History Main / CircusBrat

* Bob Snarly from Creator/AnthonyHorowitz's YA novel ''The Switch'' 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.

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

* ''WesternAnimation/SchoolsOutTheMusical'', a movie spawned from ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents''. 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.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddparents'' has 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 performers try to kick him out. [[spoiler: They're actually fairies themselves, and they became a circus to catch runaway kids.]]

* ProfessionalWrestling families are also a good candidate for modern expies. They [[WrestlingFamily have their own page]] Famous examples are

* DC's first [[TheFlash Trickster]] was a circus brat, which might explain his... eye-catching costume. Of course, this ''is'' DC...

* Ernie Devlin in ''Devlin'', as well as his siblings Sandy and Todd. Overlaps with PromotionToParent as he had to raise them too.

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

* Ernie Devlin in ''{{Devlin}}'', as well as his siblings Sandy and Todd. Overlaps with PromotionToParent as he had to raise them too.

* Sumire Nozaki in ''[[Franchise/TokimekiMemorial Tokimeki Memorial 2]]''. A SecretCharacter in this game, [[ADayInTheLimelight she gets]] [[IncrediblyLamePun more spotlight]] in the ConceptArtGallery spin-off game ''Tokimeki Memorial 2 Music Video Clips : Circus de Aimashou''.

* Pictured above: Rita from ''Anime/MichikoToHatchin''.
* Allen from ''Manga/DGrayMan''.

* Nadia from ''Anime/NadiaTheSecretOfBlueWater''.
* Another Rita: Rita Rossi from ''Anime/AshitaNoNadja''. [[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.]]
** Also Kennosuke and Nadja themselves. They weren't raised in the circus, but work there.
* Goh from ''Manga/{{Yellow}}''.

* 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 ([[RuleOfThree yes, another one]]) from the Berserk videogame.
* 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...]]

* 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 ''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.

* Scharlotta Ivanovna, Anya's {{Cloudcuckoolander}} governess from Creator/AntonChekhov's ''Theatre/TheCherryOrchard''. 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..."

* Carlotta in 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.]]

Sometimes, the portrayal is [[TrainingFromHell opposite to 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.

This trope often applies to the children of carnies as well.

* ProfessionalWrestling families are also a good candidate for modern expies. Famous examples are
** DwayneJohnson, who is a third generation wrestler on both his father's and mother's side.

** Parodied (with a partial reference to John Major's backstory, see below) in the 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 ''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 ''Discworld/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 to become a witch.

* 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 ''from'' the circus and joined a group of Traveling Accountants, [[TheUnfunny swearing off laughter, humor, and "silliness"]] for decades.]]

!!Examples

* Allen from ''DGrayMan''.

* Sumire Nozaki in ''[[TokimekiMemorial Tokimeki Memorial 2]]''. A SecretCharacter in this game, [[ADayInTheLimelight she gets]] [[IncrediblyLamePun more spotlight]] in the ConceptArtGallery spin-off game ''Tokimeki Memorial 2 Music Video Clips : Circus de Aimashou''.

* 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 being PromotedToParent for his siblings via some unknown incident.

[[quoteright:313:[[Anime/MichikoToHatchin http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/michiko_to_hatchin_rita.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:313:All in a day's work.]]

* In ''Film/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.

* ComicBook/{{Nightcrawler}} / Kurt Wagner from ''ComicBook/{{X-Men}}''.

* 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 [[Franchise/{{X-Men}} Nightcrawler]].

* Regina Berry in ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney: Justice for All''. 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.]]

* Nightcrawler / Kurt Wagner from ''ComicBook/{{X-Men}}''.

->''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"

* TheGoon 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.