Performers routinely hit the road to perform in New York City, but the Flotsam River Circus hit the river instead with its waterfront spectacle part Cirque de Soleil, part Ringling Brothers and part Huckleberry Finn.
This one-of-a-kind circus, a kind of Huckleberry on the Hudson for a few days, assembles a collection of experienced circus performers from around the world on a ragtag raft converted into a stage on the river.
These nomads, who didn’t run away with but launched a waterfront circus, opened in New York City with a show at Barretto Point Park in the Bronx a few days ago.
There is another free show tonight, September 12, 6-7:30 at Pebble Beach in Brooklyn Bridge Park. Two more New York City shows follow, Saturday, Sept. 13 and 14, 6-7:30 p.m. on southwestern Randall’s Island, near the Ward’s Island pedestrian bridge.
Performances are free, but audiences are asked to contribute to help keep this traveling circus afloat. More information about Flotsam River Circus and its New York shows is available at rivercircus.com.
“The stage is the boat. The audience gathers on the shore,” Jason Webley, a musician, creator and “captain” of this ragtag river show, said. “We set up the boat tethered to the shore. The waves knock us around. Sometimes, that’s a bit crazy. There’s live music throughout.”
Since 2019, they have performed in front of tens of thousands across 13 states and travelled over 2,000 river miles, plus thousands on the road.
Crowds gathered on land to watch their waterfront shows from the Willamette River in Oregon to the Mississippi. The troupe in 2024 completed their biggest tour, traveling the length of the Ohio River from Pittsburgh to Paducah.
These wandering waterfront performers are helping celebrate the Erie Canal Bicentennial by traveling from Wilkeson Pointe Beach in Buffalo to New York City, and hope someday to bring their floating circus to rivers and canals in Europe, and eventually the globe.
Webley, who organizes and plays accordion, put together a talented troupe from Washington state, North Carolina, New Orleans, Taiwan, Brazil and elsewhere. Performers have worked for the Cirque du Soleil, Ringling Brothers, as well as creating their own smaller circus shows.
“I didn’t want the show to be a sequence of circus acts. These are characters on a boat in this post-apocalyptic future. It’s silly and hopefully very fun,” Webley said of the show with a story involving an apocalypse and a lot of antics. “The premise is the world has bene taken over by mutant fish and we’re watching some of the last humans.”
The troupe includes Kalan Sherrard, a puppet maker, puppeteer and Jim Henson Foundation grantee who has toured more than 60 nations.
Then there’s Justin Therrien, a juggler, sword swallower and comedian, who performs, along with partner (in life and business) and Shoestring Circus co-founder Nicole Laumb, who specializes in character acting, Spanish web, and sideshow stunts.
Circus veteran Danila Bim, a dancer from Brazil who does aerial hoop work, worked for Cirque du Soleil and Ringling Bros. Ambalancer, a choreographer, gymnast and balance artist, hails from Taiwan. Sari Breznau is the music director and multi-instrumentalist for this global group that includes other performers with various talents and skills.
“I don’t have a very good, short answer,” Webley said of the genesis of the “Flotsam” name. “It’s the culmination of all the threads of my life. I used to be a touring musician. I loved the idea of having a show on the road. I grew up under the spell of Huck Finn and all of that. I’ve been inspired by boating art projects my friends were involved with.”
Webley and friends built the boat, designed it to hit the road (in pieces aboard another vehicle) and river and transform into a floating stage.
“For the past 25-plus years, I lived on a houseboat on the Snoqualmie River outside Seattle,” Webley said. “The boat is designed to come apart, be driven to new places and be reassembled.”
After touring the Mississippi, Ohio and other rivers, they have played to concert-size crowds of hundreds at many locations along their New York route, where they ask audience to bring blankets or lawn chairs.
“It has an outboard we use to propel it underneath a pontoon boat,” Webley said of this seaborne stage. “It’s meant to inspire your imagination and look like a ramshackle raft made of garbage and driftwood.”
Simply scheduling and getting necessary approvals to perform at this unusual list of locations takes time.
“I spend the whole year scouting locations and wrestling with municipalities,” Webley said, noting the Erie anniversary helped secure New York locations. “The New York State Canal System was supportive, but it was a lengthy process figuring out the permits.”
He added that there are “famously 500 miles of shoreline here,” but they were looking for land to serve as a sloped amphitheater, since the boat sits low on the water.
“We’ve had rain in Poughkeepsie and Medina. If it’s dumping, we’d have to cancel,” Webley said. “This year we haven’t had to cancel anything.”
Some performers sleep on the boat, while others sleep on the bus. “During the tour, the bus is our land vehicle, our kitchen, and has bunks,” Webley said. “At the end of the tour, we break down the boat. Most smaller pieces get loaded on the bus.”
Taking a circus show on the road, and the river, without many grants in a Netflix world isn’t easy, especially without a ticket price. They rely on goodwill, good audiences, good shows, and (to an extent) fairly good weather.
“We pass the hat and hope that the audience is generous. I don’t pay myself. I work on it all year. It’s a labor of love,” Webley said. “The project for the last couple of years has broken even. We try to pay everybody a living wage. The shows are free, but we take donations. And audiences have been generous.”
Webley said his interest in riverboating was partly nourished by Mark Twain and Huckleberry Finn’s voyage. He doesn’t see himself as a modern Huck Finn, but there is something eminently American and entrepreneurial about turning rivers into a stage.
“That was an influence on me when I was a little boy. It hasn’t been an active part of my imagination,” Webley added of Huck Finn. “But I think it sowed a seed. Eight-year-old me would be excited to see what 50-year-old me is doing.”
Info. and to donate www.rivercircus.com.
To volunteer and help info@rivercircus.com
Sept 12, 6 p.m. Brooklyn Bridge Park
Sept 13 6 p.m. Randalls Island
Sept 14 6 p.m. Randalls Island
