Bo the Clown

Derek Carpenter performed as Bo the Clown, combining clowning and street entertainment with Punch and Judy puppetry, unusual bicycles and storytelling. He moved to Newcastle in 2000; by the time of a 2013 circus-history profile, he had been a clown for forty years.

His son Charlie joined the act as a toddler, appearing at the age of two in a comic routine that pretended to fire him from a cannon. Charlie later trained at Circomedia and developed a career in aerial performance.