Background
Josh Routh grew up in a working-class neighborhood of Florissant in Saint Louis Missouri.
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Josh Routh
Edit ProfileEducation
Josh trained at the Circus Center in San Francisco, California and attended the Clown Conservatory where he graduated "Class Clown".
Career
The Conservatory is where Josh found his alter ego "Tchotchke Kaputnik". As Tchotchke, Josh has performed with The New Pickle Circus (formerly the Pickle Family Circus, The San Francisco Youth Circus, The Much Ado Shakespeare Circus and Velocity Circus. When he is not performing, Mr.
Routh lectures on the circus arts
He has been a guest lecturer for the American Youth Circus Organization, Metro Theater Company, Circus Center, and Washington University. In an interview with Wayne Keyser of Ballycast, he blames his circus career on his mother who didn"t know what to do with him.
He had many behavior and learning disabilities. She thought that clowning would fix lieutenant
He took a class on clown at age 12 and fell in love with lieutenant
By the age of 15 he began traveling with a carnival company on weekends and summers. By the age of 18 he had performed in 42 states. In his early twenties he moved to San Francisco and trained at the Circus Center where he began forming what would one day be Circus Kaput.
He was given the name Tchotchke Kaputnik by Peggy Ford, one of Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey"s earliest female clowns.
Mississippi Ford and master clown Jeff Raz shaped Tchotchke into a workable acting After one year of training he began performing with the New Pickle Circus under the direction of Gypsy Snider and Shana Carroll two alums of the original Pickle Family Circus and Cirque Du Soleil.
They had been creating a new kind of theatrical circus with their troupe Les 7 Doigts de la Main and were taking the Pickles in a new direction with their show Circumstance. The work he created with them informed his artistic aesthetic for years to come.
Two years later he moved back to Saint Louis and began creating and directing his own shows under the banner of Circus Kaput in the circus ring at the City Museum.
He mostly performed benefit shows with a small troupe. Slowly over the years momentum has grown and now Circus Kaput performs nationally for many kinds of events and festivals. in 2011 he was asked to take part in the Kennedy Center"s Very Special Arts festival at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington District of Columbia. Aside from creating shows with Circus Kaput Josh"s other current project is a comedy juggling and stunt show called Death By Tickle - Astounding Feats of Absurdity that has been running for 9 years as the opening act of the Saint Louis Shakespeare Festival. He also directs plays and teaches in Saint Louis.
2003 awarded a Centre for Alternative Technology Fellowship through the Saint Louis Regional Arts Commission and Webster University for his work as a social artist
2004 guest performer for the Major League Baseball World Series Gala
2007 he was a featured performer at the Midwest Magic Jubilee.
2011 Performed at the Smithsonian Museum as a part of the Very Special Arts Festival
2013 Performed sword swallowing at the Ripley"s Believe lieutenant or Not Museum
Sword Swallowing
Clown - Studied under Jeff Raz and Peggy Ford
Magic - Studied under Harry Monti
Acrobatics - Studied under Master Acrobat Lu Yi
Juggling
Fire Eating
Hypnosis.
