by Dawn Boyer

With a B.F.A. in musical theater under his belt, Kevin Venardos ’98 left South Hill and headed straight to the Big Apple. "New York City is where I wanted all my dreams to come true," he says. Which made perfect sense, since Broadway was the stuff Venardos’s dreams were made of. Little did he know that after two years of barely scraping together enough to live on, he’d land the leading role in the longest-running hit in show-business history.

It all began in October 2000, when Venardos saw an ad in Backstage. He auditioned, got called back the same day, and received the news on Halloween night: at age 24, Kevin Venardos was to become the 34th, and the youngest, circus ringmaster for Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey’s Greatest Show on Earth.

Now he’s having the time of his life traveling the country in a circus train that stretches over a mile long, performing in costumes that, he says, "would make Liberace blush," and doing his part to make a huge show run smoothly. All 130 performers depend on him to give the right cues --- one mistake, and the effect can be domino. It’s all theatrical and dangerous and thrilling, but the most important part of the job for Venardos, he says, is making people happy: "There’s a magic people believe in at the circus. When I see the joy in their eyes that comes from the magic, it’s the most wonderful gift."

Spreading joy and uniting people mean a lot to Venardos these days. Like countless others, he was badly shaken after September 11. He decided to focus on his job as a way to remedy some of the pain. "I realized I was part of something that had the power to shine some light," he says. He begins each show with the national anthem and says that he now sings it with deeper feeling.