THE Circus of Horrors is celebrating its 21st anniversary with its latest incarnation The Never-Ending Nightmare which heads to Bournemouth Pavilion Theatre on Thursday March 16

The spectacular features an amazing amalgamation of bizarre, brave & beautiful acts all woven into an Alice in Horrorland type story driven by a mainly original soundscape & performed with a forked tongue firmly in each cheek.

In fact, the circus may just have been responsible for one of last year’s biggest crazes. Its creator, Dr Haze, believes the scary clown phenomenon that swept the United States & then terrorised the UK could have begun after people saw Killer Klowns in The Circus of Horrors.

Dr Haze states “A year ago we introduced Killer Klowns into The Circus of Horrors. At the time we were playing on people’s fear of clowns or 'coulrophobia' and I received lots of emails & messages on social media from people saying they wouldn't attend if we featured clowns. In actual fact though, attendance figures grew & the tour was seen by around 100,000 people.”

Until the last Circus of horrors tour Killer Klowns or Psycho Clowns were never seen live and featured more on TV or in movies such as The Joker in Batman, or Steven King’s IT. The Circus of Horrors brought these clowns to life & may have unsuspectedly inspired the current craze.

Dr Haze continues “The thing is, when people go and see The Circus of Horrors or go to a theme park hosting a fright night they expect to see scary things. What we don't want is people copying our Clowns & scaring people in the street or hiding behind a mask to commit crimes; this is wrong & irresponsible. If people want to dress up in a scary way they should go to a Halloween party. The current trend is frightening people who do not want to be frightened so the impostors need to live up to their responsibility as human beings.”

Annually the Circus of Horrors plays over 100 UK theatres and this tour has expanded to take in festivals throughout the world including The Fuji Rock Festival in Japan (twice), the Wacken Festival in Germany plus shows in Chile, Uruguay, Holland, Belgium, Argentina, France, Italy, Ireland, Finland, Hong Kong and Moscow, where it became the first UK circus ever to perform in Russia. The show also played an astounding 10 nights at London's O2.

This is not the first time that The Circus of Horrors has created history as it became the only circus ever to reach the finals of Britain’s Got Talent and the first circus to perform in London's West End for over 100 years.

Its appearances on various subsequent TV shows have turned what started as a cult show into a household name – taking the extreme to the mainstream. Its TV credits boast The X Factor, The Slammer, Daybreak, Fairground Attractions, Who Wants to be a Millionaire, Body Shockers, Fake Reaction, This Morning, Ant & Dec, The One Show and A Royal Command Performance.

The Circus of Horrors started its gruesome beginnings at the 1995 Glastonbury Festival and became an instant hit, touring all over the world from Chile to Chatham, Argentina to Aberdeen, Japan to Jersey including festival appearances with Alice Cooper, Eminem, Motley Crue, Oasis, Iron Maiden, The Manic St Preachers, Foo Fighters and many more.

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