In The Amazing American Circus, you’ll meet many characters, both historical and those known from American folklore. Some of them will become your friends; some will become your opponents who’ll try to stop you from becoming the most famous circus entrepreneur in the world. However, such chance encounters and bitter rivalries won’t work without a strong core of the main characters we wish to introduce today.
Main hero - a young, 20-25 years old youngster, down on his luck, not sure what to do with his life, and seeking answers in drinking dens and on the road, going devil only knows where. One day, a chance for a change appears, though the protagonist receives a letter from his mother telling him about his father’s death in the grimmest of ways. They have never been close, but the main character immediately returns home. He learned that his father left him an unusual inheritance: an old, run-down, but still ready for the road circus. Has fate finally smiled upon our young hero? Is this what he’s been looking for all these years? A chance to turn his life around and become SOMEONE; someone respectable, who’ll make his mother proud and who’ll honor his father’s name. They may have been estranged for quite some time, but, well - family is family.
Father - the main hero’s father, Arthur Jones, was one of the most famous circus performers - once. The moment the older man kicks the proverbial bucket, his days of glory are long gone, and the once fabulous circus is to him nothing more than a pile of cloth and bitter memories. Like many other men, he tried to find answers at the bottom of a bottle of whiskey and a pint of upset, and like so many before him. He found nothing more than an endless hole where he kept falling and falling until he finally hit bottom and died. Still, in the last few months of his life, his biggest regret turned out not to be the fame he’d lost but the son he’d pushed away. Deep down, he always hoped his son would follow his footsteps and become an even more famous ringmaster than his old man. This is why he left the protagonist the circus - the only thing of value he’d ever had in his life.
Mother - the main hero’s mother is a strong woman with a no-bullshit attitude. Beautiful and adventurous in her youth, she fell for the protagonist’s father - a slightly older but famous and wild circus performer. Still, a happily ever afterlife wasn’t meant for them. When they finally decided to settle down and have a child, they both left their best years far behind. Her husband was hardly ever home, trying to continue his career, spending all their money, but the older he got, the harder it was for him to keep up with the new, young, and talented circus artists. Finally, he gave up on his dream and joined his wife to live off of the small land they managed to get. But while she worked hard, he took to drinking; and while she blamed him for their misfortunes, he continued drinking. In the end, his death, though sad, was a relief to her - and a chance that maybe her son will become successful and take care of her - as a good child should.
Uncle Jack - the protagonist’s uncle is an always drunk ne'er-do-well and a brother of the protagonist’s father. Once a famous circus performer, Jackie the High rope, was known across the country. But he too shared the fate of his brother, and they both lost fame and fortune and took to drinking, seeing no other future for them. Still, there was a difference in their approach to the new, and gloomy, life - while the protagonist’s father was becoming more and more miserable, uncle Jack was becoming more and more miserable… and hearty, and loud. Always happy to drink with anyone, be it a stranger or a friend, he managed to avoid the life of a hobo only thanks to the protagonist’s mother, who took pity on her brother-in-law and let him live with her. However, now, when the main hero inherits the once glorious circus, Jackie the High Rope sees it as a chance for him to return to the life he once had. And while he won’t be doing any tightrope walking, he intends to enjoy himself as much as he can, living - and drinking, of course - among young and glamorous artists.