More in the News

Feeling right at home with Kent Family Circus
SPECIAL TO THE REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN
You could call them a modern-day Partridge Family of sorts. But instead of singing pop tunes with musical instruments in hand, they’re mesmerizing audiences with magical illusions and other incredible feats. When Victor Kent and six of his seven children pile into the family van with a 14-foot equipment trailer in tow, it means only one thing: it’s time for the Kent Family Magic Circus to perform.
"I’ve been performing since I was 7," Victor, now 43, said of his roots in entertainment. By the time he was 11 he had established a backyard carnival to raise nickels and dimes for the annual Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Association Labor Day Telethon.
"When I was 16, I actually produced a show for the telethon in the San Fran-cisco Bay area," he recalled.
MET IN COLLEGE
Victor became a full-time magician/clown at 19, performing in local restaurants and bars in and around his hometown of Milpitas, Calif. "During the dinner hours I was a clown with magic tricks and by the time 10 o’clock rolled around I was simply the magician in the bar," he said of his aspiring career. But the bar scene soon grew tiresome and he decided to leave show business all together to pursue a degree in Japanese culture and language at San Francisco State University. It was there that he met his future wife, Mami, an exchange student from Japan who was majoring in English.
They fell in love and went to Japan to get married while Victor was still in college.
"I worked for a company in Japan
See CIRCUS, Page 42B

Circus
Continued from 42
after we were married, but really hated it," he said of the experience overseas. "Mami told me to do what I love (entertain), so I developed a new act in Japan in the early ‘90s." The Kents had two children while living in Japan. Mami returned to California with the youngsters in September of 1995, while Victor remained abroad to honor performance contracts.
BEST GIFT FROM SANTA CLAUS
"They (family) thought I wouldn’t be back until mid-January but I was able to work things out and surprise them by coming home Christmas day," Victor said of an early arrival back to the United States. "With help from family and friends I got hold of a Santa suit and came to my parents’ house where my family was over for a surprise. Each of my kids sat on my lap but I only revealed myself once my wife sat on my lap. I asked, in a Santa voice: ‘What do you want for Christmas?’" Mami replied: "I want my husband home." Victor took off the Santa cap, beard and wig and she went speechless. "It was great," he said of that special holiday season.
Today the Kent Family Magic Circus consists of Victor and children, Jim, 19, Cynthia, 17, Miles, 15, Victor, Jr., 8, Amelia, 6 and Olivia, 3.
They call the Northern California community of Oroville home, but during the summer the troupe generally has a grueling coast-to-coast tour schedule. That means spending hours together over the road in the 15-passenger van and sharing hotel rooms between performance stops.
Mami remains home with their 11-year-old son, Titus, who is physically challenged.
YOUNG PERFORMERS
Both Jim and Cynthia became members of Victor’s magic show before they were 5 years old.
"As each of our children joined the show, it meant leaving a toddler crying at the door when we left to go perform," he said of incorporating the youngsters into the act. "It broke my heart leaving them behind, so I found ways to put our toddlers in the show. Some of them took to it like fish to water, while others were a little goofy on-stage." While performing at a summer fair, Jim, 10 at the time, met a juggler who started teaching the youngster some routines. Enthused about his newly-discovered art, Jim worked up an act of his own and began performing in the family’s show in 1999, bringing variety to what was generally a magic-only performance.
Today he is known as "Jugglin’ Jim" and wows audiences with a variety of stunts using pins, flaming wands, spinning tops and a unicycle. In 2003 the Kent Family Magic Circus was officially born, making a transition from what was formally known as the Kent Family Magic Show. "By the time the kids turn 10, they each decide which direction they want to go with the show," Victor reflects. Cynthia turned to clowning but is also an integral part of numerous illusion acts. The current production is billed as being a "magical, Vaudeville, variety, circuslike show."
MEET ‘INDIANA MILES’
Then there is "Indiana Miles," who has become a master of the bullwhip by snapping a finger trap out of Victor’s mouth with a single stroke.
"He has caught me accidentally with it (whip) on occasion," Victor said of the act. The most memorable incident was when the fall of the whip hit Victor on the head. "The cracker (long snapping tip) came around my head and face, and as the cracker made its ‘crack,’ it hit the finger trap. It was a once in a lifetime shot and quite hilarious." A startled Victor was uninjured by the miscue though the cracker of the whip — traveling 900 mph — left some "road burn" on one cheek.
Victor, Jr., Amelia and Olivia all have their place in the show as they assist with illusions and some of the circus-style acts. "Because the kids have grown up knowing we have to be on the stage, they are ready when it’s time to perform," Victor said of the children.
WHAT TO EXPECT
The Kent Family Magic Circus comes to Quassy Amusement Park’s Vacation Village Resorts Lakeside Theatre Stage Aug. 3-16. Three shows will be presented Sunday through Thursday at 1, 3 and 5 p.m., with four shows on Friday and Saturday at 1, 3, 5 and 7 p.m.