Two very veteran trapeze flyers — now retired but full of circus energy and spunk — are hanging around St. Paul these days, offering advice and lore to the youthful circus stars at Circus Juventas.

Showing them the ropes, so to speak.

Willie Edelston, 87, and Tony Steele, 74, came up from Florida for the production of “Sawdust,” which starts this weekend at the youth performing circus in St. Paul's Highland Park area and runs through Aug. 15.

They have roles in the show. As Edelston puts it: “Two old fogies sitting on a bench” reminisce about their circus days, while the kids illustrate the memories with an array of circus acts and sketches. 

The boys and girls are learning more from the veterans than where to place their hands on the bar, or where to stand on the platform — the CJ coaches have handled that quite well, they say. Steele and Edelston are giving the kids firsthand stories of circus life inside the tent and on the road.

They've heard tales of train rides in unheated cars, box lunches grabbed on the go, setting up tents and pitching in on whatever tasks needed to be done to get the show on the road — and then set up again at the next stop.

Learning the lingo
And the lingo. Circus folk don't ask the whereabouts of a bathroom, they're looking for the doniker. A sold-out show is a straw house, because those without seats have to sit on straw bales. A circus performer is a kinker; townies are rubes. If a kinker yells out “Hey Rube,” it means come help, a fight is breaking out. Rookies in the circus are First of Mays; a second-year performer is a Johnny-Come-Lately.

Two of the actors in the show, Kate Cieslowski and Avery Young, both 17, seem to appreciate the living history that Edelston and Steele bring to the show.

“There's a big difference in acting in a show about the circus, and in imaging what it was really like after listening to them,” said Cieslowski, a senior at The Blake School. “They tell us: 'This is how it actually was. Now do it.' ”

Young, a senior at Minneapolis Southwest High School, said she loves hearing about circus life “from someone was there.”

Two high flyers
Edelston and Steele were top circus performers in their day.

Edelston and his wife, Anna, were part of a trapeze act in the 1950s and lived on trains as they traveled the country with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Here's a video of them with the Flying Hartzels.

They retired from the road, though, in 1959. “We wanted our children to get a regular education,” Edelston said.

He worked as a postman in Sarasota for 27 years, but never lost the circus bug. He began working with the Sailors Circus, teaching tumbling, hand balancing and flying trapeze acts to high-school students.

Edelston taught Dan and Betty Butler — the couple who run Circus Juventas — when they were in high school.

The Butlers met Steele about 10 years ago. He was a legend in circus circles, having run away to join the circus when he was 15. He became one of the most acclaimed trapeze artists of his generation, and in 1962 he was the first flyer to complete the 3½ back somersaults with a legs catch. That was the record until 1982, when someone completed a quadruple.

He still flies when he gets a chance, and here's a video of him a few years ago, when he was 71.

Earlier this year, Steele was inducted into the Circus Ring of Fame.

When the Butlers began planning their original Sawdust production, they envisioned Steele and Edelston as a thread for the storytelling in the show. They brought them to St. Paul in the spring to work with the kids and their coaches for several weeks, and the two returned earlier this month to put the finishing touches on the production.

Harder on the ground
Edelston and Steele were both flyers on the trapeze in their day, the guys who swing out, let go and then are caught in mid-air by the catcher. Then they release and fly back to their bar. “We're leapers — not lepers,” laughed Edelston.

Both said this acting business — they act almost as narrators for the show — is tougher than flying. They prefer being high in the air.

“It sure is different performing on the ground than up there,” Edelston said. “If we don't get it right, they'll bring out the hook.”

They both remember Vaudeville — when the hook was used to yank rank performers off the stage. Willie even worked some Vaudeville shows in night clubs and theaters, with a hand balancing act.

But they're doing just fine, says Betty Butler, and are in top form for the show’s run.

The two flyers say they hope they've helped the students understand more about the roots of circus. The best part for them: The CJ kids are “so crazy about circus,” Steele said.

“And I can't think of a better activity for kids; they build skills and they keep getting better and better and it keeps them interested,” he said.

Edelston said he likes to work with the kids, here and in Florida.

“I got help when I was younger and it's kind of a payback for me. And it's such a good activity,” he said.

The circus life
Do they recommend the circus life to the young Minnesotans?

“I'd tell them no,” Edelston said. “The business isn't like it was. I had a great experience, but to make a living at it now you've got to be really good. There's so much competition from performers around the world, who are usually willing to do it for a lot less money.”

Steele disagreed.

“I'd say right off the bat: Do it. There's a lot of doctors and lawyers out there who are miserable. This is a chance to do something that makes you happy.”

"Sawdust." Through Aug. 15. Circus Juventas, 1270 Montreal Ave., St. Paul. Showtimes and ticket prices vary. For more information, go here.

Joe Kimball writes about politics, St. Paul, the arts, and Greater Minnesota.