by Phillip Gandey, who has died of cancer aged 67, was the UK’s leading circus director who created and directed Gandey’s Circus and Cirque Surreal over a period of 50 years, leading the transition away from animal acts, and making Britain known to all people. great human being of the China State Circus.
Philip George Gandey was born on 26 February 1956 in Sandbach, Cheshire, into the 150 year Gandey circus dynasty. His father Joe was a clown and his mother Mary was a trapeze artist. He was expected to work in the show, being Britain’s youngest clown, Starri, at the age of five. Later, he had a Wild West act, wielding a knife and twisting a rope like Brett Montana.
Meanwhile, because the family circus was always on tour, he attended about 1,200 schools, but he was the popular kid who always had free tickets to give away.
While touring the Scottish Borders in 1973, Joe Gandey died suddenly. Mary told 17-year-old Phillip that he could walk out or take charge. He chose to stay. It was a huge challenge, but during the 1970s and 1980s, with the business acumen of his wife Carol, Phillip Gandey turned a small two-tent circus into the largest entertainment organization in Europe.
Phillip Gandey’s interests expanded with his ambitions. Nothing fazed him. In the late 1980s Gandey’s Circus sought new audiences in places as diverse as Iceland and Madeira. Disasters were inevitable. Once, one of his artists – an Indian contortionist whose dressing room was made of straw bales – interrupted him angrily: “Mr Gandey, your elephant, she ate my dressing room!”
By the late 1980s the mood had turned against animals in circuses. Gandey knew things had to change. He was inspired by seeing Chinese acrobats at the Monte Carlo International Circus Festival and, amazed by the quality and diversity of the performers, organized a talent tour to China.
Within a year he had reached an agreement with the Chinese government and introduced British audiences to “the purest, most enduring and most brilliant circus ever seen” – the Chinese State Circus. Created, produced and directed by Phillip and Carol, it revolutionized UK circus, proving that an all-human version could provide edge-of-your-seat thrills.
Gandey was regularly scouring China for new talent. Once, after watching a Wild West act that featured a rope spinning, he couldn’t resist “trying it out” himself. He proceeded to give a masterclass, earning spontaneous applause from a surprised audience. He also won the top prize at the world’s biggest circus festival in Monaco with an all-female Chinese troupe. He was recognized for his services to the performing arts in China, and was honored for promoting cultural links between China and the UK.
The Chinese State Circus toured the United Kingdom, France, Iceland and the Middle East until 1997. When it was at the London Roundhouse, Princess Margaret’s horseman asked to book tickets. Gandey greeted her during the interval to discuss the show. Suddenly a royal voice called for silence. “Mr Gandey’s next performance will be the Bolshoi Circus on Ice. How wonderful, a trip to Grimsby!”
In the 1990s Gandey created and directed world-class shows, outdoor festivals and theater productions in the UK, Beirut, China, Italy, Qatar, Thailand and Bahrain. In 1999 he brought the first circus to Saudi Arabia, where the production of males had to comply with cultural restrictions. It was described as “the epitome of athletic achievement”.
Gandey was always searching for new ideas, themes and entertainment. One of his greatest achievements was the creation, in the early 1990s, of the contemporary performance Cirque Surreal. Not only did it involve extraordinary circus skills, but choreography that had never been seen before in a circus context, with prose, verse, and a soundtrack by Rick Wakeman. It has since been held at festivals in Edinburgh, Dublin and Dubai.
Gandey was also at times at the forefront of normalizing “kathoey” – or transgender – culture with his cabaret show The Lady Boys of Bangkok, created in 1996. It was the best-selling show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and has since being considered a novelty for a reputable cabaret.
In the early 2000s Gandey returned to the family’s entertainment roots with the launch of Europe’s largest touring equestrian show, Spirit of the Horse, a take on Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, which his grandfather had participated in in 1904. In 2003 he the performance – which had a cast of 40, with 30 horses and a special structure providing a huge indoor arena – was flown to Dubai.
In 2012 Gandey began creating the summer circuses for Butlin’s resorts at Skegness, Minehead and Bognor Regis. In 2021 he directed a circus in Doha for the men’s football World Cup, and a production for the Christmas festival in Singapore. He was also the artistic director of the charity Circus Starr, which provides entertainment for people with disabilities.
Phillip Gandey is survived by his wife Carol and their three daughters.
Phillip Gandey, born 26 February 1956, died 12 December 2023
