Reporter's Notebook: The Big Apple Circus

Nov. 3, 2010 — -- It is hard to put into words how exciting it was. My mom and dad would pile me and my sister in the car, and we would drive through the countryside, winding along those beautiful Massachusetts roads. Each curve meant my sister and I were getting closer and closer to the thrill and wonder for which we had patiently waited a whole year. Once we were parked and the car doors flung open, that's when we could smell the popcorn and cotton candy and the anticipation of seeing Grandma Clown and the high wire acts and horses and live band was almost unbearable.

I found my thirty-year-old self just as giddy while correspondent Jeremy Hubbard and I drove to Manville, New Jersey to spend a day with the Big Apple Circus. It was really a dream come true to be able to meet so many people who brought me such joy as a little girl. The Big Apple Circus invited ABC News Nightline to hang out with them as they geared up for the premiere of "Circus" – a six part documentary premiering November 3rd on PBS. The documentary not only brings the beauty and spectacle of the show under the tent to people's living rooms, it also explores the drama that unfolds outside the tent. The everyday triumphs and conflicts that are bound to come about when you put 150 performers on the road for eight months make for truly riveting television.

After pulling up to that familiar tent pitched in the middle of a usually-deserted lot, the first person we meet is Guillaume Dufresnoy. The Play On! season which is featured in the PBS documentary marks the last year that legendary Big Apple founder and ringmaster Paul Binder served as artistic director. He has since handed over the role to Defresnoy who beams with pride as he gives us a tour of the grounds.

"It surprises me even sometimes but I do get the magic," says Defresnoy who ran away with the circus 30 years ago. "To me the magical feeling is when you catch a grandfather and his grandson walking away from the circus and they ask each other what did you like? What did you like? Moments like that really touch me."

He brings us over to where the animals -- goats, ponies and a terrifyingly huge rodent -- live. One aspect of the Big Apple Circus that sets it apart from the others is that you will never see an elephant or a lion here.

"No wild animals," says Defresnoy. "It's very important to us, we do always partner with animals, but they are domestic animals and they're really part of the family here. Each trainer owns the animals and the relationship is there all the time."

And when they become senior citizens, they aren't kicked to the curb. "When the animals are getting too old to perform they stay with the family always," Defresnoy adds. "So it's a very important partnership that we want to make sure we protect."

We continue our walk, passing trailer after trailer. Some are sleepers, some are offices, one is the "cookhouse" where a staff of three prepares enough food to feed over a hundred people three times a day.

And then we arrive at the trailer of my all-time favorite Big Apple Circus performer, the legendary Barry Lubin who plays Grandma Clown. This man is not just a guy who throws on a wig and some silly makeup to crack kids up. Lubin is a true artist and a master of his medium. His comedic timing and inspired choreography are simply brilliant. Having been a fan since I was in diapers, I could not wait to shake Mr. Lubin's hand and tell him how much my family and I have always loved him.

Lubin welcomes us into his cozy little home on wheels and could not have been kinder. As he puts on his makeup, he tells us how even after 36 years, he still loves being a clown.

"Every day there is a new audience and if you pay close attention," Lubin says, "they are all having an experience that they've never had before and that means I'm having an experience I've never had before. It's very exciting. "

Despite the excitement and joy he feels every day, during the filming of "Circus" Lubin faces a major health scare when he is diagnosed with thyroid cancer. He found that his time as Grandma helped him deal with the fear and struggles that came with the illness.

"I mean you're out there in front of 1,500 people," he explains, "you're trying to give them a good time and for that period of time you can certainly escape from what you're going through. You have to."

And his prognosis? "I have had great follow-ups and everything is absolutely clean," he tells Nightline. "It looks like I have a clean bill of health and I am a very lucky transvestite."

We leave Lubin's trailer and head for the heart of this mobile city – the circus tent. There we meet the co-creators and executive producers of "Circus," Maro Chermayeff and Jeff Dupre. We ask them why they chose to make a documentary about the circus."We wanted to explore the circus and see what that fantasy aspect's about," Dupre explains. "But also to understand what the other side of it's like, what are their lives like. We knew we would have great characters, that the stakes were high, what they're doing is very dangerous, and so we decided it would just be a great subject."

"The visuals were incredible and the sense of color and the sort of magic and the fantasy," Chermayeff adds, "But then we also really wanted you to see it from their perspective which is why we had that specialty camera work where you really sort of get in the ring and understand it from their perspective."

They filmed some acts with a phantom camera, used mostly for big budget feature films, which shoots 300 frames per second. They also mounted helmet cameras on the flying acts which highlight that, while these performers seem to fly through the air which such ease, these feats are truly terrifying and undeniably dangerous.

"We wanted to really emphasize the contrast between this sort of illusion and this amazing performance that they create, and then their lives in what they call the backyard where the trailers are parked and the real heart of the circus beats," Dupre says.

Outside the tent in the backyard we meet Ephrain "Smiley" Diaz from the ring crew. While it may seem like what he does is nothing but grunt work, he clearly takes pride in his work.

"We're in towns where sometimes the land that we're on is not that great looking," he explains. "But then we come in there and we make it look beautiful and now there's a circus in town, you know?"

After the interviews were over we were lucky enough to sit in on that night's performance. This season's show is called Dance On! I split time between eating popcorn and taking in the whimsical performance, and bringing my camera backstage to see this beautiful, albeit strange, family stretching and warming up together, getting ready to knock the socks off of the hundreds of kids sitting wide eyed in their seats. Well, hundreds of kids, and one happy thirty-year-old.

"Circus" premieres Wednesday, November 3rd at 9PM Eastern on PBS. And if you live in the New York City area, you can go see Dance on! live at Lincoln Center until January 9th.