Rob Mermin
Author photo by Melissa Mermin.
Rob ran off to the circus in 1969. He clowned with European circuses for a decade, including England’s Circus Hoffman, Sweden’s Cirkus Scott, Denmark’s Circus Benneweis in the famous Circus Building by the Tivoli, the Hungarian Magyar State Cirkusz, and circus buildings throughout the former Soviet Union. He trained with mime masters Marcel Marceau and Etienne Decroux, and received an honors degree in Drama and Literature from Lake Forest College.
In 1987, Rob founded the award-winning international company Circus Smirkus, America’s premier touring youth circus. Smirkus has initiated cultural exchanges with thirty-two countries, earning the title “The United Nations of the Youth Circus World.”
Rob is former dean of Clown College for Ringling Bros.; president of the former Blackfriars Summer Theater in Connecticut; artist-in-residence for the Vermont Arts Council; lecturer for the Vermont Humanities; and founder of the Parkinson’s Pantomime Project, helping people with movement disorders manage symptoms through mime, magic, and circus techniques.
His awards include: Copenhagen’s Gold Clown; Russia’s Best Director Prize at the 1990 International Youth Festival on the Black Sea; It Takes a Village Award; the Vermont Arts Council Award of Merit; and the 2008 Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts. He has written two previous books on Circus Smirkus.
Learn more at www.RobMermin.com, www.Smirkus.org, and follow him on YouTube.
