Floating Circus celebrating Canal’s 200th anniversary with series of shows on the water

By Lindsay DePietro
(Above photo by Paul Kahl)

Before beginning its whimsical journey floating down the Erie Canal and Hudson River, the Flotsam Floating Circus will appear in Buffalo for its very first show of the season tomorrow. 

The floating circus will be performing at newly reopened Wilkeson Pointe Beach Friday through Sunday (Aug. 1-3), starting each night at 7 p.m. The shows will be the first three of 39 scheduled across New York State through mid-September.

The circus will continue with shows at Gateway Harbor in Tonawanda on Monday (Aug. 4), Wide Waters Marina in Lockport on Tuesday (Aug. 5) and Medina Canal Basin on Wednesday (Aug. 6).

Jason Webley, captain and chief organizer of Flotsam, said, “The thing that I’m really excited about is creating a sense of possibility and whimsy in people. Specifically around the water, but also just about life, to shift people’s ideas about what’s possible,”

Flotsam chooses a new waterway to travel down each year, stopping at waterfront towns along the way to give free performances. 

The rest of the crew includes Taiwanese balance artist and choreographer Amber Lian \Gibson and Chicago aerialist Camille Swift, known for her \striking trapeze and sling work. Virtuoso juggler Jacob D’Eustachio, a graduate of École Nationale de Cirque, adds technical brilliance, while Malayali-American siblings, Rye Oommen and Miriam Hacksaw fill out the band on drums and fiddle. Jim Henson Grant recipient Kalan Sherrard serves as Flotsam’s artistic director and brings a touch of the absurd
with his puppetry. The cast also features Brazilian aerialist Danila Bim, renowned for her extensive work with Cirque du Soleil, Teatro Zinzani, and Ringling Bros.

This year, coinciding with the Erie Canal’s 200th anniversary, they will be traveling the entire length of the canal and the Hudson River, beginning in Buffalo and floating all the way down to New York City.

Webley said that he grew up under the spell of Huck Finn and that he has always been obsessed with rivers. In his 20s he lived in a houseboat on the Snohomish River outside of Seattle. In the late ’90s he began his journey as a traveling musician. 

“As I traveled around the world, rivers always had this sort of appeal to me. It felt like any city with a river running through it was somehow connected to something, to like these arteries of the natural world and of civilization,” Webley said.

During his travels, he met many circus artists and made friends with individuals who were involved in other floating art projects.

“At some point in the early 2010s the idea of building a circus boat and touring on the river started percolating,” Webley said. 

Flotsam officially began its first tour in 2019, traveling the length of the Willamette River in Oregon. Webley said that their first tour was done a bit unconventionally, performing from place to place without getting permission from any of the places they stopped at.

“We assembled the boat and we would show up in these different parks, and we would hope that an audience would come and that we wouldn’t get shut down. And it worked surprisingly well.”

The floating circus now gets permission from everywhere it performs. Webley said it’s a much better way to do things, but that it is a lot more work this way and can be more stressful at times.

The troupe travels the rivers and waterways on what they call a ramshackle raft. 

“Structurally, it’s a regular pontoon boat and we’ve got a modern outboard motor, but aesthetically it looks like something out of another century and that’s very deliberate. And it’s made kind of out of garbage and looks like it’s made out of garbage and I think that’s very intentional,” Webley said. “Our show is set in this future where people are kind of making do with what they have and so it makes sense that everything should look a little post apocalyptic, but also feel kind of whimsical and magical at the same time.”

Every year the show does evolve, but its basic framework remains the same. It is set in the future where life is hard, humans are no longer the dominant species, but mutant fish are. The story is centered around a group of people who live on a boat, with a special stranger making an appearance. A band is always featured during the act.

In their show, Flotsam includes a snippet about climate change.

“I think that climate change is very real and very much a part of our world, and going to be increasingly so, and our show acknowledges that. I don’t feel like we are preachy about it. We’re not asking anyone to do anything about it,” Webley said. “Our show is meant to be fun.”

The floating circus travels from place to place for two months out of each year. They all travel to their starting point, assemble their boat, and then have about a week to rehearse before their first show begins.

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This year, the troupe has a bunch of new performers, many of whom are very experienced circus artists that Webley describes as “real world class circus performers.”

There are also more performers this year than there have been in past years. Usually the troupe consists of five individuals, but now there will be nine people performing on the boat at once. 

“I’ve always just put up the money every year to make Flotsam happen. I personally don’t get paid anything. This is like my dream project and my goal is to keep the thing running and pay the performers as well as possible,” Webley said.

He said the project costs at least $100,000 a year. Flotsam is receiving a modest grant from the New York State Canals and a couple smaller grants from private organizations, but most of their funds come from the generosity of their audiences. “Like more than 90% of our money comes from that,” Webley said. 

He adds that he is proud of what they are able to do. Although he has only traveled the waterways of the United States with his floating circus so far, he hopes that in the coming years, Flotsam will journey through the rivers and canals of Europe, and eventually, all over the world.

You can find more information on the Flotsam Floating Circus HERE.