By Raphael Sugarman
When Kevin Venardos dreamt of riding into Manhattan as the star of a huge musical production, he hardly could have guessed it would be on the back of a 10,000-pound Asian elephant.
But what better limousine is there than a pachyderm for the one and only ringmaster of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus?
“I’ll never forget riding that elephant through the Midtown Tunnel,” said Venardos, 28, who has been marshalling man and beast under the big top for three years. “Especially since the parade started out in Queens, the place I was living when I started out here as an actor.”
Venardos was one of hundreds of aspiring actors living in Astoria when he saw an ad in Backstage Magazine saying the circus was looking for a ringmaster.
“I have auditioned for crazier things in my life so I figured why not,” said Venardos.
Ringling Bros. received more than 6,000 headshots for the job and more than 300 were invited to audition, Venardos recalled.
But something about the affable Venardos appealed to the show’s producers — perhaps his lanky, 6-foot-4 stature, shock of black hair, and deep, dulcet voice, calling to mind circus barkers of the imagination.
More likely, it is his ability to command an audience and deliver a song that won him the job, and has put him on a circus train touring the country since December 2000.
Contrary to the image of the ringmaster as almost a peripheral performer in the circus, simply introducing one act after another, Venardos is a focal point of every production number.
But despite the song stylings, he doesn’t lose sight of the fact that this role is unique.
“Unlike the theater, there is no imaginary wall in the circus,” he said. “I want to be out there saying hello to people during the show, shaking their hands. I am the ringmaster.
“You are at this moment in the presence of the largest assemblage of performing majestic male lions in the world,”he said during the show, with the appropriate quaver in his voice. “Watch now as they join with one valiant man in a breathtaking union of strength and danger.”
Venardos is signed to tour with the circus through November 2005. He doesn’t spend a lot of time worrying about what’s next in his career.
“In some tiny way, we manage to touch millions of people’s lives,” he said. “For many people in America, the circus is the only theater that they see.”
The 134th edition of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus will play at Madison Square Garden through this Sunday, April 11. Show times for this weekend are Friday and Saturday , at 10:30 a.m., and 3 and 7:30 p.m.; Sunday at 10:30 a.m. and 3 p.m.
