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Clowning around is what Mike and Andy Swan do best.
The two of them, along with Trixie the Wonder Dog, will bring the Swan Bros. Circus to the Lodi Grape Festival and Harvest Fair yet again. The festival runs Sept. 18-21.
Mike Swan isn’t sure how many times the duo has been to the Grape Festival. “After the first five, we were having so much fun, we don’t even count,” he said. “We’re glad to be there, 100 percent.”
The content of the brothers’ comedy circus shows varies, and they like to add new acts.
“We don’t even know what we’re going to throw in,” Mike Swan said.
They started out juggling and enjoy doing that because there is no end to what they can juggle, Mike Swan said. Their dog likes to get audience participation. She’ll even act like a lion, and she can walk on a wire.
The brothers’ favorite act though is watching people laugh.
The Swan brothers grew up in a seven-child family, which Mike Swan said was already a circus. Andy Swan joined the circus right out of high school. When Mike Swan graduated from high school a couple of years later, he decided to join as well because his brother was having so much fun. Their circuses crossed paths one year, and the next year they joined the same circus. During a vacation in Texas, the two put on a circus for neighborhood kids. The circus people they knew laughed at them, but the Swan Brothers Circus took off and has been running for miles, or nearly 30 years.
The Swan brothers travel with their act around California and perform at some fairs in Nevada. They don’t plan on retiring any time soon, although Mike Swan says, “I was tired yesterday and today, so I’ll be retired tomorrow and Friday.”
The biggest challenge about being in the circus is trying to stop gravity.
“When you throw juggling balls up, they will come down,” Mike Swan said.
Content
» Welcome to the festival
» Festival goers will be California Dreamin’
» Tom Hoffman enjoys being festival president
» Mark Armstrong: The man behind the fair
» ‘Taste of the Festival’ offers glimpse of what’s to come
» Grape Festival teeming with changes
» Lodi 2003 Grape Festival schedule of hours, events
» Meet the Monroes — your festival greeters
» Festival knowledge: All that you need to know
» Grape Festival board is a hands-on group
» Grape murals remain a festival highlight
» Domino project: It’s fun with a message
» Headliners will fill the festival’s stages
» Performance times, dates
» Festival provides visitors with culinary treasures
» Festival’s Web site tells what to see, do
» Tobacco-free zones at festival enforced
» Butler has plenty of mechanical thrills, fun
» All about midway games
» Museum preserves the festival’s history
» Wine tasting is a tradition at the festival
» Festival: Going from table to wine grapes
» Grape Festival grew out of community spirit
» The Grape Stomp — the name says it all
» How much about the festival do you know?
» Clarence Jackson: The festival is his legacy
» It’s time for the Kiddie Parade
» Graeme Stewart guided the festival into a new era
» Swan Bros. Circus: Just a lot of fun
» One tradition ends with the last parade
» Sept. 11, 2001: Deciding to go on with the festival
