Fabrizio Rosselli (pictured right), juggler and clown with Company BettiCombo, chatted to Liz Arratoon (The Widow Stanton) from the island of La Réunion in the Indian Ocean where the Company appeared at the Karanbol Festival ahead of a UK Tour. Company BettiCombo’s show, Al Cubo, opens on 22 October at The Civic, Barnsley as part of Circus Mayhem.

Circus artist Fabrizio Rosselli comes from a village in northern Italy near the Swiss border that ‘no one will have heard of’. He had an unusual route into circus, starting as an electrician, a pizza chef and a postman before getting into juggling and discovering his talent for comedy. He trained at Carampa Circus School, Madrid; Le Lido, Toulouse; and Flic Circus School, Turin where he met Francesco Caspani and Illaria Senter, who together formed the delightful Company BettiCombo in 2012.

The Widow Stanton: I really love the clips I’ve seen of BettiCombo and I love people who’ve come to circus from completely different backgrounds. You started as an electrician; what went wrong?

Fabrizio Rosselli: (Laughs) While I was an electrician I realised that I was a clown. (Laughs) I studied in school to be an electrician but when I started to work I made a lot of mistakes! (Laughs)

The Widow Stanton: That could have been serious…

Fabrizio Rosselli: Yes, because it was impossible for me to be serious in that work. For example I once tried to wire a socket for a hairdryer into the light fitting in my bathroom.

Click here to carry on reading the full article.