THE show must go on and it always has while in the hands of Australia’s oldest circus family the Ashton-Rodriguez clan.
But sometimes the unexpected happens, and things get changed up and adjusted.
Which is what happened the Friday before this year’s Beaudesert Show.
Chantel Ashton-Rodriguez went into early labour, her weekend duties were called off and her globe riding husband pulled out of his performance.
For many, being at the birth of your child is a no brainer.
You make it happen, you be there ... but for Jefferson Amaral and Chantel ‘the show must go on’ and ‘your son is being born’ presented a dilemma only performers can truly understand.
In the end Jefferson forwent performing and a different rider was organised in the nick of time.
Jan Ashton-Rodriguez is a fifth-generation circus performer and Chantel’s mother.
The family business was licensed in 1851 to James Henry Ashton and his traditional bareback equestrian act maintained with Jan performing it alongside her husband and children, Chantel and Tamara, until 2004.
Jan said her parents performed the double trapeze and were in every act, this meant there wasn’t much time to change costumes.                                                                                “Dad’s got his white tights on, this was a long time ago, and he is up with mum hanging by his legs and he tells her ‘I think I got bitten by a snake’,” Jan recalled.
“He told her a snake must have bitten him as he ran from the caravan to the tent.
“Dad felt something prick him and he had two little puncture marks visible on the white tights as they had started to bleed.
“So they’re doing an act 10 metres in the air above the ring before an audience and he’s starting to sweat ... but keeps going.”
Once the act was over and while walking back to the caravan he saw a prickly pear bush and realised it’d caught his tights as he ran past it.
“The point is he thought he got bitten by a snake but continued the act thinking he’d take care of that once he’d finished,” she laughed.
The show went on and yes, even babies had to wait for it to finish before making an entrance back then.
“I was born when mum went into labour six weeks early,” Jan said.
“Mum was doing the music and her waters broke, she wrapped herself in a towel and finished playing the music and doing the announcing before dad drove her to the hospital where I was born.
“My nana was a wire walker and she walked right up to the night before her baby was born.
Modern day Ashtons comprise family and friends who have become family.
Their crew is tight and reliable because everyone understands what is expected of them.
The ringmaster is 31-year-old Jessie Grant who is Jan’s sister’s grandson.
Kuiama is Jessie’s younger sister and an identical twin.
“We all know that once we walk inside the tent to perform, any problems outside are left there...it is all positive energy during showtime,” Kuiama said.
The show went on at Beaudesert as Matias entered the world, Chantel had Jefferson by her side and the family took care of showbusiness.
“It’s a different time, a different era and I’m glad Chantel was able to go to a good hospital and get all the right care,” Jan said.
“Back in the day it was wherever you were in the town, you were either born or you died.”
Australia’s oldest circus family shows no sign of slowing down or petering out – if anything little Matias is an example of how the show can go on and while it does, so do the generations.