Rob Mermin is the founder of the award-winning international touring youth circus
Circus Smirkus.
Biography
Rob Mermin ran off to join the
circus
A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicyclis ...
in 1969. He clowned with various European circuses including England's
Circus Hoffman, Sweden's
Cirkus Scott, Denmark's
Circus Benneweis in the Circus Building by the Tivoli, the Hungarian
Magyar State Cirkusz, and circus palaces throughout the former Soviet Union. His formal training includes mime with masters
Marcel Marceau
Marcel Marceau (; born Marcel Mangel; 22 March 1923 – 22 September 2007) was a French actor and mime artist most famous for his stage persona, "Bip the Clown". He referred to mime as the "art of silence", and he performed professionally worldw ...
and
Etienne Decroux, and a degree in Drama and Literature from
Lake Forest College
Lake Forest College is a private liberal arts college in Lake Forest, Illinois. Founded in 1857 as Lind University by a group of Presbyterian ministers, the college has been coeducational since 1876 and an undergraduate-focused liberal arts i ...
in 1971. He is former Dean of the
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College, and President of
Blackfriar’s Summer Theater. In 1987 Mermin founded
Circus Smirkus in
Greensboro, Vermont.
Awards
Mermin's awards include Copenhagen's ''Gold Clown'';
Vermont's ''Bessie'' Award;
''Best Director Prize'' at the International Circus Festival on Russia's Black Sea;
the Lund Family Center's "It Takes A Village" Award;
the Vermont Arts Council Award of Merit;
Lake Forest College's Outstanding Alumni Leadership Award; and the 2008 Vermont Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts.
Personal
, Mermin resides in
Montpelier, Vermont
Montpelier () is the capital city of the U.S. state of Vermont and the seat of Washington County. The site of Vermont's state government, it is the least populous state capital in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the population ...
. He is
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
.
Rabbi blesses the circus
Harris, Ben. ''Jewish Telegraphic Agency.'' JTA.org Published June 29, 2009. Accessed January 8, 2016.
References
External links
Rob Mermin
Circus Smirkus
An Audio Remembrance of Marcel Marceau
by Rob Mermin
A 2006 interview of Rob Mermin on Vermont Public Television's show ''Profile''.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mermin, Rob
American clowns
American circus performers
American Jews
People from Orleans County, Vermont
Living people
Lake Forest College alumni
Year of birth missing (living people)