Taking the center ring

Brian Crawford Scott had never even been to the circus when he went to an audition in New York, where the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus was looking for a new ringmaster.

Scott was a starving artist at the time, living from paycheck to paycheck while waiting tables and auditioning. “Out of the blue,” Scott says by phone from the mile-long circus train, “I got an email from a friend, who said I ought to try for this one.”

After he got the job, he says, “They took me out to see the previous edition — I was a kid again! — I’d never seen anything like it. When I saw it, I knew there would be a steep learning curve, that I would have to adjust my thinking as a performer from the musical theater to the circus. It has a huge history that is its own, its own vocabulary and mind set. A lot of pride.

“There is a very individual aura about the circus, not to mention so many cultures that have their own histories, that come together to make the show.”

Now his name is the top of the list of performers for “Fully Charged,” the biggest of the company’s four current touring shows, and his home is a private room on the train, which will be rolling into San Jose for a run at HP Pavilion, Wednesday through Aug. 21. After that, there are shows Sept. 1-5 at the Cow Palace, then Sept. 8-11 at Oracle Arena in Oakland.

His mother, who works for a Silicon Valley tech company, and his brother, a student at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, will be at the San Jose shows. His father, who lives in Northern California, will see him when the huge train, carrying the 330 performers, production staff, animal trainers and concessionaires, gets to Sacramento.

Scott started performing in San Jose and Morgan Hill, after falling in love with musical theater while at Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill. He did a lot of school and local theater in the South Bay, then earned a bachelor’s in musical theater performance at the University of Northern Colorado.

He’d done summer stock in New Haven, and dinner theater in Colorado and musicals in Southern California — then came the move to New York, the shot at Broadway and the reality of waiting tables.

Scott is 6-foot-3, which “absolutely” was a factor in why he got the ringmaster job. “The circus has a tradition of that the ringmaster be a tall, baritoney man with a commanding presence,” he says. “It was on the call sheet.”

Singing is part of the job — Scott has three major production numbers — and movement is important. “I use my arms a lot, gesture, point a lot — ringmasters are good at pointing. I am comfortable and confident in my body, and that is what I present to the audience.”

But no dancing. “We have a bevy of beautiful Brazilian girls who do the dancing,” he says.

Scott, who turned 25 on Saturday and has been on the show’s tour since January, said he is thoroughly enjoying his job. “I love the opportunity to perform in front of so many people,” he says. “I am enjoying traveling on the circus train.

“And it’s taught me a lot about myself as a performer. I’ve never done this much volume, this many shows a week. I’m learning about who I am, what my limits are, what steps I must take to be able to perform.”

One of those steps, Scott notes, was to stop talking outside of the ring on three-show days.

“I only speak when I’m performing. I only sing when I’m on the floor. Otherwise, I don’t speak to anybody. It has become a big joke among the crew. They think it’s funny, and they like to pick on me during the shows.”

But Scott is still struck by the skills shown by the people of the circus. “There are amazing performers from all around the world,” he says, noting that as he rehearsed for the show, he often had to wait for translation of instructions. “Acrobats, the Human Fuse, the strong man — I do lighthearted introductions to get the energy going.”

“Fully Charged” is the debut show for Nicole Feld and Alana Feld, who are the first women producers of “The Greatest Show on Earth.” The sisters follow in the footsteps of their father, Kenneth Feld, who had taken over from his father, Irving Feld, a rock producer who, with partners, bought the circus for $8 million in 1967.

The Felds are very aware of modern competition for audience attention. They urge people to unplug from their cellphones and game consoles for a couple of hours and enjoy the spectacle of live entertainment.

The Feld sisters were sitting on the other side of the folding table when Scott auditioned, along with talent scouts and other circus people. Scott has the job now, as he knows, at the discretion of the producers. It’s a job — only the 36th ringmaster in the 141 years of Ringling Bros. — that he wants to keep.

“I’m enjoying myself; I’d like to continue doing it, absolutely,” he says. “But, for newer editions (each edition has a two-year run), whether they want me is at the discretion of the producers.

“My goal is to continue performing. The circus, or Broadway, or anywhere. If I’m performing, I’ll be happy.”