Robert ‘Bob’ Bruce recounts his incredible life as a circus ringmaster and Archie the clown for the Lennon Bros. Circus
Australia’s oldest circus ringmaster and clown has shared the tale of his incredible life in the circus rubbing shoulders with Hollywood movie stars and “living like gypsies”.
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REMEMBERING his life as a circus ringmaster and performer is as vivid for Robert Bruce today as it was more than six decades ago when he joined The Ridgeway Circus.
The 83-year-old describes a life one would normally see in a Hollywood film and says Village Roadshow has shown interest in a play about his life called A Cup of Tea with Lions.
He wrote the play with good friend Dr Andrew Lock but the finishing touches were fast-tracked and sent to two production companies about 10 days ago.
Bob was last week told by his doctor his prostate cancer was terminal.
“I said to the doctor, ‘how long do I have?’. He said, ‘about four weeks’.”
The play will be about Bob’s life “living like a gypsy” in the 1960s.
One of his favourite memories is of making a cup of tea early in the morning and hearing the lions roar, the monkeys rattling the cage and the elephants trumpeting.
Bob said he missed the smell of the elephants and hearing the hustle and bustle of the circus putting the tent up and watching people practising before the show.
He would walk into the tent, kick his feet through the sawdust and get his props ready to become Archie the Tramp for the Lennon Bros Circus.
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“I have done more than 14,000 performances.
“I was aged 10, my father was a director of a big printing company, and he came down with my older brother and said, ‘Robbie, the circus is in town, I’m going to take you to the circus’.
“I still remember where I sat, three rows up on the board seats. I think I must have been taken aback by all the glamour and the lions. Then my mother took me to see The Greatest Show on Earth. It was a great circus movie and I was at the door and joined a circus.”
Bob said the circus took him to “every nook and cranny” in Australia four times over, and to America and Mexico.
His best memories are the times spent with friends outside the big tent: “When we finished at night (Moroccan circus performer) Mohammed (Jratlou) would have Moroccan-style chicken wings all ready to go. My wife would do the Thai food with coconut rice and Mohammed’s wife, Tracey, would have the prawns ready and we would have a case of beer.
“We’d all be out the front of Mohammed’s caravan and have a big fire going. We were like gypsies. That’s something I miss.”
He met “lots of famous people” while working in the US, among them Ricardo Montalban from Fantasy Island and Peter O’Toole.
Bob also did a bodybuilding competition with Arnold Schwarzenegger in Hawaii and brought him to the Gold Coast in the 1970s for a bodybuilding competition.
Bob trained at Globe Gym in Southport five days a week until about two months ago. “I opened a gym on the Gold Coast from 1968 to 1974 called Bob’s Gym and promoted bodybuilding pretty heavily. But then I got bored and moved back to America.”
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In 1999, Bob flew from Japan to Thailand to work for the Starlight Circus and it was there he met his second wife, Bagon “On” Bruce.
Bob said On flew back to Thailand after they were married to finalise a second visa when she found out she was pregnant with their son, Suriya Bruce. He turns 10 this month. “She had the baby at Liverpool, he was born in the circus. He’s a very good-looking boy.”
Bob had five children — Zane, Gene, Misty, Troy, and Free — from a previous marriage.
He said Suriya travelled with the family and performed in the circus as a mini ringmaster until moving to the Gold Coast three years ago after Bob retired.
“Jane Grant from the Ashton family took over from me about three years ago. She does an excellent job as a female ringmistress, but I’ve been back a couple of times when they’ve been short.
“Cheryl Lennon, she’s my boss. She has been my backbone for 20-odd years and one of my closest friends as well as Peter Lindsay and Alex Anderson.”
Bob said he doesn’t feel sad about dying because he has had an “incredible trip” but his parting wish was to encourage all men to have their prostate checked regularly.
“Go and get checked.”
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