• Credit: Vincent Beaume

  • Credit: Vincent Beaume

  • Credit: Vincent Beaume

  • Credit: David Pickens

  • Credit: Richard Shashamane

Circus Mayhem

BettiCombo, Jon Hicks & Rimski
France, Italy, UK

A triple bill of extraordinary entertainment featuring an out of this world back-pedalling pianist, rapid-fire painting and idiotic clowning.

Meet the world’s first sidewinding, back-pedalling upright pianist. Is he from another time, or just out of time? Playing and singing as he rides, Rimski will dazzle you with his flawless fingerwork, dangerous stunts and daredevil dexterity.

A fantastic performer. An awesome act. Jon Hicks’ humorous puppetry and stylish speed painting executed to a kicking musical score have earned him the title of International Man of Artistry.

Sweet, slapstick trio, BettiCombo, delivers optimum fun. Bursting on stage with bags of enthusiasm, the three playful characters create a playground from countless white buckets and one towering Chinese pole.

Welcome to the world of circus, not as you know it!

 

Press

  • ‘This trio rely on inch perfect timing, and millimeter perfect set-ups to provide the optimum fun, and they make light of it when it doesn’t quite go to plan.’

    A Younger Theatre, on BettiCombo

  • '[BettiCombo] has the ability to dignify the error, to be a performance taking the audience on a path meandering between theatre and circus.'

    Deja – Noticias de Bizkaia, on BettiCombo

  • 'Sensational'

    The Stage, on Jon Hicks

  • Al Cubo by Betti Combo

    Three circus artists with very big personalities create a playground from one Chinese pole, a stack of white plastic buckets and a bag of ukuleles.

    With clown-like enthusiasm and feigned clumsiness the characters obsessively outwit each other to the point of hilarity. Playing what seems like pointless a game of building and destroying carefully balanced structures, pyramids and columns, they push each other to the limits and sometimes over the edge. But to what end?

    This impulsive and playful trio show us how something so seemingly simple can create a tender, gripping drama on stage. Using simple props they tell a story of triumphs and defeats that is pervaded by a ridiculous resignation rising from their collective failure, and individual success in unexpected ways.

    BettiCombo’s first show Al Cubo premiered in Spain in 2012 and has since toured across Europe and internationally including the UK in 2013.

     

    Company Biography

    Ilaria Senter, Fabrizio Rosselli and Francesco Caspani met at Flic circus school in Turin (IT) in 2007. They pursued different artistic paths before coming together in January 2012 to start BettiCombo. They took advantage of the final year of training at Lido circus school in Toulouse to create their first show Al Cubo.

    With Al Cubo, the company BettiCombo won the SACD Innovation Prize at the 35th Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain in Paris in 2014.

     

  • Jon Hicks' Artistic Oddities

    Since 2000 Jon has been enthralling audiences with his repertoire of curious performances and artistic oddities.

    Initially a speed painting act, he has developed in diverse directions, always with an anchor in visual awareness and the joy of making; interests and skills developed through a Fine Art degree (1980s) and as a scenic artist and prop maker in the 1990s. Also with an increasing interest in deadpan ‘clowning’, heightened through training at Circus Space

    He now performs in theatres, at street and arts festivals, in cabarets, on TV and for corporate events.

    In 2013 he developed his own solo theatre show, ‘Curioddity/Adult Prodigy’ which returned to the Spiegeltent at Brighton Fringe this spring, along with his Kickmouse Cabaret.

    In 2015 he has already performed on The Paul O Grady show, at the Blackpool Tower Ballroom, at The Royal Albert Hall and in The Seychelles

    And he spent five years of his adult life learning to tap dance.

  • Rimski's Bicycle Piano

    Rimski’s Piano is an act based around a unique ‘bicycle piano’. Master multi-tasker Rimski plays and sings as he cycles along on his piano. His multi functional contraption is full of surprises. Featuring original songs, musical clowning, acrobatics and occasional pyro-technics.

    Rimski (Oliver Cumming) and his well traveled piano have performed In the U.K, Europe,Scandinavia and the U.S.A over the past ten years.

  • Why book this show

    A quirky evening with highly skilled artists

    Clever, light hearted and playful

    Unexpectedly thought provoking and insightful

    Award winning artists

    An unusual combination of circus skills and staging

  • Key Target Markets

    Families

    People looking for a good night out

    Cabaret goers