Legendary clown Charlie Chaplin’s son Eugene inherited his father’s love of the circus and founded the first international circus festival in Canada.

Eugene Chaplin has been a successful stage manager for opera and ballet, a recording engineer for famous rock and roll bands including the Rolling Stones and Queen, a documentary filmmaker, and president of Switzerland’s International Comedy Film Festival, but, he says, “my real love is traditional circus.” The child of legendary clown Charlie Chaplin (and the grandson of Nobel-prize winning playwright Eugene O’Neill) says he inherited his love of circus from his father. Growing up in Switzerland, the family lived near a Circus Knie tour stop. When the circus came to town, his father would invite the Knie family and all the circus artists back to the house for late-night drinks and a party. Chaplin was inspired: “From a very young age, I got to see these amazing artists. Circus is about a dream. One time, a Russian performer brought his bears to the party. He had a crocodile act, and he would hypnotize crocodiles in our house.” Chap...