About & Description

'The Great Mousco Circus' - The Greatest Little Show on Earth! An amazing mouse circus with real live mice performing on mini carnival rides and circus apparatus in a beautifully presented little show.

The real history of The Greatest Little Show on Earth! 'The Great Mousco Circus' was one of only a few mouse circus' in the world and probably to this day is only one of a few worldwide that have ever exsisted. The mouse rides and appartus were engineered and created by a very clever gentleman by the name of Bill Starr, who had also created rides for a mouse circus 30 years prior. Robert West, a 3 third generation showman on his father's side and 5th generation on his mother's side, saw the mouse circus as a child travelling around New Zealand. Robert travelled with his parents and two older sisters Christine and Terrie with his family's circus orginally then the family changed to the carnival lifestyle during the 1960s. Many years later, Robert and Dael West of Wests Amusements were then based in Coatesville in Auckland, New Zealand visited Bill Starr as he was creating another mouse circus. They saw the potential of the little circus and purchased it from Bill Starr, along with 600 or so hundred mice with a vision to bring this delighful entertainment to the public. The little circus was presented with the essence of a sideshow from yesteryear with it's colourful front banner painted by Chris Barker and sign written by Scott Stechman. Tickets were sold from the ticket box at the front which always had a few stars playing on a small ride on the counter to entice the punters inside to sample the delights within the little blue tent with the white stars on it. Whoever sold tickets would also spruke to inform people of what lay behind the beautiful facade. With carnival rides such as a 1m high ferris wheel, hurdy gurdy, round up and wheels of all shapes and sizes plus circus apparatus such a tighropes and sway poles, there always something to say about this unique show and it's stars! The Great Mousco Circus operated from 1993 to 1996. Aproved by the SPCA in New Zealand and Singapore,The Great Mousco Circus travelled extensively around the North Island of New Zealand, also visiting Christchurch. The last performance for the little circus was in Singapore after 4 years of touring around New Zealand. The 200 little stars of the show were not permitted to return to New Zealand. However in a campaign run in conjunction with the Singapore SPCA and with the support of the local paper all the performers were adopted out. Every mouse was adopted with information on care & diet plus one weeks worth of food. This unique little circus presented anything between 200 to 800 performers at any one show, over the 4 year period. All the mice were doing was what comes naturally to mice, playing on amazingly engineered mini carnival and circus apparatus, all power by the energy of the mice having fun. The mice were very well cared for, feed a healthy balanced diet and had the best playground in the whole of mouse heaven to play on and for to exercise themselves to their hearts content. Some performers were lazy, performing for only short periods. A few never 'worked' at all and choose to sleep on platforms, corners or carriages. While others showed the agiity and daring for which circus performers are famous for. Featured in many newspapers and appearing on television in New Zealand, Australia and Singapore on 'Talk to the Animals' Animals and Us' plus on news items on TV1 and TV3. Thousands of children around the North Island of New Zealand during the mid 1990s were visited by some performers of 'The Great Mousco Circus' and the Mouse Lady. The Mouse Lady and her little stars visited their schools for an educational talk about the care of mice, the history of The Great Mousco Circus' and ending with a 'hands on' session which was always the highlight of the visits. This page has been set up to digitally preserve the history and information about this amazing liitle circus. "Roll up! Roll up for The Greatest Little Show on Earth! The Great Mousco Circus!"