The Flea Circus: Where did it go?

Mike Knox
3 min readMay 30, 2020

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Everyone has heard of the flea circus but not many people know where to find it. The flea circus is a sideshow attraction with fleas attached to wires performing circus acts. There is nothing more hilarious than a tiny circus tent with fleas pretending to run the show.

The flea circus has been around for more than a century. The idea of watching fleas started with watchmakers displaying their skills for their customers. Mark Scaliot was the first to attach a flea to a chain and lock in 1578.

The flea circus became popular in the 1820s when Louis Betolotto advertised his “industrious flea circus” in London. Most of the flea circus shows were side acts for clowns or magicians. Since the crowds had to be small in order to see the show most could only have less than 50 spectators. The flea circuses usually used fake fleas made from metal or magnets.

In some cases, the fleas were all fake but real fleas were sprinkled in the circus to give the illusion of a live show. That’s not to say that the fleas couldn’t do the job. Fleas can pump iron like the best of us.

Some of the fleas were glued down so they would stay in place. No one likes to be forced to perform circus acts, especially fleas. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals or PETA never said a word. They didn’t care about fleas. The effect of the fleas struggling to get free from the glue gave the illusion that the fleas were having fun. Fleas have strong legs and can actually pull tiny cars or rotate objects like a merry go round. The fleas can also be given a tiny ball and can jump like they’re playing basketball.

There were books, tv shows, and cartoons about the Flea circus. In the 1960s Michael Bentine performed his mechanical flea circus on the tv show, It’s a Square World.

The Flea circus was so popular that in 1966 Mattel created the Flea Circus home version. You can still find it for twenty dollars on eBay. Parents were happy to know the game didn’t use real fleas. The game used magnetic fleas that performed circus tricks like walking the tightrope and riding a unicycle. There were ten flea tricks in all. It was described as the “wackiest show on earth!”

The flea circuses are still around but just not as popular as they used to be. The excitement of the train pulling into the station with all the circus performers is long gone.

So what happened to the Flea Circus? The truth is that the flea circus just lost its mojo. Like the Pet Rock or the Snuggie it was a victim of time. People became bored and moved on. I’m sure the fleas were okay with it.

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Mike Knox
Mike Knox

Written by Mike Knox

Comedian. Author of Vivien’s Rain and Straight Fish. VNS Therapy Advocate. Mikeknox.com