Suitcase Circus founder dies

Reg taught a component of circus skills in my second year at Curtin ('87). I'd already worked with him in a circus musical in the 1986 Festival of Perth, and participated in several of his workshops prior to that. (I think Reg may have gotten me my first day of paid work as a performer..!) There were many times when I was learning from him, and when I was working with him (actually, I was always learning from him) that he inspired me and pushed me beyond what I thought was possible, because he had faith in my potential . It can be summed up by the incident in the class at Curtin: While I was in the process of learning to walk on stilts, Reg got the class's attention and led me to the centre of the stage. "Craig's now going to demonstrate - ..." I simply thought I was doing okay staying upright. "... - how to walk on ONE stilt." With that he ripped the velcro tabs off one leg, forcing me to prove in front of everybody that I could indeed do what he said I could. Because of his say-so, I managed to stay standing & hopping for far longer than it should have been possible, and when I fell I knew exactly how to fall safely...without really having thought about it. Reg just knew I already knew. I never really tried to repeat the trick...but from that moment on, TWO stilts was easy! A few years later, I was starring in a large scale musical on His Majesty's stage ('Barnum'...circus choreography by Reg) and I was well on the way to an established career. Everything up to that point had been either directly or indirectly guided by Reg with his infallible gift for teaching and his cheeky optimistic humour. Not only the skills, advice and attitudes he taught me, but what I saw of his teaching method with children, and his ability to entertain everybody, informed and inspired me to do what I've now been doing for 20 years. And I'm just one story of what must be tens of thousands around the world. At the National Circus Festival which was held at Rottnest a few years ago, Reg was in the process of archiving the history of circus in Australia, by getting all the national delegates to fill in, on a massive wall of butchers paper, a graph indicating who each participant was and the links to whoever was most responsible for their training and getting them started in Circus/performing. In the centre of all the 'tree branch' diagrams and complicated cross-links, it seemed all roads led back to...Reg. I shed a few tears when I heard the news; but rather than being 'sadly missed', he can never be anything but 'fondly missed'. An amazing, inspiring, man. See ya Reg. Good on ya mate. Craig ~<8>-/====\---------