One Man Circus starts today at Great Northern Fair

Havre's Great Northern Fair will have many free entertainment attractions over the next few days and Havre Daily News recently had the chance to sit down with Patrick Branger, who will be performing the fair's One Man Circus Show.

"I am so happy to be back out and traveling, performing at fairs, thankfully. A little bit of background on me, we have a business in Billings, and so I'm from Montana. And thankfully, I have an entertainment business there where we rent out inflatables and stuff, so I wasn't totally shut down," Branger said.

Branger said that, thanks to his business, Montana Premiere Entertainment, he wasn't completely out of work but said things were 90 percent shut down during the pandemic.

He said his business provides everything from tent rentals, tables and chairs, to inflatable bounce houses, some carnival rides, and performers working for the company.

Branger also performs as Pattycakes the Clown. The company website says he has been a professional clown since 2003 and he is a member of the Clowns of America International. His time as a clown was his entry into circus performing.

"I actually started performing as a professional clown when I was 10 years old. I worked with a few different little circuses, as they would come through town, primarily the Jordan World Circus, and helped them out at a bunch of different Shrine circuses and then it just kind of kept building from there, I kept learning different circus acts," Branger said.

"Everything I'm doing is self taught. I have never been to a formal circus school or anything like that. I did audition for Ringling Brothers and Barnum Bailey Circus many years ago, but it was about the time that they closed. So, that audition ever went through, unfortunately," he added.

Branger said his show at the Great Northern Fair will include juggling, unicycling, tight wire walking, different balancing acts, a variety of things. He added that the unicycle is 5 feet tall and he will be juggling while riding. He said depending on fire restrictions, fire may also be part of the juggling while he rides the unicycle.

Branger said his girlfriend, Casey Smith, helps with the show as well.

"I will have a little help from my girlfriend, and we have our newborn son, Eli, he is 10 weeks old, he's gonna be with us. So we're gonna see how well the show works out with a newborn child with us. So that's another new challenge this year," he said.

He said that, at the end, of the show people will have the chance to learn one of the circus acts, which changes each show. People will also be able to get balloon animals and airbrush tattoos.

Branger said he had been hired to perform the One Man Circus Show at last year's fair, which was canceled due to the pandemic.

"It's great to be back out performing at fairs, getting to see everybody, and I had a big grin on my face when I was pulling into the fairgrounds here because I was, like, 'Man, I missed this. This is my first fair of the season,'" he said.

"I'm a little nervous, because I might be a little rusty because I haven't been able to do any shows in the last 18 months or something like that, but it's still gonna be a good show," he added.