06/19/2026
So you may be asking yourself, "Who or what IS Doench Amusement Company, anyway?"
For an answer, we need to go back to the early 1970s when a (relatively) young Coast Guardsman stationed aboard a lighthouse took up magic to pass the time. A few years later, that interest coupled with his lifelong fascination with circuses led him to associate himself and his family with an organization called the Middletown Youth Circus. Run through the Boys Club of Middletown, New Jersey, it was an activity that taught youth to perform circus acts ranging from tumbling to juggling to clowning. When the Boys Club pulled its support for the program, the guy who had been running the Middletown Youth Circus simply took it over as his own organization.
My sister Michelle and I were more involved in it than our younger brothers were. She and I performed a tumbling/balancing act together, and also had a low-wire act we had rehearsed. In addition, Michelle had a couple of balancing acts, while I did juggling/plate-spinning and clowning, as well as learning the art of being a sideshow magician.
We moved from New Jersey to Wisconsin in 1981, and Dad got the idea to start his own show—Circus Doench. He and I also still doid magic, so he created an "umbrella" company he called Doench Amusement Company. Most of the acts within Circus Doench were stuff that Michelle and I had already been doing, as well as Dad performing with goats and my stepmother performing with dogs. TDad and I shared the Ringmaster duties; he would serve during the first act, when I would perform, then after intermission I would take over and he would do his own acts. We always ended the performance with Dad doing magic.
By 1987, Circus Doench had folded its tent -- Michelle and I had both graduated from high school and were living lives as adults, and the other kids were not interested in continuing. Doench Amusement Company continued to book magician and clown appearances, and would continue doing so for another 20 years.
My father and stepmother both passed away in the summer of 2022. One of my brothers attempted to lay claim to the company name, but he never actually did anything with it. In the summer of 2026, I took up the name of Doench Amusement Company as my business name for the hand-painted wooden games and toys that I make and sell, and also with the intent of getting back into magic... possibly by training a new generation of magicians.
