How a printer and a dream became a life-changing circus school

A fire eater and physical performer has revealed how he started a circus school more than 30 years ago with just a printer and a passion to transform the scene.

Bim Mason has written a book on starting Circomedia with his partner Helen Crocker in 1994 after Fool Time, one of the UK's first vocational circus training centres in Bristol, closed in 1993 due to financial reasons.

Fool Time attracted people from around the world, so when Circomedia opened in its absence in Kingswood, they quickly gained eager applicants.

Ex-student Charlotte Mooney, 47, who learned trapeze and physical theatre there in the 90s said her family thought she was "mad", but the course "blew" her mind and "caught her imagination".

"It went from two of us in a tiny office in my bedroom, with nothing but a printer, and then within five years doing shows at the Bristol Old Vic. It was a steep learning curve," Mason said.

"We were interested in transforming British circus to make it more theatrical - to have stories and images, contemporary dance, characters against the short act format that most circuses had.

"Over the years we succeeded to a certain extent, but we then got bogged down in funding requirements. It wasn't easy.

"It's transformed over time and got more serious and bigger - that's what the book is about, that transformation."

Before Circomedia, Mason and his partner Helen Crocker were part of Fool Time.

"People joined from places like Japan and Australia - from all over the world.

"It was one of the first schools where you could train in circus outside of commercial circus families where people where born into it.

"It was seen as a tragedy when it left Bristol, so when we revived it as Circomedia people were very excited," he added.

Mason said they described the institution as a "circus school for actors and a theatre school for circus performers".

Over the years, Glastonbury Festival in Somerset became a place where Circomedia students performed.

"I was doing a fire eating show there in the late-70s. Glastonbury eventually supported Bristol's circus infrastructure," Mason said.

"Our oldest running teacher Haggis McLeod still runs the Circus Field there to this day."

Mason said it had been a joy to "open people's eyes to themselves - for them to realise what they are capable of".

"People would completely transform physically and their confidence would increase rapidly.

"That's the nice thing about this student reunion coming up - we changed their lives," he added.

Mooney is one of those students who said the school had a huge impact on her life.

"Someone by chance gave me the brochure for Circomedia. It was such an incredible course I couldn't believe it existed which caught my imagination so, I told my family I was going to train in circus in Bristol," she said.

"It was a bit of a rogue decision, my family thought I'd gone completely mad."

Mooney said there were 17 students on the course with her who "instantly became family".

"The intense bond is there because you do something so tiring and scary and need to have immense trust and reliance on each other and that's what makes circus performers so beautiful to watch."

Mooney was trained on the trapeze by Mike Wright who died in 2025.

"I remember I was learning double trapeze and he put my first pair of wristies on and he said, 'you're a proper trapeze artist now, my teacher did this for me' - it was like a rite of passage. I'll never forget it."

Circus is now her life and she runs Ockham's Razor Theatre Company with her husband who she met at Circomedia, performing and directing shows.

Circomedia director of education and training Rod Laver said Mason's book was a "landmark" for the school.

"Circomedia and Bristol are intrinsically linked - contemporary circus is a really big deal here now. That's completely down to Circomedia being founded in Bristol all that time ago," he said.

"Bim Mason is not just our founder, but someone whose sheer force and personality drove Circomedia at its most difficult times.

"He remains an inspiration to myself and lots of people at Circomedia today."

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