ICW: Bibi, Co-Founder of Circus Abyssinia

So this is a slightly different experience to bring you! So far I’ve given you a lot of TV, Film and Theatre people - all pretty standard creative jobs. But earlier today I chatted with someone who is doing something a bit out of the box for England, but very out of the box for his home country of Ethiophia.

Bibi co-founded Circus Abyssinia in 2016 with his brother Bichu, and since then they’ve gone on to become a world renowned company combing world class acrobatics and circus acts with the music, dance and soul of Ethiopia. I spoke to Bibi about how he went from a boy in Ethiopia to a Circus master, and what to expect from their show that’s now on in Earl’s Court.

Bibi
Hello, how are you?

Brianna (TBP)
Hiya! I'm good, thank you. How are you doing?

Bibi
Not too bad. There's a storm going on right now, the weather is crazy, but it's all good.

Brianna (TBP)
Where are you in London?

Bibi
Yeah, I'm in London.

Brianna (TBP)
I'm a bit south, so maybe that's gonna hit me later on.

Bibi
It might! Is it sunny where you're at?

Brianna (TBP)
Yeah, fairly yeah.

Bibi
It was lovely, sunny and all of a sudden, massive storm. Typical London. Yeah.

Brianna (TBP)
That is proper English weather, like sunny in the morning storming in the evening.

Bibi
You never know.

Brianna (TBP)
You never know! All seasons in one day, that's what England gives ya!

Bibi
It does! We're kind of used to it but the kids, they're all from Ethiopia. So they're a bit confused. They're like "You guys told us it's gonna be summertime!"

Brianna (TBP)
(Laughs) This is English summertime! So funny. So let's get into it then. So, can you tell us a little bit about growing up? How did you go from a boy in Ethiopia to running a circus show?

Bibi
That's a long story! But I'll try. So growing up in Ethiopia, I don't know if you know but African parents are very strict when it comes to education. So they kind of understood in a way because we (Bibi and his brother Bichu) just loved doing different things. Our friends wanted to play football after school, but we wanted to do gymnastics or anything, just to show off, you know. Our parents would ask "Why can't you do what the other kids are doing?" and we would say because we just wanted to do something different. But they let us do whatever we wanted to do, as long as we do school properly, study and do our homework. So in front of our house there was the market and the garden kind of thing, like the park. So after school, we'd come back, put everything down, and then we'd go and do some gymnastics, acrobatics. Then we started to gain attention from people. And all of a sudden we're like, oh, okay, this is good. And then some of our friends joined in and we'd start building some pyramids. And we have no idea at that time about the circus. Circus wasn't even a thing.

Brianna (TBP)
Oh wow, okay.

Bibi
So all we did was like gymnastics, we'd do some pyramids. But then one of our teachers was from Canada, and he had connections with Cirque du Soleil. You know them?

Brianna (TBP)
Yeah I know about them!

Bibi
So he knew how to juggle. And he had three juggling balls. And he was like "okay, I'll show you something a bit different, you might like it." And we're like, okay, cool. And then he was juggling, and we're like OH, what is that? So we just like - we didn't have the proper juggling balls, whatever. So we used to go to the market and buy some fruits, oranges or whatever we could find. And then we start doing all the juggling stuff. We wanted to have the proper juggling balls but we didn't have them so what we did was, we used to go home and get our socks, cut them and then fill them with whatever we could find. Seeds, sand, whatever. And then we'd get in trouble with my parents. "All the socks keep disappearing whats going on."

(Both Laugh)

Bibi
No it's true, and we'd be like "we don't know, we haven't seen them." So we get really addicted to that juggling bit, and then more kids started joining in and we started performing just for free after school. And then the teacher, he gave us a VHS cassette of Cirque du Soleil, and we watched it and we were like, oh my god, this is crazy. And our minds just, we said this is what we want to do, whatever happens we just want to give it a go. We saw - you know the clubs, the juggling clubs?

Brianna (TBP)
Yeah I know the ones.

Bibi
So we didn't have anything back home, no circus school, juggling school. So what we did was we went to our school workshop and we asked the guy to make us juggling clubs. And you know, they're usually quite light, they're made of plastic the proper ones. Our ones were made out of wood. They were very heavy, we got hurt, we were bleeding all these kinds of things.

Brianna (TBP)
Oh my goodness, that's a lot!

Bibi
Yeah, it was, so we made them a bit lighter, a bit more comfortable. And we start performing at our school, we get attention. And then after school we start doing shows, after football, after football matches, and the group just grew and grew. Our teacher was like, okay maybe we should do a proper group. And he wanted to film it and send it to promoters, and anyone who might want to hire us. And after a couple of years - at this time my parents are still very strict on you know "You go to school and you just do this as a hobby." But it kept us from doing bad stuff and getting involved in fights, and they liked that. And growing up here (UK), if someone asks you want you what you want to be in the future, you can say whatever, you can dream, you can make it up. Back in Ethiopia it's just like, you're limited to certain things. Teacher, Engineer, or Doctor. You can't be anything else, like you can be a performer but only as a hobby because it's not going to pay. And they were mostly right but we didn't want to believe them. We wanted to do this. So we start performing properly, we do tours in Ethiopia, we created a group called Circus Ethiopia. He starts sending our videos to promoters across Africa, in Europe, in Japan. And the first invitation we got was for South Africa, there was an art festival. And we'd never been on a plane, we'd never been out of our city. We grew up in a small city called Jimma. And so we were like "Oh my god, this is happening." And my parents are like "Okay this is a week thing, you can go, you come back and go to school. Fine, cool."

Brianna (TBP)
So how old were you when that happened?

Bibi
Oh we were like, 12/13.

Brianna (TBP)
Wow, you were young!

Bibi
Oh yeah, we were very young. And the thing was, when you’re that young, especially back at that time in Ethiopia, we knew that was what we wanted to do but we didn’t really believe it. So we went to South Africa, we got really really good reviews for the circus, and then we came back. And we sort of forgot about it for a bit. We went back to normal life, going to school. We did what we did, still practice, practice, practice, and the group just grew and grew. And then more cities in Ethiopia started doing the same, and we started having festivals in Ethiopia. And as we did them, we started getting more attention internationally. When you think about circus, you don’t think about Africa. Now, there’s so many circus’, so many circus schools. But then it was just us. So the guy that taught us how to juggle, he was very, very adamant that we could make it out of Africa. So he had a meeting with the parents. And he said, “Okay, I'm not going to push it. They can go to school, but please when they have free time, I want them to do more, practice more, do more shows here, so they can just grow as a group.” So the parents, they understood, and they were like, cool. You can do that. And then a couple of years later, we got am invitation to come to England and do the Brighton festival.

Brianna (TBP)
Oh wow, that’s a big one!

Bibi
And we were like, oh my god, we couldn't believe it. We didn't think it would happen anyway. We just said, Oh my God, I wish this could happen. And it happened. We came to Brighton fringe, with a circus performance that we shared. I remember, we shared a tent, and we were living in a bunk. And we were just living the dream. Yeah, yeah. And that was like ‘98 I think. End of ‘98 or ‘99. So there was a guy who came to the show - now we worked with him. I’ll tell you the story. He came to the show, he was running a juggling company in England, it’s now one of the biggest companies in the world. So he saw the show and he wanted to work with me and my brother, because we were, we were the jugglers and he ran the juggling company. But we didn’t speak any English at the time, so he had a chat with our manager. And he told us, you know, he wants to work with us but we need to go home first and get the permission of our parents. So we’re like okay well that’s not going to happen, but we went home and had the chat with my parents. And then our manager called and had a conversation - it was a long, long conversation. I remember I didn’t know what they were saying but me and my brother were just praying they’d let us go at least for a bit. And somehow my parents said okay. They made a deal with the company that we had to go to school because we don’t speak English. And that was the right thing to do to be fair. So they said “okay, as long as they go to school, they learn English, we’ll let them go.” And then we came back here. And at that time, the O2 Arena was called the Millenium Dome. And Gandini Juggling Company had a show there. Imagine, coming from Ethiopia and then performing at the O2.

Brianna (TBP)
That must have been insane.

Bibi
Yeah, it was mad. If you can imagine, we just came straight from Ethiopia and then we just jumped in there. And we’re like “Okay. This is going to happen, we are not gonna go home, we’re going to make up a story or whatever to tell our parents”, and we worked for the company for 2 years until they closed the Millenium Dome. And he really wanted to keep working with us because you know - even now you don’t really find black jugglers, from Africa - at that time there were none. So for him it was perfect to have us. He had 20 jugglers but we were the only African ones. He was adamant to have us, so there was more conversations with our parents, they payed us more, we could send more money home. My parents were happy, and yeah, we worked for him for another couple of years, for two years more. But what we really wanted to do was to run away with the Circus. Putting the tent up, travelling, we wanted that. And at the time, so this is 15, 20 years ago, we wanted to have our own company in the future. We used to go to this circus school all the time to practice, and one evening we were leaving and we looked at the advertisement board, you know, people looking for jugglers. And we saw a different circus looking for jugglers and it said call this number. I remember calling it with my broken English and saying you know, we’re jugglers, we’d like to audition for you. And they said okay, come this day, this time, this place. We said okay, we got excited. And we head to that place on the day and we’re waiting, waiting, waiting, there’s no one there. And then we get a call from them and they’re saying “Where are you guys?” and we’re saying “We’re here where are you” and they say, Oh we’re waiting for you in Bristol. There was another school in Bristol and they were holding the auditions there. We were like, oh my god we’re in London. And you know, if you’re late for an audition, that’s it. You don’t get a second chance. But for some reason it was meant to be, because they waited for us. We ran, took the train, went all the way there. We did the audition and they loved what we did. They were like “We like you guys, and we would like to offer you the job.”

Brianna (TBP)
Wow, they must have really liked you!

Bibi
Yeah, I mean usually you know, you go home and they think about it and you hear back in a while when they call you. But no, right then and there. So we come back home and call our manager and we say to him what we’d been offered and he’s like okay, cool. We can talk to people, and negotiate, but we told him. This is what we want to do, this is it, we just want to run away with the circus and experience the proper circus life, thats what we need. So we went. We took the bus to Giffords Circus. I don’t know if you’ve heard of Giffords Circus?

Brianna (TBP)
It definitely rings a bell.

Bibi
Yes, it’s a really really traditional, amazing circus. And at that time they were just starting as well which was perfect for us. They didn’t have seats, they used to have stacks of straw all around, you know, it’s in the countryside. We just loved the whole experience. So we were supposed to only be doing one season with them. And when we finished that season with them, they asked us to go back, and we said of course we’re gonna do that. And then we worked for them for 11 years.

Brianna (TBP)
Oh wow!

Bibi
Yeah, and that doesn’t happen. But during that time we were just learning, crafting.

Brianna (TBP)
That’s the best way to train though really.

Bibi
Yeah and Nell Gifford, she was just amazing, she passed away two years ago, it was quite a big story, she’d had cancer. But she, right from the start we told her like, we want to have what you have, and she taught us absolutely everything that she knew. And we were just crafting. During that time, I’m going to go back to 2012, 2013? My brother went back to Ethiopia. And he called me and it was late, because there’s a 3 hour time difference, and he’s so excited. I say what’s going on? So he bumped into one of our friends that we used to do shows with back in Ethiopia. And he had a conversation with him and he says, I have these kids. I’m teaching them right now at this kind of school thing, but I have no funds, I might not be able to keep it up, I might have to close. He says “Maybe if you guys could help, we might be able to do something?” And my brother is like, we should do it, we should definitely do it. We didn’t have a lot of money or anything but the circus community is very small, we support each other, it’s like a family. So we say, we can do that. We start emailing people, like all companies. Usually they have stuff they don’t use and they just put it in storage and it just stays there. So we just said, if you have old clubs or anything, juggling balls, costumes, whatever you have, please please please, we have a circus school back in Ethiopia that we’re trying to run. And we got a lot of support, and they were able to keep it up. So we send them stuff, we send them videos, we go back and forth doing workshops. And then two years later we went back and we couldn’t believe what we were seeing. The kids were incredible. So we were like, maybe this is the right time. So we came back in 2014 to Giffords Circus, and we had a meeting with Nell and we say to her, we have kids back in Ethiopia, they are amazing, we would love if you bring them here. We showed her videos of what they could do and she loved it. She said yes, this group is good, and we got 8 guys from the school to come and work with us at Giffords Circus. We did two seasons with them, and in 2016 we said okay, this is amazing, but maybe this is time for us to move on and start our own circus company. So we had another meeting with Nell, and we said you know, this has been amazing, we learned a lot from you, and this is our plan. And she was very honest, she said it’s not easy to run a company. But she said, I know you guys have talked about this forever, you have amazing kids back in Ethiopia, you have a great school back in Ethiopia, you have great artists. But find sponsors. Everyone loved the idea, but the problem was, all the kids were back in Ethiopia. So it was a long thing, and we didn’t know what to do. We were so desperate, and we’d made the decision we were going to use all of our savings, but it just wasn’t enough. We were a big company, there was about 18 of us, so yeah, it was expensive. But during that time, you know the movie Dumbo? They were remaking it at the time with Tim Burton, and we got contacted by the producers who asked us to get involved in the movie. We were like okay, well this is meant to be. Because we can use that money and our savings, we won’t even need to find sponsors, we can pull this off. It’s the perfect thing, because we wanted to do our own thing and now no one else is having to be involved.

Brianna (TBP)
What incredible timing. Truly what incredible timing that that came along just as you needed it.

Bibi
Right! Because we had already quit Giffords Circus, because we wanted to do this. But then we couldn’t find any sponsors even though everyone we spoke to loved the idea, it was just too expensive, too complicated. The plan was to take the show to Edinburgh Fringe. That was the plan. And then when it came time to film Dumbo, that was at the same time as Edinburgh. So what we did was, we went home, we brought the kids to the UK, we were getting money every week from Dumbo, we used that money and the savings and we took the kids to Edinburgh. Then every Saturday and Sunday we had off from filming so we would go back and forth, doing rehearsals, going to filming. And we left the kids in Edinburgh with our friend. Then after Edinburgh, because it was a big success, we ended up beginning to get bookings all over the world. It really was just meant to be, we still talk about it now.

Brianna (TBP)
Yeah. All of those things literally lined up perfectly for this to happen. That's amazing.

Bibi
Yeah. Because when we got to take the show to Edinburgh, when you do the fringe if it’s successful that’s sort of it. That’s why you go, it’s a big stepping stone, you don’t do it to make money, it’s to launch. So we then didn’t stop touring for about 3 years. We went all over the world, Singapore, Japan, Australia, America. And then the pandemic hit. Just as we’d created a new show. Well not new, it’s still Ethiopian Dreams, but we added some more stuff. And we were literally just about to hit the road, and the pandemic hit. After we booked all the flights, all the hotels, all that kind of thing. We didn’t know what to do.

Brianna (TBP)
And at that point it was so up in the air. We didn’t know whether it was going to be six weeks, six months, no one knew whether to cancel anything or just hold off and hope, and see what happened.

Bibi
And we just panicked, because the kids were doing really well, their parents are okay because the kids are supporting the family. If you speak to the kids they will tell you, they bought a house, land, business, all these things, and that’s why it’s so important. And there’s so many kids now. When we started that school we had 15, 20 kids. Now we have 150 kids in the one school. And it’s not just us now. Every city, they’ve got schools. And they see our kids still in school - they still go to school, if they’re too young we have a teacher with us - but also able to support their families. And so now kids back home are like, I don’t want to get in trouble, I don’t want to fight, I don’t want to be in the streets. I can do this instead. And there’s so many inspired kids back home so that’s where we really panicked.

Brianna (TBP)
But thank god everything is sorted out and worked out now though, and you’re back on stage in Earl’s Court. Can you tell us a little bit about that show, it’s about an Olympic hero I believe?

Bibi
Yes, so her name is Derartu Tulu, she is incredible. So the first show we made was about me and my brother, we always wanted to have a story through our shows. And the first one was about us, how we started juggling, how we came to Europe, that kind of thing. We had two kids playing ourselves. But this time we just wanted to - we have incredible, incredible girls performing in our company. But most of the time its all focused on the boys because the boys do a lot of the bigger stuff. The girls can do just as much as the boys but I think a cultural thing, we just didn’t want the girls to get hurt, but it meant we weren’t giving them that opportunity. So when we started this one we said whatever happens, they need to be recognised and get the credit they deserve. And at the same time, Derartu Tulu, I don’t know if you know the story, she’s the first Black African woman to win a gold medal at the Olympics, it was in Barcelona. And she was an inspiration to everyone. I remember my brother and I watching it on TV, and the way she was talking about it, the way she was crying, how proud she was when she was accepting the medal, and we saw the Ethiopian flag flying. I remember, I still remember how emotional it was for us. And she is still doing amazing stuff back home. But it’s like, it doesn’t matter how good you were at that time, most of the time it’s like you get the recognition and then you retire and you end up in the background and nobody talks about you. We don’t want that. So we just wanted to say thank you to her. And at the same time express how important it is for us to have our girls doing their amazing stuff, and show they can do what boys can do.

Brianna (TBP)
This is so amazing. It’s shining a light on Ethiopia of the past, whilst also shining on Ethiopia of the present and hopefully lighting up paths for the future.

Bibi
Exactly! There’s still a problem with girls back home, because parents, they don’t allow the girls to go and do this kind of thing, performing. Or whatever it is they want to do. But now, because of our girls, things are becoming more relaxed. We still have a long way to go, but that’s why we try to present the girls and show they can do whatever they want, not just stay at home and cook or clean.

Brianna (TBP)
That's why representation is so important, isn't it? If you can't see it, you don't know that you can be it and you're changing that?

Bibi
Definitely! Yeah!

Brianna (TBP)
So amazing. So what can people expect from a night out at Circus Abyssinia?

Bibi
Well in Ethiopia, I don’t know if you know, but we have a very rich culture, we have great music, great costumes, great, amazing, traditional dancing, we use all of that. But at the same time, always, always, it's important for us to have the act, the circus act has to be world class. Most times when you go to an African show it’s dancing, it’s joy, it’s similing. And we definitely have that, we use that as an advantage, but we prioritise the act. But combining all of that with a world class act? That’s the main goal. So come, it’s a family show. It’s for everyone, everyone can enjoy it. You can dance, you can smile, you learn the story behind it so there’s education as well. You will have an experience, it’s a whole package experience from Circus Abyssinia.

Brianna (TBP)
So do you think it captures the spirit of Ethiopia quite well?

Bibi
Definitely! The ambassador came to see the show the other day. And he was like, wow, he could not believe it. And he put out a really really amazing tweet. And then after that - because the problem is, a lot of Ethiopian people live in London, but they don’t really get to see things like this. Especially the kids that were born here. It’s so important for them to come to the show and get connected with their culture. And you can tell when Ethiopians are watching the show because they know all the words and are singing along, or they know the dances, and thats an extra boost. We want to show Europeans the circus act, the dancing, the art. But more than that we really want to show that new generation that was born here, the Ethiopian’s born here. So they can come and experience something they never had before.

Brianna (TBP)
That’s such an amazing reason for creating.

Bibi
Thank you.

Brianna (TBP)
So my final question is the last question I ask everyone that I interview, and that is: What does being black mean to you?

Bibi
That is a very good question. For me, personally, very proud. Especially for the last couple of years. To be honest, we did have like ups and downs, me and my brother when we moved here. Because we were based in West London when we first came here. And there was the language barrier, there was racism. Like we went - we still - go through it. But we had goals. And at the time - it was really sad but it’s the truth - at the time we didn’t mind it because we didn’t think we belonged here. That was what was really sad. We used to get letters through the post, really nasty stuff, people shouting at us on the street and all that kind of thing.

Brianna (TBP)
Oh, that’s horrible, I’m sorry.

Bibi
Yeah. but I’m so proud now. I can just pump out my chest and walk around. Even if - it doesn’t matter if people shout things to me, I just laugh. It’s true, I just laugh. For me, being black it’s just being very proud. Me and my brother together, always together - we have friends - but my brother is my best friend and I think that’s why we have a good balance. And that’s why it works.

Brianna (TBP)
That is very sweet. A lovely way to end! Thank you so much for your time!

Bibi
No no, thank you.

Circus Abyssinia: Tulu is on now at Earl’s Court, until June 18th. More details and tickets can be found here. If you’d like to follow the group on socials, click for their instagram, their twitter, and their facebook.