[[quoteright:280:[[Anime/MichikoAndHatchin https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/michiko_to_hatchin_rita12.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:280:All in a day's work.]]

->''"She was born in the wagon of a traveling show\\
Her mama used to dance for the money they'd throw."''
-->-- '''Music/{{Cher}}''', "Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves"

The Circus Brat is someone who grew up in a traveling circus. Usually part of a long legacy of performers, and occasionally gypsies and mystics. This is becoming less used as traditional circuses become less popular, but it is useful for establishing a bunch of things about the character. Often, polar opposites of the MilitaryBrat:

* Having an upbringing that was [[HandsOffParenting very relaxed]].
* Being very liberal and accepting of differences and others, what with hanging around with the bearded lady and conjoined twins year-round.
* Being especially good at reading people and looking through lies, manipulations, and [[TheCon various con games]] due to growing up around {{stage magician}}s and carnies who were proficient in both elaborate illusions and underhanded tricks.
* Frequent moves have left the character highly {{street smart}} and savvy about traveling.
* Character will have an excuse for knowing a variety of obscure but useful skills like juggling, sleight of hand, acrobatics, exotic animal care, performing and the like.
* May be tired of being seen as a freak without solid roots and [[IJustWantToBeNormal wish to be normal.]]
* The circus brat sometimes has parents who work with the circus, but "running away and joining the circus" is also a trope, so there are also many runaways and orphans in the circus.

Sometimes, the portrayal is [[TrainingFromHell opposite to the above]]. Sometimes, the Circus Brat is forced to practice hours on end, painfully {{contort|ionist}} their body until it becomes accustomed to the stretch, and otherwise abused to enforce obedience and performance.

This is still a valid origin story in many fantasy settings pre-Industrial revolution, where television and video games haven't become wide spread.

This trope often applies to the children of carnies as well. Compare WrestlingFamily. Also compare TheRunaway, which often involves a child running away to the circus to become a Circus Brat. Subtrope of RaisedByTheCommunity.

----
!!Examples
[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* ''Anime/AshitaNoNadja'':
** Rita Rossi. [[spoiler: Twice, actually: the circus owned by her parents got burned down, and since they died in that same fire she was taken in by the Dandelion Troupe, the people that the Rossis entrusted her to before perishing.]]
** Kennosuke and Nadja themselves. They weren't raised in the circus, but work there.
* Claire in ''Literature/{{Baccano}}'' grew up at a circus and worked as an acrobat, gaining a CharlesAtlasSuperpower in the process. He's also AxCrazy, but that's not connected to his background.
* From ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'' Judeau spent his childhood with a traveling performance group and that may have been were his knife throwing skill was picked up. Puck also lived with the same group.
** There's also Rita from the Berserk videogame.
* Bird's Nest and Michel from ''Manga/CopernicusBreathing''. The two brothers grew up in a traveling circus. After [[spoiler: Michel falls from the trapeze and dies]] Bird's Nest joins another circus troupe as a clown, and even after [[spoiler: leaving the performing life]], is continually drawn back in to the circus.
%%* Allen from ''Manga/DGrayMan''.
* Marion Begnini from ''Anime/KaleidoStar'', as well as Pamela's twin girls. [[spoiler: Yuri and the Oswald siblings are more tragic examples: Yuri's dad died on-stage, and the Oswalds joined a circus after leaving their abusive step-parents... and Sophie later died.]]
* Sophia, a girl from an itinerant circus that a MagicalGirl named [[Anime/HananoKoLunlun Lunlun]] meets in her travels through Europe. More exactly, in Norway. In a subversion this ''does'' have repercusions in Sophia's emotional state, as she's stated to have few to no friends and [[spoiler: refuses to work onstage as a clown, despite having inherited her DisappearedDad's talent for acting and making people laugh. Sophia's mother, who works as the circus's fortune teller, tries to rope Lunlun to try dealing with her...]]
* Mai from ''Anime/MagicalEmiTheMagicStar'' grew up in the Magic Carat Magic Show.
* Pictured above: Rita from ''Anime/MichikoAndHatchin''.
* Nadia from ''Anime/NadiaTheSecretOfBlueWater'' start as a 14-year-old (15 toward the end of the series) who works in a circus as an acrobat in order to survive, since she is an orphan and of unknown origins.
* In ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'', Yahiko befriends a girl named Marimo who lives and works in a circus as their HumanCannonball. Then the circus is threatened by some thugs, and the Kenshin-gumi helps Marimo and the crew against them.
* One of Anime/{{Saber Rider|AndTheStarSheriffs}}'s [[GirlOfTheWeek girls of the week]] was a cute young woman who worked as an acrobat in a circus.
* The Amazoness Quartet, a villainess group from ''Franchise/SailorMoon''. They are four girls and their attacks are derived from circus skills, with each having a specific talent.
%%* Goh from ''Manga/{{Yellow}}''.
* This seemed to be the case for one-shot character Espa Roba from the original ''Anime/YuGiOh''. He and his younger brothers were former carnies (Espa presumably a carnival psychic, given his [[PhonyPsychic methods of dueling later]]), with Espa getting a PromotionToParent for his siblings via some unknown incident.
* Jeagar a clown-like villain from ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds''. He was the oldest son in a family of circus performers, but business was bad, so they couldn't afford to feed themselves. (Given the fact that they lived on Cup Ramen, a traditionally inexpensive food, this suggests that it was even worse than Jeagar suggested.) As a result, Jeagar, being the eldest son, left the circus and went to Neo Domino where he became a member of Sector Security, and managed to keep his family well-fed with a much bigger salary. Unfortunately, that led to him becoming a member of [[AncientConspiracy Yliaster]], and ultimately, an accomplice to morally questionable deeds he later regretted, especially when his family was in danger as a result.
* Allen of ''Manga/DGrayMan'' was sold to the circus as a child and faced serious abuse and neglect, growing up to be bitter and angry child until a clown took him in.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'':
** [[Characters/NightwingDickGrayson Richard "Dick" Grayson]], the original ComicBook/{{Robin}}. He still returns to the circus whenever they pass by Gotham and Bludhaven. He even ended up using his sizable trust fund to buy them out to save them from financial ruin. He's generally regarded as the best acrobat in the world.
** Originally [[Characters/BatmanJasonTodd Jason Todd]], as Dick's SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute, was also this. He was given a completely different backstory after the [[ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths Crisis]] reboot.
* ''ComicBook/BenoitBrisefer'': The album "Le Cirque Bodoni" has Mona Bodoni, a circus girl specialized in TightropeWalking.
* ''ComicBook/TheFlash'': James Jesse, the first Trickster, was a circus acrobat, which might explain his... eye-catching costume.
* ''ComicBook/GhostRider'': Johnny Blaze was originally a stunt motorcyclist at the Quentin Carnival, later coming to own it. Gives much plot in that the sideshow acts are often supernaturally real.
* ''ComicBook/TheGoon'': The titular character was abandoned by his father with his Aunt Kizzie, the circus Strongwoman, when he was only an infant, with his father threatening to throw him into the river if Kizzie didn't take him.
* ''ComicBook/{{Hawkeye}}'': [[Characters/MarvelComicsClintBarton Clint Barton]] and his brother Barney both grew up in the Carson Carnival of Traveling Wonders, and this is where Clint learned his sharpshooting skills to begin with.
* ''ComicBook/HieronymusBosch'': The occult detective Creator/HieronymusBosch in the Danish comic with the same name was raised in a Russian circus by his acrobat mother and juggler father. He was trained in both conjuring and honest-to-karma real magic by the circus' illusionist, this being the original source of his occult knowledge.
* ''ComicBook/XMen'': [[Characters/MarvelComicsNightcrawler Nightcrawler]] was raised in a traveling circus.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* Fear's BackStory as written in the ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'' fanfic ''FanFic/TheJoyOfBattle'' was the son of two circus performers. It seems that he got his [[OverlyLongTongue tongue]] from his mother and his ability to dislocate joints from his father. His story may or may not be based on ComicBook/{{Nightcrawler}}.
* In ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8243003/1/Gypsy-Caravan Gypsy Caravan]]'' Harry grew up as part of a traveling circus of Squibs after running away to join them when he heard his aunt and uncle refer to them as "freaks" and figured they'd be just like him.
* In ''Fanfic/UnderTheBigTop'', Castiel and his family all grew up in the circus. Castiel became a tightrope walker, but he hated the circus and planned to run away with Dean. Then Dean changed his mind about leaving the circus, and they broke up.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Ratatouille}}'': Colette explains to Linguini the backstories of the other cooks. One was a circus acrobat who was fired for messing around with the ringmaster's daughter.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live Action]]
* ''Film/CharliesAngelsFullThrottle'': The assassin known as the Thin Man is revealed (in a detailed flashback) to have been the child of Romanian circus performers who died in a fire.
* ''Film/CircusWorld'': Toni was born to trapeze artists and raised by showman Matt, so she spent all her life in the circus. At first she performs either as part of Matt's Wild West acts or as a clown, but she aims to take up the trapeze like her parents.
* ''Film/TheGreatestShowman'' details the first circus, so naturally, there aren't many in Barnum's act who had been in the circus before. Regardless, the Wheelers are implied to have ''some'' sort of previous acrobatics and trapeze experience, and Anne is one of the youngest in the show.
* The main character from ''Film/MirrorMask.'' She [[IJustWantToBeNormal wants to run away from the circus and join real life]] [[spoiler:though she seems to have come around by the end]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Literature/TheBoundless'': [[TheProtagonist Will]] meets a girl in Winnipeg that is a wire walker for the Klax Bros. Circus. Her dream is to be an EscapeArtist.
* ''Literature/InCryptid'':
** Frances Brown was left as a DoorstopBaby at the Campbell Family Carnival, and raised by the carnies. She ended up becoming their star performer until she left with Jonathan Healy, but she stays in touch with her friends there, and Jonathan even arranges for the Carnival to come to Buckley for their wedding.
** Fran and Jonathan's grandchildren Kevin and Jane were also raised by the Campbell Family Carnival, though not because they were orphans — their mom was off in AnotherDimension searching for their dad.
* Kvothe of ''Literature/TheKingkillerChronicle'' was the 'traveling entertainment troupe' variety.
* Kate from ''Literature/TheMysteriousBenedictSociety'' ran away to join the circus after her father left her as a baby.
* The narrator and her siblings in the novel ''Literature/GeekLove''. She's also a homegrown freak.
* The title character of ''Literature/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'' grew up in a circus (as a freak) and learned a real skill with magic and choreography there. In the book, his first job after leaving the circus is as an entertainer/TortureTechnician for an Ottoman ruler.
* In the ''Literature/JamesBond'' novel ''Literature/TheManWithTheGoldenGun'', BigBad and WorthyOpponent / ShadowArchetype Francisco Scaramanga's parents were circus performers, and he worked both as a trick shot and an animal caretaker as a kid. His StartOfDarkness happened when he shot a policeman for killing his favorite elephant when it went on a rampage.
* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}''
** Parodied (with a partial reference to John Major's backstory, see below) in the novel ''Literature/MakingMoney''. It turns out that [[spoiler:Mr. Bent, the ObstructiveBureaucrat chief cashier was the illegitimate son of a particularly famous clown. Because of his natural talent for clowning, he was asked to perform after he reunited with his father; alas, he was traumatized because ''everybody was laughing at him'', and they somehow neglected to warn him that it was ''supposed'' to happen[[note]]Of course, being laughed at ''is'' actually an unusual experience for a Discworld clown, and opinion seems to be divided as to whether it's even a desirable one[[/note]]. Bent ran away ''from'' the circus and joined a group of Traveling Accountants, [[TheUnfunny swearing off laughter, humor, and "silliness"]] for decades.]]
** After escaping from an OrphanageOfFear, the two-bodied Miss Level from ''Literature/AHatFullOfSky'' spent the rest of her childhood at Monty Bladder's Three-Ring Circus as Topsy and Tipsy, the Astounding Mind Reading Act (and the Astounding Bohonkus Sisters, who juggled plates) before eventually leaving due to a NoodleIncident with a clown and becoming a witch.
* Eddie, the protagonist of ''Literature/TheFivePeopleYouMeetInHeaven'' grew up (and spent the rest of his life) at a seaside amusement park. It was where he met his wife and eventually died; one of the eponymous people is the Blue Man from the freak show; a flashback shows Eddie using his ability to juggle to fight off his captors during the war in the Philippines, etc.
* The protagonist of Creator/MargaretMahy's ''Maddigan's Fantasia'', Garland, is the daughter of the Ringmaster.
* Bob Snarly from Creator/AnthonyHorowitz's YA novel ''Literature/TheSwitch'' is close to a deconstruction of the trope. He's a brat raised by circus people alright, but he's far from open-minded, instead behaving like common trailer trash. AnAesop is learned.
* Lucy from ''Literature/TheTaleOfMagic'' spent the first thirteen years of her life traveling in a band. She played the tambourine.
* Dorothy Shaw in ''Literature/GentlemenPreferBlondes''.
* Carlotta in Creator/EnidBlyton's ''Literature/StClares'' series grew up in a circus. [[spoiler: She keeps this a secret but is betrayed by the school sneak. Her friends, however, are thrilled by her exotic background.]]
* One of the girls in a book called ''About Face'' grew up with a traveling circus when her dream is to stay in one town and own a house.
* ''Literature/TheGreatMerlini'', who appeared in four golden-age mystery novels by Clayton Rawson, was born to a family of circus acrobats and got his initial training in stage magic from the sideshow magician.
* The [[HalfIdenticalTwins Murrary twins]] from ''Literature/TheNightCircus'', born and growing up during the course of the book.
* Maks in ''Literature/ThePosterChildren'' has to live with the fact that he essentially caused his circus to be closed down. He doesn't like to talk about it.
* North in ''The Gracekeepers''.
* In the ''Literature/FernHollow'' story "The Tortoise Fair", Tugger Bramble and Monty Tuttlebee ''try'' to be the runaway type when they stow away in the titular fair's caravan. Unfortunately (for them; fortunately for the caravan), they are discovered when Tugger sneezes. [[DefiedTrope The tortoises are just turning around to bring them back home]] when their parents and P.C. Hoppit catch up with them, [[InvasionOfTheBabySnatchers suspecting the tortoises of kidnapping the kids]] (they only know that the caravan went out of Fern Hollow like a bat out of hell; [[MistakenForEvidence they don't know that one of the horses had been spooked by a train whistle and bolted]]). Monty and Tugger's confession sets the record straight.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* The Chilean ''[[SoapOpera telenovela]]'' "El Circo de las Montini" is about, well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin an itinerant circus]]. At least three generations of people live and work in it, including children. One of the subplots is about one of the women in the crew marrying a man who isn't a part of the circus, which was a critical factor in their divorce, and now they struggle to reach agreements about the raising of their kids. [[spoiler: At the very end of the series the husband decides to fully join the circus, after one of the clowns [[FatalMethodActing passes away on stage]] and he takes his place.]]
* Of the regulars in ''Series/FrontierCircus'', Ben was born into the circus and has been with circuses all his life. It is mentioned that several of the other performers coming from multiple generations of circus folk.
* [[Music/TheMonkees Micky Dolenz]], as a kid (under the pseudonym of 'Micky Braddock'), played one (a kid who helped train elephants) in the old 1950s TV series ''Circus Boy''.
* Jerome and Jeremiah Valeska of ''Series/{{Gotham}}'', the twin sons of a snake dancer at Haly's Circus, though Jeremiah managed to get himself put up for adoption as a child.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* Music/{{Cher}}''''s "''Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves''", the source for this trope's quote.
* Music/BruceSpringsteen's "''Wild Billy's Circus Story''".
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
* The Amazing Gulaks, the Flying Trapeze men of Wrestling/{{CZW}} who promised their father they'd follow in his footsteps, though Rory had to get over his Nick Mondo obsession first.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theatre]]
* The title character of the 1923 musical ''Poppy'' (and that of its silent film adaptation, ''Film/SallyOfTheSawdust'') is a HeartwarmingOrphan brought up in the circus as a FortuneTeller by Professor Eustace [=McGargle=] (portrayed on stage and screen by Creator/WCFields), a magnificently hypocritical ConMan.
* Scharlotta Ivanovna, Anya's {{Cloudcuckoolander}} governess from Creator/AntonChekhov's ''Theatre/TheCherryOrchard'', is the daughter of circus performers. The second act of the play starts with her thinking out loud to herself about her circus childhood.
-->'''Scharlotta:''' (...) When I was a little girl my father and mother used to go round fairs and give very good performances and I used to do the ''salto mortale'' and various little things..."
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* Ellis from ''VideoGame/BattleArenaToshinden''. Thanks to horrific events in her past, her [[PapaWolf father]] sent her to be raised anonymously as a dancer in a Turkish traveling circus in order to keep her safe from the mysterious organization hunting them. As a result, she became an extremely skilled DanceBattler, arguably one of the fastest playable characters in the game and capable of jumps and acrobatics that [[NotQuiteFlight actually makes players think she can fly]].
* Belle from ''VideoGame/CurseCrackersForWhomTheBelleToils'' grew up at the carnival and became an acrobat, although she eventually quit because she wanted to do something else with her life. Her abilities as an acrobat are useful for making her way through dangerous areas and taking on her rival Bonnie's skeletal army, [[BadassNormal especially since she is Ungifted unlike most of the game's characters]].
* Razputin from ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'', which is used to justify his acrobatic abilities. In an inversion, he ran ''away'' from the circus. He had a strict upbringing [[spoiler:because his father was trying to prepare him for encounters with their family's many enemies, who were hinted at in a SequelHook that [[VideoGame/Psychonauts2 eventually took off.]]]] The sequel also has Raz's siblings, who are also circus acrobats.
%% ZCE * Jetta Maxx from ''VideoGame/EternalChampions''.
* In at least one strategy guide, [[MadScientist Doctor Neo Cortex]] of ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot'' is said to have been raised in a family of circus performers, and was literally branded a nerd due to his preference to science over the performing arts (hence the "N" on his forehead).
%% ZCE * Peppita Rossetti from ''VideoGame/StarOceanTillTheEndOfTime''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* Regina Berry in ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyJusticeForAll''. She's very sheltered in many respects, such as having no concept of death and finding nothing strange about [[spoiler: a marriage proposal from a ventriloquist's dummy. Not the performer, his dummy.]]
* Sumire Nozaki in ''[[VisualNovel/TokimekiMemorial Tokimeki Memorial 2]]''. A SecretCharacter in this game, [[ADayInTheLimelight she gets]] [[{{Pun}} more spotlight]] in the ConceptArtGallery spin-off game ''Tokimeki Memorial 2 Music Video Clips : Circus de Aimashou''.
* In ''VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward'', Dio introduces himself as a circus ringleader, fifth generation. [[spoiler:This turns out to be a cover story.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* ''WebAnimation/HelluvaBoss'': Both Blitzo and Fizzarolli were circus performers since they were very little. While Fizzarolli continued his career into his adulthood, becoming a celebrity, a sex symbol and the consort of Asmodeus, Blitzo would end up founding an assassination business after ruining nearly all of his past relationships.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* It's [[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20050316 mentioned]] in ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'' that traveling Heterodyne Show troupes like Master Payne's Circus of Adventure sometimes take in people running away from home, like farmgirls who don't want to be trapped in an ArrangedMarriage to the village idiot.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' :
** There's an episode where Timmy runs away from home and tries to become this for a nearby circus. With the help of Cosmo and Wanda he becomes such an amazing performer that the circus stars get angry and try to kick him out. [[spoiler: They're actually fairies themselves, and they specifically created a circus to catch runaway kids and send them back to their families. Cosmo and Wanda knew it and sent Timmy to their circus to convince him to go back home.]]
** ''WesternAnimation/SchoolsOutTheMusical'' is a movie spawned from the series. Flappy Bob's childhood life as a clown and his secret love for it, despite his boring Pixie-life, is a vital part of the plot. [[spoiler: Few after Timmy, Cosmo and Wanda convince him to embrace his desire to be a clown rather than a lawyer, they find out that the Pixies tricked Bob into thinking that his clown parents had abandoned him, and he decides to help Timmy retaliate against them. Once everything's said and done, Bob is happily reunited with his family.]]
* Princess Tenko of ''WesternAnimation/TenkoAndTheGuardiansOfTheMagic'' grew up in a magic show.
* Ty Lee of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' fame is this, by way of the 'ran away to join the circus' variant.
** It's implied she did this to stand out from her nearly-identical sisters-though it would be understandable if she did it to escape Azula.
*** This leads to her having traits of both IJustWantToBeNormal and IJustWantToBeSpecial.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', Varrick claims to have been taken away by the circus as a child.
** Lin's half sister Suyin has a few pictures revealing that she was part of a circus for a little while before founding Zaofu.
* Ernie Devlin in ''WesternAnimation/{{Devlin}}'', as well as his siblings Sandy and Todd. Overlaps with PromotionToParent as he had to raise them too.
* Jojo Tickle of ''WesternAnimation/JoJosCircus'' is the daughter of two famous clowns, and is a clown herself.
* ''WesternAnimation/LetsGoLuna'': Andy, Carmen, and Leo's parents all work in the traveling circus. The three kids have acquired great knowledge of various countries as a result.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Sir UsefulNotes/JohnMajor, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1990-1997, was the son of a retired circus performer. This gave rise to the joke that he ran away from the circus to become an accountant. Of course, he was neither the first or last child of performers who chose financial security and steady home life over life on the road....
* Lots of early actors grew up in vaudeville and so forth. Creator/BusterKeaton started his career as a little boy being hurled around the stage by his father, learning how to fall so as not to break any bones and develop the FrozenFace that became his trademark.
* The Byzantine Empress Theodora was the daughter of a bear trainer and had an early career as an actress (which in that time and place was a profession at least bordering on prostitution).
* Renaissance Faire performers are a good modern expy. Some performers work within a local circuit, so not so much the traveling aspect, but they often come in families with the kids starting to perform as early as they can handle staying in a character. Other performers, especially established acts, travel 9-10 months out of the year to events all across the country.
* ProfessionalWrestling families are also a good candidate for modern expies. They [[WrestlingFamily have their own page.]] Famous examples are:
** Wrestling/TheRock, who is a third generation wrestler on both his father's and mother's side.
** The entire Hart Family.
* Early film director Tod Browning joined a traveling circus in his teens and became a skilled contortionist and clown. He used his experiences with the circus as the basis for one of his best known movies, ''Film/{{Freaks}}''.
[[/folder]]


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