Whether balancing his role as a star performer in the Gamma Phi circus with schoolwork or his Chihuahua on his back during a show, Christian Stoinev manages to shine.
A sophomore broadcast journalism major, Stoinev did not have the typical upbringing of most college students. He is a fifth-generation circus performer on his mother’s side. His family’s 122-year-old circus legacy continues with his grandfather and two uncles running the biggest show in Mexico. Stoinev began performing when he was 5. Now he has a star role in Illinois State’s circus.
Prior to joining Gamma Phi, Stoinev traveled the world competing in festivals. He appeared in television commercials, on America’s Got Talent, and opened for Britney Spears on her “Circus” tour. His story has been chronicled in the PBS documentary Circus, which aired last fall.
And yet his most memorable performance took place as a freshman at Illinois State University during Gamma Phi’s April Home Show.
“The feeling when I performed at ISU was a big deal. It was my first full standing ovation, and it was in Redbird Arena, which is pretty big with 12,000 people. It was huge and it wasn’t about a competition. I was working with my peers. I wasn’t worrying about how I was going to rank up against the others. This was just about having a good time, and living it up,” Stoinev said. “That performance on Saturday night, it was amazing. It was just the best feeling ever.”
One of Stoinev’s most popular tricks is his ability to balance his whole body on one finger placed in a wine bottle. After discovering Stoinev’s unusual balancing talent through international competitions and festivals, Stoinev’s parents moved the family when he was 7. His father began performing with the Big Apple Circus, and four years later Stoinev joined him in the show.
He attended grade school and high school in the trailer of a semi truck with about 10 other performers. Stoinev’s college search began during the twelfth grade. The Big Apple Circus’ teacher gave him an interesting assignment. Since he intended to major in broadcast journalism, he was to write an article to White Tops Magazine, a popular circus publication.
Stoinev wrote about pursuing a circus career in college. When the editor of White Tops saw it, he told Stoinev about Illinois State’s Gamma Phi Circus.
“Going into college I didn’t really expect that there would be a circus program, neither was I counting on it. My main goal was to get a broadcast journalism degree. After writing the article is when I found out that ISU had Gamma Phi,” Stoinev said.
The editor of White Tops knew Al Light, who at that time was Gamma Phi’s director, and helped Stoinev get in touch with him. “And now I am here,” Stoinev said gesturing around the Quad. “That is how my journey began.”
Stoinev performs with his dog, Scooby.
For those familiar with the circus business, Stoinev is very well known for his amazing feats as a hand balancer and for performing with his dog Scooby, who came into Stoinev’s life when he was 10 years old. Like most kids that age, he really wanted a pet. His father suggested maybe the pet could be used in his act. Stoinev agreed, instantly seeing his opportunity slipping away if he did not.
Stoinev did not initially try to teach Scooby any tricks, but the dog knew what it meant to be in a circus family. While Stoinev was lying on the floor playing with Scooby, Stoinev rolled over and Scooby crawled across his chest, similar to a lumberjack running on a log in water.
From there Stoinev and Scooby began training together and learning more tricks. Now Scooby is part of the balancing act as well, perched on Stoinev’s back or feet in several acts.
“I get more nervous when I’m with the dog because it’s not just me. If I fall by myself, only I fall. But with Scooby, it’s somebody else’s life. He’s like my family member,” Stoinev said.
Despite his established act and acclaim, Stoinev looks up to his fellow performers in Gamma Phi, which is the oldest collegiate circus in the United States. It began in 1926 when Clifford “Pop” Horton, a gymnastics instructor for the University, gathered a group of men to perform during basketball and football games. In 1929 Gamma Phi was founded as a fraternity, not a circus. The first Home Show took place in 1931, and the tradition has continued since then with generations of talented students.
“Anybody who is involved in circus who didn’t start off in a circus family, which includes most of my peers here, I respect a lot just because I know sometimes circus has an image of being like a carnival or something like that, and it’s not like that. It’s really not. It’s family you know,” Stoinev said.
Family is what Stoinev misses most about home in Kissimmee, Florida. His mother, father, and brother Christopher, now 11, moved there after Stoinev stopped performing with the Big Apple Circus and was headed to college.
There are only two colleges in the nation with circus programs: Gamma Phi and The Flying High Circus at Florida State University. Accepted at both universities, Florida State seemed like the obvious choice since it is closer to his family—until Stoinev visited Illinois State’s campus.
He came to ISU for the two days of Preview and met Light. While showing Stoinev around the campus, Light took him out for ice cream with some students in Gamma Phi’s summer camp.
“It was two hours of bonding,” Stoinev said. “Everyone knew my name and who I was, and was very open to meet me, which was not what I expected. I was recruited here.”
One of Stoinev’s biggest fears about going away to college was not fitting in, since he has a unique upbringing and international background. He didn’t want people to assume he was arrogant because he is a well-known performer. Those worries subsided as he settled into Colby Hall’s third floor.
“C-three, as we call it,” Stoinev said. C-three also happens to be the title of a Lil’ Wayne CD that he and his friend Cornell Freeney enjoy. A sophomore elementary education major, Freeney does the German Wheel in Gamma Phi and endures intense workouts with Stoinev. The entire circus practices three nights a week from 7-9:30 p.m. Every session begins with group conditioning, and once a week the whole circus has a meeting.
Stoinev performs his signature move of balancing on a wine bottle with one finger.
In order to maintain his hand balancing ability, Stoinev makes that his focus for 60 to 90 minutes at every practice. When he isn’t training with Gamma Phi, he works out at the Recreation Center or the Atkin-Colby gym with Freeney.
Although Stoinev is an amazing hand balancer he also trains for different acts, which he doesn’t always master on the first try. Last year he started on the Russian Swing—an act that has the performer catapult off the swing, do a flip, and land on his feet. A spotter stood close by to catch him.
On his first try Stoinev flew off the swing into the flip and smacked his head into the spotter’s chin. It hurt and he was nervous, but Stoinev wasted no time heading back to the swing. The second time he flew into a flip and smacked the same part of his head on his spotter’s chin for a second time.
“I think I blacked out a little bit that time,” Stoinev said. Eventually he got it right through effort that shows Stoinev’s dedication to what he does. “At this point it’s not like I’m doing this, performing, for someone else. I do this because I love to,” he said.
As for Stoinev’s plans after graduating, his dream is to perform for a whole season in his family’s circus in Mexico, with his college degree as a backup, “so I don’t have to be 55 with a sore body and still trying to do a handstand,” he said.
While at ISU, school work and getting good grades is his main objective. “We all know what our priorities are here, and that’s school,” he said. “We all know that if we’re not going to be in school, we’re not going to be in circus.”
