Alberto “Giovanni” Zoppé is a clown.
He's always been a clown, ever since he was a little kid. One of his earliest memories is from when he was 2 years old. He and his family were at the circus.
“And I ran out into the ring and took a bow. And I tore the house down,” Zoppé said. “The only problem was I was completely naked.”
Giovanni's family was at the circus that day, because Giovanni's family is the circus, the Zoppé Italian Family Circus. They've been touring the world for 180 years, and like his father and his grandfather before him, Giovanni Zoppé, is the ringleader.
A Zoppé show features all kinds of circus acts, bareback horse riding, tightrope walking, trapeze. But, Giovanni is the glue that holds it all together. He plays Nino the Clown, a character that serves as a kind of proxy for the audience.
Throughout the show, Nino the Clown is constantly trying to jump into the ring, get in on the action. The other performers won't let him in, but Nino is no quitter. He keeps trying over and over, until finally, they give in.
“The clown almost always ends on top,” Zoppé said. “I'm, I'll bumble around in the beginning, but at the end, I'm doing the actual thing.”
At a recent performance, a young boy wandered on stage with Nino the clown, and for a moment, the little boy became part of the show. Afterwards, Nino carried him into the crowd to find his parents, and the boy's father had tears in his eyes, but he was smiling. Giovanni says that's the magic of the circus. It's a place where the impossible seems possible.
As Giovanni spoke to The Show, he was standing on the street in Tucson, getting ready for rehearsal.
“I'm at Marcato right now, and I see a gentleman here with a bald head. If I went up to him right now and rubbed his head and kissed it, I would probably get my butt kicked,” Zoppé said. “But, when I do that, when I'm as Nino, it's fine. It's funny. It's great.”
The Zoppé Italian Family Circus performs in Tucson this weekend.
