Ice - Iago's Advantage

"A lie is the beginning of a new story. That's why we love Art." - Oscar Wilde

I have come to loathe the expression "Where there is smoke, there is fire" or, at least, its hasty usage. The assumption is that you are actually looking at smoke. It disregards the human capacity for lying. Given the right motivation - such as jealousy, old scores, prejudice, financial gains or political expedience - the human mind can pretty much come up with lies that don't have a single grain of truth. However, which cliché does seem to sadly prove true more often than not is that "mud sticks". This reminds me of an Ray Galton and Alan Simpson radio script called "Scandal Magazine". Gutter press editor Sid James explains to a vexed Tony Hancock, who he has scandalized in his magazine, why he cannot win. Even if Hancock wins the case and is exonerated the general public will think he has inside influence. The sheer publicity of the case - win or lose - will drive James's sales up. If Hancock chooses not to sue the persecution in the magazine will continue and the readers will assume the story is true. 

Remembering 'Extreme World Warfare' Part I

It seems very strange now looking back on the relatively brief time I was co-promoter of an extreme professional wrestling outfit. My life now is so different, that although I can see me back there and feel the energy I had then it just seems like another life altogether. What seems even stranger still was the path that led me there. Tell anyone now who either knows me through my work as a self-protection/martial arts coach or even through my current connections to showbusiness, that I was once a Gothic sword wielding wrestling manager that had a penchant for wearing red contact lenses, getting cut up with razor blades and barbed wire, and spewing Kensington Gore all over the place they are likely to ask “Is this the same Jamie Clubb we are talking about”. It’s no secret. I appeared in Combat martial arts magazine on the front cover with an eight page feature, covered in corpse paint and did the best I could to court media attention. And yet, years later I find myself training in an MMA gym in Birmingham and one of the receptionist starts teasing me as if this part of my history was comparable to being closet transvestite. A friend of mine pretty much summed up the incredulity of those that have known me since my days running a pro wrestling promotion are over: “Why Jamie? Why?”

Black Friday for Circus

Back in the 1960s my grandfather, the great circus director and animal trainer, Dick Chipperfield, dedicated his book, "My Friends the Animals", with no little affection, to the general public. He loved the people who viewed his circus and appreciated their support, never forgetting them. Many who worked for him or grew up on his circus will testify the importance he placed on giving service to the general public and to always be friendly and helpful to them. His was a time when circuses brought whole communities together and broke class divisions. We have footage of incredile queues of people snaking their way up to the huge tents that contained his shows. And why not? Britain was the country that gave birth to the modern circus. The officials and the press of Britain today would have you believe a far different story...

Friday 27^th March will probably go down in circus history as a “Black Friday” for animal circuses. Despite there only being a small number of circuses in the UK containing animals and despite a thorough scientific investigation in for the 2006 Animal Welfare Act returning the consensus that the circus “animal issue” was purely a “political” one, an apparent survey was conducted to decide whether the general public would back one of these three proposals:

1. Business as usual for animal circuses
2. Wild animals to be travelled in circuses only under regulation
3. A total ban on wild animals in circuses.

Yesterday a source leaked to me that the results to be published by DEFRA today confirmed that 94% of those who took the vote backed the total ban option. The official circus governing body, the Association of Circus Proprietors were behind the regulation option from the beginning and even drew up regulations that were submitted for the working group consultation on the Animal Welfare Act.

I for one am very sceptical about the apparent 94% backing of the ban. How does this correlate with the packed houses regularly enjoyed by the few circuses that do have exotic animals in their circuses? I think it is more than likely that those voting were rallied by the various activist groups who oppose animals in circuses. Why this was recently pushed not long before election time also makes me ponder, but I won’t go into that one.

So far there have been at least two independent scientific investigations into animal husbandry in circuses. The first one was conducted in 1989 by Dr Marthe Kyle Worthington at the behest of the RSPCA and its results were published in the book “Chiron’s World?” Despite various parts of the book often being quoted out of context or misconstrued a full reading of the book shows a general positive outlook for animal circuses and their methods. The 2006 research really summed up the essence of the issue regarding animals in circuses – a political one.

Don't forget to check out Jamie Clubb's main blog www.jamieclubb.blogspot.com

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• Britons back circus animal ban (telegraph.co.uk)
• Circuses facing wild animal ban (news.bbc.co.uk)

Cor-Chat - The Fighting Art of the Circus

Image via Wikipedia

Cor-chat is the most closely guarded secret of the travelling circus. Loosely translated from circus language the name means “Fight Thing”. For three centuries it was a style that was taught exclusively to circus people and passed from one generation to the next for the purposes of self defence. The life of a travelling performer is a hazardous one. When a community moves to a new site or “tober” they are immediately strangers and not always welcome. This prompted the creation of a system of self defence to deal with would-be attackers and practiced in accordance with circus custom. The lineage of the main schools of cor-chat can’t be traced back to a single circus family, although it is believed that Phillip Astley, the father of the modern circus, introduced various techniques taken from his military experiences. Phineas T. Barnum is also credited with influencing a more deceptive style of cor-chat in the USA. Some say that the famous fraudster’s line “never give a sucker an even break” had a hidden reference to the savage joint-locking techniques found in cor-chat.

The art was practised covertly and training was often hidden in the various acts performed in the circus. Certain techniques hint towards these acts. For example, a low sweeping attack is named the clown’s shoe. Training in cor-chat traditionally takes place on a sawdust covered ground, inside a ringed area and in a training place known as the Big Top. New students from the outside are known as jossers and are rarely taught unless they pass the cor-chat initiation trials. Much of these initiations include a series of gruelling exercises known as “building up” and “pulling down”.

When performing a technique, the attacker is often given the term “anti”. Cor-chat is a brutal system that includes a devastating array of techniques designed to confuse and destroy an antagonist. Methods are both unarmed and armed. Armed methods make extensive use of incidental weaponry, including coupling pins and there is a seemingly inexhaustible list of methods for using bailing string. Like all good martial arts systems, cor-chat teaches evasion techniques that come under the title of “scarpering”. Unlike many traditional martial arts there is no set custom or greeting term before starting a training session, however, after training students ritually use the term “nanti palari”.

Today the art has been made available to the general public for the first time. Schools are opening up all over the country and worldwide. These include intensive instructor programmes and long-distance learning plans. Training in cor-chat is a positively enriching experience. You will find this when you begin to teach. In line with circus lore, the cor-chat instructor works for a mysterious commodity known as dinari. It is the objective of any life long cor-chat instructor to accumulate as much dinari as possible. Lack of dinari is often accredited to the lows faced by many circus people.

Cor-chat is a system trained by many different cultures against a myriad of threats. It is a time-tested martial art with a history that goes back three centuries and practiced by many top circus fighters. Now you can also learn this devastating art.





Don't forget to check out Jamie Clubb's main blog www.jamieclubb.blogspot.com