History Main / CircusBrat

* Sophia, a girl from an itinerant circus that a MagicalGirl named [[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 (the circus's fortune teller) tries to rope Lunlun to try dealing with her...]]

-->'''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...

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* The [[HalfIdenticalTwins Murrary twins]] from ''TheNightCircus'', born and growing up during the course of the book.

* Scharlotta Ivanovna, Anya's {{Cloudcuckoolander}} governess from Creator/AntonChekhov's ''The Cherry Orchard''. The second act of the play starts with her thinking out loud to herself about her circus childhood.

* Lots of early actors grew up in vaudeville and so forth. 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.

* 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.

* In ''CharliesAngels: Full Throttle'', 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.

* Jojo Tickle of Jojo's Circus is the daughter of two famous clowns, and is a clown herself.

* In ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8243003/1/Gypsy-Caravan Gypsy Caravan]]'' Harry grew up as part of a traveling circus of Squibs and low-power magic users 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.

* The main character from ''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]].

Sometimes, the portrayal is opposite the above. Sometimes, the Circus Brat is forced to practice hours on end, painfully contort his body until his body becomes accustomed to it, and otherwise abused to enforce obedience and performance.

* Having an upbringing that was very relaxed.

* Parodied (with a partial reference to John Major's backstory, see below) in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Discworld/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. Bent ran away, and joined a group of Traveling Accountants, swearing off laughter, humor, and "silliness" for decades.]]

[[caption-width-right:313:All in a day's job.]]

* The narrator and her siblings in the novel ''GeekLove''. She's also a homegrown freak.

-- '''Cher''', "Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves"

The CircusBrat 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:

** Originally Jason Todd, as Dick's SuspiciouslySimilarReplacement, was also this. He was given a completely different backstory after the [[CrisisOnInfiniteEarths Crisis]] reboot.

* The narrator and her siblings in the novel ''Geek Love''. She's also a homegrown freak. Yeah.

* Another Rita: Rita Rossi from ''AshitaNoNadja''. Twice, actually: the circus owned by her parents got burned down, and since they died in that same fire she was taken in by other performers.

* [[{{Nightwing}} Richard "Dick" Grayson]], the original {{Robin}} from ''{{Batman}}''. 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.

** There's also Rita ([[RuleOfThree yes, another one) from the Berserk videogame.

* Ellis from ''VideoGame/BattleArenaToshinden''. Thanks to horrific events in her past, her [[BadassLongHair fa]][[PapaWolf ther]] 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 result, she became an extremely skilled DanceBattler, arguably one of the fastest playable characters in the game and capable of jumps and acrobacies that [[NotQuiteFlight actually makes the viewers think she can fly]].

* Bird's Nest and Michel from {{Copernicus Breathing}}. 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.

* One of [[SaberRiderAndTheStarSheriffs Saber Rider's]] [[GirlOfTheWeek girls of the week]] was a cute young woman who worked as an acrobat in a circus.

* Carlotta in EnidBlyton's ''[[StClares St Clare's]]'' 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.]]

* Dorothy Shaw in ''GentlemenPreferBlondes''.

* On ''{{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.

* Nightcrawler / Kurt Wagner from ''XMen''.

* Fear's BackStory as written in the ''MetalGearSolid3'' 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 [[XMen Nightcrawler]].

* In the JamesBond novel ''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.

* Kate from ''TheMysteriousBenedictSociety'' ran away to join the circus after her father left her as a baby.