Norman Barrett MBE (b.1935) is arguably the world's greatest ringmaster who was awarded an MBE in 2010. He was brought up around his family's own show and performed his first animal act aged twelve, with a goat and two dogs. He worked professionally in the circus from the age of seventeen, becoming an accomplished equestrian, juggler and budgerigar trainer as well as the man affectionately known in the circus world as 'lord of the ring'. He became a ringmaster for the first time in 1957 for Roberts Brothers' Circus and was the ringmaster for Bertram Mills' last tenting show in 1964, and their last three circuses at Olympia. In 1990 Norman Barrett was a subject of the television programme This Is Your Life, filmed at the Blackpool Tower Circus. He lives in Blackpool, and for many years has worked with a circus in Germany during the winter, and as ringmaster of Zippos Circus in the UK during the summer, also presenting his famous budgie act.

After beginning his performing career as Zippo the clown in the 1970s, Martin Burton started Zippos Circus in 1986 as a non-animal show comprising four clowns, two jugglers and a pianist, with a stage instead of a circus ring. Zippos is now one of the UK's top three circuses, touring the country from April to October. Its spin-off, Cirque Berserk!, which started out at Hyde Park's Winter Wonderland in 2012, tours the UK from January to March, performing in theatres