What’s New!
This 2020 election season, the Emergency Circus will enliven polling places across the nation with Cirque d'Vote: a nonpartisan initiative to put the FUN back in FUNdamental rights. As a part of the nationwide Unstoppable Voter Project, Cirque d'Vote has called upon clowns, jugglers, acrobats, and aerialists all over the United States to present covid-safe circus shows and parades in an effort to excite folks about exercising their right to vote as well as educate the public on when, where, and how to cast their ballots.
Throughout the early voting season, professional circus artists will activate polling locations and ballot boxes in 7 cities: Milwaukee WI, Philadelphia PA, Tucson AZ, Asheville NC, Phoenix AZ, Austin TX, and Portland OR . In addition to these activations, the Emergency Circus has initiated a nationwide call to action for circus artists to bring Cirque d’Vote entertainment to long Election Day lines in order to encourage people to stay the course and be counted on November 3rd.
Cirque d’Vote!
Putting the FUN back in FUNdamental Rights
Spreading circus joy from Syrian refugee camps in Jordan, to the West Bank of Palestine, to the curfewed streets of Cairo, the Emergency Circus brings laughs and love where health and happiness struggle.
Our Troup Manifesto
Composed of superhuman circus performers from around the globe, Emergency Circus administers inspirational circus shows and workshops to the hospitalized, the homeless, the imprisoned, & the under-circused everywhere.
This non-profit seeks to inspire, entertain, and enliven humanity in peril. Through spectacle, performance and the power of the human spirit, the Emergency Circus are out to achieve the seemingly impossible. To replace fear and grief with laughter and joy, if only for a little while.
Follow us on our continuing Adventures!
The Emergency Circus Returns from Puerto Rico!
Chicle, Clay Mazing, and Karla mi Lugo prepare to visit hospitalized children in San Juan, Puerto Rico's San Jorge Children's Hospital.
On September 20th, 2017, Hurricane Maria devastated the US island of Puerto Rico. Months later, citizens remain without power, clean water, and shelter. Recovery efforts from the US government have been minimal compared to other disasters of similar magnitude in the US. The New York Times reports, "Public health officials warn that Puerto Rico is teetering on the edge of a full fledged mental health crisis." Even as access to necessities like electricity and clean water slowly return to the island, the trauma remains.
This is why, Between December 30th and January 27th, the Emergency Circus delivered inspirational circus shows and workshops to hospitals, schools, orphanages, community centers, skate parks, abandoned parking lots, and all sorts of venues throughout the island. Three circus artists, Clay Mazing, Robin Lara, and Karla mi Lugo, traveled to Puerto Rico to join Puerto Rican artists, Arturo Gaskins, Chicle, Payaso Crespin, Palblo Del Hierro, and many others. Together this team combined their incredible skills and over flowing empathy to build community and destroy depression.
Artist Karla mi Lugo remains in Puerto Rico, her birth place, and continues to grow upon the connections made through this tour, adding the community in rebuilding it's artistic endeavors.
“We all laugh in the same language.”
Clay Mazing | Founder
Beginning as a division of Patch Adams' Gesundheit Institute in 2012, The non-profit Emergency Circus is currently umbrellaed under our new fiscal sponsor Many Mouths, One Stomach. MMOS has been incredibly supportive throughout this year.
Between the end of 2017 and the beginning of 2018 the EC has visited Hurricane victims in Houston and Puerto Rico as well as people forced from thier homes by the recent fires in California.
On the horizon we plan to visit Mexico, Guatemala, Sri Lanka, and return to Syrian refugees in Jordan and the middle east. If you have a proposal for where the Emergency Circus should travel next, don't hesitate to contact us.
The Emergency Circus brings love, laughter, & inspiration into harsh & devistated areas worldwide.
Death and conflict surround the tiny country of Lebanon. With its north and west bordering Syria and its south bordering “the occupied land” as they say (Israel according to official US policy), the Mediterranean is their only peaceful neighbor. Five years ago, the horrors began next door and a river of refugees flooded the country.
Around one million Syrians have joined the half million Palestinian refugees to make up about one third of the countries population. They were all accepted because Lebanon knows the horrors of war and the bliss of peace.
The refugees who choose to live here say at least they can still see Syria and they can still hear the bombs so they know what’s going on. They keep hoping for those explosions to stop so they can go back and rebuild.
Lebanon may not have much to share, but they have some kind of a heart. And they have a few clowns. Emergency Circus joined Clown Me In at the beginning of both our tours for a party that neither we nor these smiling kids will soon forget.
You can help!
When you donate, you are bringing joy and relief to children and adults who have not had a chance to laugh in a long time.
