Rob Mermin is the founder of the award-winning international touring youth circus Circus Smirkus

Circus Smirkus

Circus Smirkus is a non-profit, award-winning, international youth circus founded in 1987 by Rob Mermin. Based in Greensboro, Vermont, the mission of Circus Smirkus is to promote the skills, culture and traditions of the traveling circus and to inspire youth to engage in life-changing adventures in...

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Rob Mermin ran off to join the circus

Circus

A circus is commonly a travelling company of performers that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, unicyclists and other stunt-oriented artists...

 in 1969. He clowned with various European circuses including England's Circus Hoffman, Sweden's Cirkus Scott, Denmark's Circus Benneweis in the Circus Building by the Tivoli, the Hungarian Magyar State Cirkusz, and circus palaces throughout the former Soviet Union. His formal training includes mime with masters Marcel Marceau

Marcel Marceau

Marcel Marceau was an internationally acclaimed French actor and mime most famous for his persona as Bip the Clown.-Early years:...

 and Etienne Decroux

Étienne Decroux

Étienne Decroux studied at Jacques Copeau's Ecole du Vieux-Colombier, where he saw the beginnings of what was to become his life's obsession–Corporeal Mime...

, and a degree in Drama and Literature from Lake Forest College

Lake Forest College

Lake Forest College, founded in 1857, is a private liberal arts college in Lake Forest, Illinois. The college has 1,500 students representing 47 states and 78 countries....

. He is former Dean of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College, and President of Blackfriar’s Summer Theater. In 1987 Mermin founded Circus Smirkus

Circus Smirkus

Circus Smirkus is a non-profit, award-winning, international youth circus founded in 1987 by Rob Mermin. Based in Greensboro, Vermont, the mission of Circus Smirkus is to promote the skills, culture and traditions of the traveling circus and to inspire youth to engage in life-changing adventures in...

 in Greensboro, Vermont

Greensboro, Vermont

Greensboro is the southernmost town in Orleans County, Vermont, United States. The population was 770 at the 2000 census. The town includes the places of Campbells Corners, East Greensboro, Gebbie Corner, Greensboro Four Corners, Greensboro Bend, The Four Corners, Tolmans Corner, and Burlington...

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Mermin's awards include Copenhagen's Gold Clown; Vermont's Bessie Award; Best Director Prize at the International Circus Festival on Russia's Black Sea; the Lund Family Center's "It Takes A Village" Award; the Vermont Arts Council Award of Merit; Lake Forest College's Outstanding Alumni Leadership Award; and the 2008 Vermont Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts.

Mermin currently resides in Montpelier, Vermont

Montpelier, Vermont

Montpelier is a city in the U.S. state of Vermont that serves as the state capital and the shire town of Washington County. As the capital of Vermont, Montpelier is the site of the Vermont State House, seat of the legislative branch of Vermont government. The population was 7,855 at the 2010...

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External links

• Rob Mermin
• Circus Smirkus
• An Audio Remembrance of Marcel Marceau by Rob Mermin