WASHINGTON — It sounds like the setup to a punchline: “A clown-turned-surgeon walks into a bankruptcy court and buys a circus.”
But it’s no joke.
One of the most-storied circus acts in America survived a recent bankruptcy and is coming to National Harbor in Prince George’s County, Maryland, this spring thanks to a former clown.
Retired Maryland spinal cord surgeon Dr. Neil Kahanovitz led a group of investors who bought the Big Apple Circus in 2017.
The circus, featuring the Fabulous Wallendas high-wire family act, is booked at National Harbor from March 8 through April 1.
Kahanovitz said the circus is in his blood.
“As a young boy, 6, 7, 8 years old, when people would ask, ‘What do you want to do when you grow up?’ the consistent answer was always ‘I want to be in the circus and I want to be an orthopedic surgeon,'” Kahanovitz told WTOP.
He fulfilled both goals — heading spinal surgery at Washington Hospital Center from 1990 to 2002 and working with circuses as a young man.
“In my early-20s, I was able to get a job with the Clyde Beatty Circus, part of it as a trampoline artist, and went on to travel with Shrine circuses and independent circuses,” he said.
Two well-known circuses faced financial problems in 2017, with Big Apple Circus declaring bankruptcy and Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey calling it quits after 146 years.
Kahanovitz didn’t want to see the culture of circuses lost for good.
“I looked at circus in America, which has been around longer than baseball, as an endangered species, and to lose that, I think, would have been not only a loss for circus fans, but also a loss from a cultural perspective,” he said.
Kahanovitz and other investors purchased Big Apple Circus — mostly its name and a couple of tents, he said — for $1.3 million in February 2017.
The circus opened for its 40th anniversary season at New York’s Lincoln Center last fall.
The revived Big Apple Circus sticks to its intimate, one-ring style, with no seats more than 50 feet from the performers.
In addition to The Fabulous Wallendas, performers at the National Harbor show will include the following:
- The Flying Tunizianis, who will attempt a quadruple somersault off a trapeze;
- Daredevil roller skaters Dandino & Luciana;
- Contortionist Elayne Kramer;
- Master juggler Gamal Garcia;
- Jan Damm on the Rola Bola; and
- Risley acrobats The Anastasini Brothers.
Tickets for the Big Apple Circus at National Harbor range from $27.50 to $109 for VIP ringside seats. Group discounts are available.
