Rob Mermin

Rob Mermin

Rob Mermin, international performer and founder of the acclaimed touring youth circus, Circus Smirkus, knows how to charm an audience.

Trained by world-famous mime Marcel Marceau, and Marceau's own teacher, Etienne DeCroux, Rob calls upon his three decades of experience as clown, mime, actor, acrobat, magician, trainer, author, teacher, director, impresario and host to take his audience to that joyful world of innocent joy, fun, magic and wonder that is at the heart of the circus arts.

Rob illuminates the connection between the elaborate style of silent film acting and the music hall and theater techniques of the same era. His presentation is lavishly illustrated with clips from over 50 classic silent films, interspersed with live demonstrations of mime technique related to silent film acting.

Rob brings alive the rich history of the traveling "mud show" that crisscrossed Vermont every summer throughout the 20th Century. Film clips of the old shows are enlivened with anecdotes, lecture, and demonstrations of circus techniques.