Venardos ‘Broadway-style’ Circus to make first Michigan appearance in Novi

NOVI — Venardos Circus, a Broadway-style circus, will make its Michigan debut Sept. 4-14 at Twelve Mile Crossing at Fountain Walk in Novi.

“I mean, everybody has a story.  It’s my story making the circus or at least finding the great people,” said Kevin Venardos, show founder and producer. “Maybe that’s my magic is finding people, identifying them, and seeing magic in them, perhaps even before they see it in themselves, and somehow convincing them to come along with me on a wild adventure.”

LadyBeast, an artist who specializes in old-world circus acts, is one of the many acts that Venardos has incorporated into his show. Ladybeast not only walks on bottles, a “dust bowl Americana” circus act, but is an escape artist capable of performing seven of Houdini’s top 10 feats, including the famous straitjacket escape while hanging from her ankles.

“He found me because he was looking for unique danger acts, and he found me because I’m the first woman to escape from a straitjacket hanging from a hot air balloon,” said LadyBeast, a native of Philadelphia who now calls New Orleans home. 

She said she went to school for fine arts, particularly mixed media and painting, and later got into performance art. However, she said she is also an athlete who was into running and would compete in marathons. 

“I found my way into the circus because it’s the intersection of being an artist and an athlete,” LadyBeast said. “As a circus artist, you are an entertainer and you perform, and you also have to be in peak physical shape as an athlete.”

She said the circus is a form of performance art. She said that the performers create a spectacle on stage for people to see. 

“The way that I see it in terms of fine art is that I’m moving pictures on stage, I’m creating vignettes for the audience to see that is visually captivating for them, just as though a painter would work or a visual artist would work,” she said.

Venardos did not grow up in a circus family, but he did grow up on the Jersey Shore with a passion for Broadway theater. Venardos went to school for musical theater and at the age of 22 was auditioning for anything and everything when the opportunity to be the ringmaster for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus came along.

“I landed that job somehow; I don’t know. Probably because I was a similar height and build to the gentleman who was doing it just prior to me and they would not have to get a new costume,” he joked. “I’m sure that’s part of it, and not to downsell myself, but how do these things happen? It’s luck and opportunity somehow finding each other, and it began an extraordinary adventure.” 

In 2014, he started Venardos Circus with six people as a little event at a fair in Los Angeles.  

With the help of a composer, Venardos wrote all of the music to bring a modern spin to the traditional circus, with a singing ringmaster.

The show has grown tremendously over the years. By 2018 the show made five stops over a 10-week period; the next year, the circus performed for 45 weeks at 22 locations. In 2020, it stayed alive with virtual performances and caught the attention of Google, which had it customise the circus through the pandemic. Since 2021, Venardos Circus continued to tour for 45 weeks, and this year it added a second touring circus.

Named after his two daughters, the Andi unit, Decade of Dreams, is the original and currently tours the West Coast, while the Billie unit, Far Beyond, named after his younger daughter, will be coming to more stops across the Midwest, including Novi.

“To think that in 2014 for three months I was literally homeless, sitting in my pickup truck, and today I share the success of this circus with this extraordinary community of people,” Venardos said.

“I think looking to the past to find inspiration for now is really important,” LadyBeast said. “So, I was just really inspired by the history of the circus. So, I just decided to look to the past in terms of inspiration for acts.”

She said she found an image of a woman walking on bottles and was like, “That’s me.” She trained under Vaughn Avery, who was the escape artist with the former Royal Lichtenstein Circus. Avery taught her to perform Houdini’s famous escapes, including handcuffs, chains, the milkcan, water escape, straightjacket escape, box escape and the bag escape.

“I’m excited to see new faces in the crowd that I have not experienced and I hope that it becomes a tradition for the area when we come to town,” LadyBeast said.

She said it is wonderful when fans say they come back to see her act or one of the others. She said many attendees tend to find a special connection to one of the acts.

“Once we get people into our tent and they see what we’re about, we have an extraordinary track record of getting them to come back the next year,” Venardos said. “I am very hopeful that we are going to be able to convince people to give this ancient and magical art form a try. Something that’s actually alive in 2025. Something that is made with rough hands and a lot of love poured into what we do. I think it is really good medicine. I really believe that it is. You have to believe. If you are going to do great things, you have to truly believe that what you are doing is great.”

The theme of the show is to “live your circus dream.” However, Venardos said that doesn’t mean to necessarily be in the circus, but rather to chase after your wildest dreams.

“The world needs you as much as you need the world,” Venardos said.

The show is performed in a traditional circus tent that seats 500 people. Along with LadyBeast, there are acrobats, aerialists, jugglers, lots of comedy, daredevil stunts and much more.  

General admission costs $30.52 for adults and $18.52 for children ages 3-12. Tickets are available at venardoscircus.com.