RUNNING away to join the circus is not as easy as it seems.

Dr John Haze, who co-founded The Circus of Horrors, told Weekend that he gets contacted by weird and wonderful performers every week but most have to be turned away.

"We’re always looking for new blood and usually they find me," he said.

"People will contact me and say I have this skill or I can do this or I can do that.

"It’s the age old adage of running away to join the circus. A lot of circus performers who work in other circuses all over the world consider the Circus of Horrors a very cool show to be in.

"That’s because it’s not like other circuses. There’s rock music and the audiences are going wild like they would in a rock gig.

"Most of the time they aren’t suitable but every so often they are."

One performer who went to incredible lengths to get a job with the Circus of Horrors was Hannibal Hellmurto.

Hannibal first saw the spectacle at a festival in Munich in 1997 and he is now one of only 80 sword swallowers in the world.

"We were doing a month there and he came to see the show every day," added Dr Haze.

"At the time he had a piercing stall at the festival but a few months prior to that he was a tax inspector.

"He looked normal – just like a young lad – then 10 years later he turned up at the Hackney Empire theatre and he’d completely transformed his body.

"He was completely tattooed from head to foot, he had his tongue forked like a reptile, he had his ears elongated and he had mammoth ivory transplanted into his mouth for two of his teeth.

"He was like a work of art but on top of that he had learnt to swallow swords. That has to be the most extreme lengths anyone’s ever gone for a job interview.

"He turned out to be a really good guy and I ended up being his best man at his wedding. He got married in a cave so I was the best caveman I suppose."

Hannibal is now one of the most popular acts in the circus which also includes Captain Dan, the 'demon dwarf' and the Guinness World Record holding 'Hairculian Diva' who swings from her hair.

Aerial artists, previously with Cirque du Soleil, will also do a balancing act 10ft above the stage on five cylinders pointing in different directions.

Dr Haze said: "It completely defies gravity and people can’t believe what they’re watching.

"We also have brilliant acrobats from Tanzania doing pyramids four man high and head to head and skipping over a skipping rope on fire.

"It’s a really exciting rock and roll circus. This is also the first year we’ve introduced clowns…but they’re a posse of ‘killer clowns’."

This year also marks Circus of Horrors' 21st anniversary after it was unleashed on to the world at Glastonbury Festival in 1995.

Since then the act has become the first circus to appear in the West End in 100 years, the first British circus to perform in Russia and Dr Haze and his troupe even got through to the Britain's Got Talent finals in 2011.

Dr Haze added: "It’s amazing. We thought we wouldn’t last 21 weeks and 21 years later here we are still doing it.

It’s a great escape for people. There’s this psychological outlet where people like to be scared if they know they’re not going to be harmed.

"We go on rollercoasters and ghost trains and watch horror films for that very reason."

- Circus Of Horrors presents Welcome To The Carnevil at Parr Hall on February 19. Visit pyramidparrhall.com or call 442345.

DAVID MORGAN