Circus of Horrors: Welcome to the Carnevil

It’s fair to say many people have a fear of clowns, which is known as Coulrophobia. A child’s fear of an unfamiliar face has become widespread, with many developing a fear of clowns. The phobia leads to people in later life being anxious when confronted with clown costumes, a clowns facial features and of course their make up. A clown therefore would not seem to be the ideal employment for someone who suffers from Coulrophobia, yet Doug Child decided to try and overcome his fear to retain his job in the latest Circus of Horrors production, which is currently on a world tour.

Doug had previously worked on the show and was known as Camp Dracula. Circus of Horrors ringmaster Dr Haze had devised a new show called ‘Welcome to the Carnevil’ and cast Doug as a Killer Klown. Dr Haze warned him that he could only remain in the show if he took on the Killer Klown persona. Dr Haze had no idea of his phobia.

At first Doug kept his phobia to himself and to try and fight the phobia he visited & trained with The Moscow State Circus to overcome his fear. “It was slowly, slowly’” said Doug, “The Moscow State was a good starting point as the clowns there are more like comedy characters, I then moved onto watching The Joker in Batman & Steven Kings IT”.

It took Doug ages and when he first donned his horrendous costume he could not look at himself in the mirror, “I had to get other people to apply my make up and tell me what it looked like, the first time I saw myself I freaked out & washed it off immediately”. Doug even resorted to hypnotherapy.

Eventually he did overcome the Phobia and now stars as Rellik the Psycho Clown on The Circus of Horrors tour.

The show rose to fame after storming into the finals of Britain's Got Talent before becoming a West End & now a world wide smash, this year creating history by becoming the first UK circus to appear in Japan & Russia.

The latest incarnation ‘Welcome to the Carnevil’ is set in Victorian London in 1899, Jack the Ripper was still at large & this was the age of the Freakshow, 3 young & damned adolescents dream of running away to join the Circus only to see their dream become a nightmare in a decrepit & corpse ridden Carnevil, plagued by a swamp of Killer Klowns, Sword Swallowers, Demon Dwarves, Death Deifying Aerialists, A Guinness World Record holding Hairculian Diva swinging solely from her hair, back flipping & fire limboing acrobats & lots lots more. A show ruled by the undead & climaxing in an awesome flaming apocalypse.

The story twists and turns with grisly murders and sensational shock’s – all interwoven with some of the greatest and most bizarre circus acts on earth, performed by an almighty cast with a forked tongue firmly in each cheek and the devil driven rock n’ roll of Dr Haze & The Interceptors from Hell.

Thursday 25 Febraury, Plymouth Pavilions

Tickets cost: £20.90, £23.10, £26.40, £27.50, £30.80 (ticket prices inc 10% booking fee)

To book tickets please visit www.plymouthpavilions.com or call the ticket store on 0845 146 1460**

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