Overcoming Bullying Through Circus | James Bustar
Overcoming Bullying Through Circus | James Bustar
For James Bustar, overcoming bullying was not about proving the people who bullied him wrong or turning a difficult childhood experience into a neat success story. What ultimately changed his life was finding an environment where the things that made him different were no longer reasons to stand out. Long before James became a professional comedy juggler, performed around the world and built a career spanning more than two decades, he was a kid struggling to find where he belonged.
Born in Kingston upon Thames and raised for part of his childhood in Newcastle upon Tyne, James moved to Sydney with his family when he was eleven. Arriving at a new school with a Geordie accent, a lisp, a tall and skinny frame and interests that were not necessarily shared by the other kids around him made adjusting difficult. James had already experienced bullying before moving to Australia, but during his school years in Sydney it became an increasingly significant part of his experience. At the same time, however, he was discovering something that would eventually provide a completely different direction for his life: circus.
Discovering Juggling and Circus
James’ introduction to circus came during a family holiday at Club Med Lindeman Island, where members of the resort’s circus team introduced him to juggling and flying trapeze. He had already developed an interest in magic and performance, but juggling quickly became an obsession. He practised constantly, spent his pocket money on equipment and became fascinated by the process of taking a skill that initially seemed impossible and gradually learning how to do it.
At school, however, being passionate about juggling did not necessarily make life easier. It was another unusual interest that separated James from many of the people around him, and something he could be singled out for. Looking back, James does not believe that being bullied somehow made him stronger or that the experience was necessary for what came later. The important part of his story was discovering that the environment he was in at the time was not the only environment available to him.
That became particularly clear when James completed work experience with the Flying Fruit Fly Circus in Albury-Wodonga. For the first time, he found himself surrounded by young people who also spent hours learning circus skills, performing, training and pursuing interests that would have seemed unusual in an ordinary schoolyard. Instead of trying to explain why he wanted to juggle, he was suddenly among people who understood it. During the placement, James sent his parents a message that captured how dramatically different the experience felt: “I’m in Heaven.”
Finding Belonging Instead of Trying to Fit In
There is an important difference between fitting in and belonging. Fitting in can require changing parts of yourself to become more acceptable to the people around you, while belonging comes from finding an environment where those parts of you are already accepted. Circus became that environment for James, and his parents could see the effect it was having on him.
Rather than dismissing circus as an unrealistic hobby, they listened when James told them how strongly he felt about pursuing it. At sixteen, he left his existing school environment and moved to Albury-Wodonga to join the Flying Fruit Fly Circus. It was a major decision for a teenager and his family, but it did not mean abandoning education. James continued his schooling, completed his Victorian Certificate of Education and gained a Certificate III in Multimedia while training, touring, performing and beginning to teach circus skills.
The path was unconventional, but that was precisely why it worked. James had found an environment in which his interest in performance was not something sitting awkwardly beside his education. It was part of it. More importantly, he had found a community where being passionate about something unusual did not automatically make him an outsider.
When the Thing That Made You Different Becomes Your Career
The juggling that once made James stand out in the schoolyard eventually took him around the world. After leaving the Flying Fruit Fly Circus, he returned to Sydney and spent several months busking at Circular Quay before travelling to Japan for his first major international contract. More professional opportunities followed, including work at Club Med, cruise ships, theatres, festivals, television and corporate events.
James went on to become a semifinalist on Australia’s Got Talent, perform at Glastonbury Festival and London Wonderground, appear in consecutive summer seasons at Cromer Pier in the United Kingdom and establish multiple unusual juggling records. His career has taken him through Australia, the UK and international entertainment markets, with comedy and juggling becoming the foundation of his professional life. You can read more about James Bustar’s career as a comedy entertainer and the experiences that followed those early years in circus.
There is an obvious irony in the fact that something that once contributed to James feeling different eventually became his profession, but he is careful about the lesson he takes from that. The bullying was not responsible for his success and does not need to be reframed as something positive simply because his story eventually went in a positive direction. What mattered was being listened to, having parents prepared to consider an unconventional path and finding a community in which the qualities that separated him from one group of people helped connect him with another.
Overcoming Bullying Is Not Always About Changing Yourself
Stories about overcoming bullying can sometimes focus heavily on teaching a young person how to become more confident, resilient or capable of dealing with the people bullying them. Those things can be valuable, but James’ experience raises another question: what if the young person does not need to become a different person? What if they also need an opportunity to discover where the person they already are fits?
For James, the answer happened to be circus, but that will obviously not be the answer for every young person. Someone else’s place might be music, sport, theatre, gaming, technology, dance, art, volunteering or a community built around an interest that the adults around them barely understand. An unusual obsession may remain a hobby, or it may unexpectedly become a career. The important thing is that it can provide connection, purpose and an opportunity to meet people with whom that young person has something meaningful in common.
When James’ parents allowed him to pursue circus seriously, they could not have known exactly where it would lead. There was no guarantee that their sixteen-year-old son practising juggling would eventually turn that skill into a career that would take him around the world. What they could see was that he had found somewhere he was happier, more engaged and surrounded by people who shared his interests. Their willingness to recognise that was one of the most important parts of his story.
From Finding a Circus Community to Helping Build One
More than two decades later, connection remains an important part of James’ life and work. He now shares that life with his partner, circus artist Kylie Simpson, who is also his business partner and the founder of Cirqular Entertainment. James serves as Managing Director of the company, working alongside Kylie to create entertainment, develop productions and provide opportunities for professional circus artists and performers.
James and Kylie also perform together through Chaos Meets Circus, combining Kylie’s aerial and circus background with James’ comedy and juggling. In some ways, it brings the story full circle. As a teenager, James needed to discover a community where being a circus performer was completely normal. Today, he and Kylie are part of creating and supporting that community for other performers.
That is perhaps the most meaningful part of James’ experience of overcoming bullying. The story is not really about a bullied kid eventually becoming successful enough to prove somebody wrong. It is about what happened when that kid discovered there was a much bigger world beyond the environment he was struggling in, and that somewhere within that world were people who understood exactly why he wanted to spend hours throwing things into the air and catching them again.
Read James Bustar's Full Bullying and Belonging Story
James has documented his experience in greater detail in From Schoolyard Bullying to Finding Belonging Through Circus, including his experiences with bullying, discovering juggling, joining the Flying Fruit Fly Circus, the role his parents played in supporting an unconventional education and the professional career that followed.
His experience is ultimately less about telling young people that everything will eventually work out and more about recognising how important belonging can be. Sometimes the interests that make someone feel different in one environment can become the exact things that connect them to people somewhere else. For James, finding that somewhere else happened to mean running away to join the circus.
James Bustar is available for interviews, podcasts and media features discussing his lived experience of school bullying, finding belonging through circus, unconventional education, professional entertainment and building a career around the interest that once made him stand out.