For National Unicycle Day: The King Charles Troupe

This year National Unicycle Day falls on May 18, and we want to use the opportunity to plug the King Charles Troupe!

The unique Bronx based troupe can trace its origins to 1918 when Jerry King saw an acrobat cross a tightrope on a unicycle at the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus. The kernel of his own troupe started with his own son Charles King decades later. In 1958, they formed a formal club as a community based program to give neighborhood kids something positive to do. The kids themselves augmented the troupe’s appeal by adding basketball to the act (they’re basically like the Harlem Globetrotters, but on unicycles). In 1969 they were featured on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, which led to them becoming the first all-black act to be hired by Ringling Brothers. In the decades since they have been seen with Siegfried and Roy, the Universoul Circus, and America’s Got Talent, et al. I’ve seen several of their members of course as part of The Bindlestiff Family Cirkus’s annual NYC Unicycle Festival. Since 2023, they have officially been based out of Las Vegas. It’s a long way from the Bronx!