The Circus Is Coming To Red Hook's Waterfront Museum

RED HOOK, BROOKLYN — Red Hook's Waterfront Museum will celebrate its 25th anniversary with all things circus, starting with a show this weekend.

The museum has announced a four-weekend series coming to its barge docked at Pier 44. The series, called "Circus Afloat!," will bring four different circus-related acts to the 30-by-90-ft. barge starting with a kick-off performance this Sunday.

The feature celebrates the museum's 25 years in business and pays homage to its founder's unique history.

The Waterfront Museum was founded by David Sharps, who used to work as a juggler and clown on cruise ships in the late 1970s before taking up residence on a barge in Paris in 1982. Not too long after, Sharps found a barge of his own abandoned on the Hudson River's shore in New Jersey and bought it for one dollar.

That barge, which was once Lehigh Valley Railroad Barge #79, became the site of the Waterfront Museum today. It is the last of its kind from an era where goods were transported across the New York harbor by tug and barge and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

With that history in mind, the "Circus Afloat!" series will bring back some of Sharps' roots to the historic vessel.

Here's a look at what to expect:

(Provided by Carol Klenfner PR)

• Sunday, June 30 — Starting at 2 p.m., the "Travels with Tricksters" show will kick off the series. The performance, from the MacArthur Award-winning Bond Street Theatre, will feature two actors in a show that includes juggling, music, magic, amazing stilt dancing, and audience participation. Tickets and more info here.

(Provided by Carol Klenfner PR)

• Saturday, July 6 — In two shows, one at 2 p.m. and another at 7 p.m., the Happenstance Theater will prevent "PREPOSTEROUS!" This family-friendly, pocket-sized clown circus will have vintage clowns playing circus animals, singing as a human calliope, doing the classic circus mirror routine with a twist and performing live music. A favorite at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival's Circus Arts festival and The National Theater Saturday Morning family series. Tickets and more info here.

(Provided by Carol Klenfner PR)

• Sunday, July 21 — A 2 p.m. show will feature "The Flip Flop Circus," a female clown duo that will include slapstick, physical comedy, stunning visuals, wild costumes, original puppets and comic antics together with classic vaudeville style and the worldwide language of clowns. Both are longstanding members of The Big Apple Circus Clown Care Unit. Tickets and more info here.

(Provided by Carol Klenfner PR)

• Sunday, July 28 — "The Grand Falloons" will end the series with a 2 p.m. show of their "What's Dis" performance. Both 25-year veterans of Broadway, film, TV, and New York's Big Apple Circus the show will include an homage to the Great American Vaudeville of the 1920's, a stuffy professor and a latecomer bring comedy, juggling, magic, slapstick, audience participation, the live music of Brahms, Gus Kahn and Irving Berlin, a virtuoso concertina, a saxophone, infectious song-and-dance, and the square bubble. Tickets and more info here.

All shows will be at The Waterfront Museum at 290 Conover Street with ticket prices ranging from $15 to $18.