To start a performance, speak to or right click the assistant fairy for that performance. For magic and ranged performances, first start the performance and then obtain the items needed for the performance from the chest. The agility performance, however, works the other way. First obtain any juggling items from the agility chest and then talk to the Agility assistant fairy to start the performance.

Note: Using emotes, according to the assistants, affects the performance score. However, emotes have very little affect on the performance compared to other things, because they only give 3 points each. In the grand scheme of things however, this could be the difference between your ringmaster set or clown set. Therefore it is still recommended that you do emotes. doing the same emotes on and on will decrease your score however! NOTE: a curtsy emote is the same as a bow emote, so don't think the audience will dislike your performance if you do a curtsy and a bow!

The level numbers associated with each Magic, Ranged and Agility trick are not requirements, only suggestions. The level 99 tricks can still occasionally be performed by someone with a much lower level (though a message will tell them that they barely succeeded) and someone with a skill far in excess of what is suggested can still occasionally fail. The numbers only indicate the likelihood of success.

Occasionally, the audience may shout for the player to do a certain trick.

Magic performance: spell casting

The Magic assistant fairy will give a quick guide on what players should do for the Magic performance. The Magic chest contains a selection of spell tablets, which can be used to cast spells such as levitate, alchemy, teleport, and elemental on each of the creatures, whilst doing different emotes to entertain the crowd. The crowd also shouts suggestions for which spells to go for, although following these suggestions may not necessarily lead you to more points.

Magic equipment

A stool getting alchemised.

The location for performing the Levitation spells.

The location for performing the Alchemy and Teleport spells.

The location for performing the Elemental spells.

The "Elemental spell".

Some of the Magical tablets used to cast spells:

Image	Type
	Teleport spell
	Levitation spell
	Alchemy spell
	Elemental spell

Levitation

Alchemy/teleport

Elemental

Ranged performance

Try not to hit the Fairy!

A player throwing knives at a target.

The Ranged assistant fairy will explain the details of the Ranged performance. She will elaborate on the Ranged equipment used, and how to perform the tricks. Using equipment such as knives, throwing axes, and a bow and arrows from the Ranged chest, players can fire at the targets.

There are 2 targets: a fixed booth with 5 targets, and a rotating target. The player takes 10 shots in total, 5 at each target. The booth may be shot at with any of the three ammunition types at any time, while the rotating target becomes limited to the first ammunition type that is used on it. For each target, players stand on one of the 10 spots, depending on the level of difficulty, with the highest level being the furthest from the target. Higher levels and using emotes contribute to a higher score. The crowd also shouts suggestions for which target to go for.

Ranged equipment

• Performance bow
• Performance knife
• Performance throwing axe
• Performance arrow

Agility performance

Can you couple it?

The Tightrope interface.

For the tricks, players have to enter the Agility area changing booth to change into the Acrobat costume. After the costume change, players appear by the high wire. Here, they can talk to the Agility assistant fairy to learn more about the tricks to perform. The assistant will provide a book called Tightrope 101, which basically shows all the tightrope tricks that can be performed.

There is also an Agility chest containing optional juggling equipment which can be used during the performance. The juggling equipment are based on Agility levels, with the higher levels most difficult to juggle but earn the most points. Lower level players may choose to juggle items with higher "requirements", but the chances of succeeding are slim.

In addition to the juggling act, players may opt to perform 10 tightrope tricks (such as "Backflips", "Handstand", etc.) The tightrope tricks also have difficulty levels ranging from level 10 up to level 99. In all, players need to perform 10 tricks, and will be rewarded depending on how entertaining they were. The crowd also shouts suggestions about what to juggle.

Tightrope tricks

These are the tricks players may perform:

Image	Name	Level	Experience	Barely succeed XP
	Small hop	10	310	155
	One-leg balance	20	419	209.5
	Twirl	30	830	415
	Handstand	40	833	416.5
	Cartwheel	50	1042	521
	Small leap	60	1354	677
	No-hand cartwheel	70	1354	677
	Forward roll	80	1354	415
	Large leap	90	1354	415
	Backflip	99	1354	415
	Juggle	-	Same XP as for the acrobatic stunt

Juggling equipment

A player juggling balls.

If a player has a Barrelchest Anchor Equipped before going up the steps to the tightrope, their character would be still in the position the player would be in if he were wielding the anchor.

There is no Target Fairy and no Penguin during your performance.

Some of the items used to juggle are as follows:

Image	Type	Level	Exp	Barely Succeed Exp
	Balls	10	312	151
	Plates	20	417	211
	Eggs	30	830	415
	Knives	40	833	416
	Spades	50	1042	521
	Tuna	60	1354	577
	Soap	70	1354	457
	Cannon balls	80	1354	700
	Torches	90	1354	780
	Chinchompas	99	1354	830

Maximising points

Which act

To maximise your points, you should perform the act that recommends level 99 in the corresponding skill every time (this is only recommended for players with the corresponding level at or above 70) (this is the method found best, though different audiences may prefer different acts, see locations below).

Costumes

With regards to costumes, the Game Guide says: wearing a costume ... may increase the audience appreciation (and your rewards, of course), and the Ringmaster says: Wear crazy costumes - the crazier the better. However, the definition of 'crazy' is undefined, and there is no way to tell exactly what qualifies as a costume.

Stat-boosting items

Using stat boosting items such as Magic and Ranging potions do not help to bolster your performance. This was confirmed by Jagex in mid-December, 2009.

Locations

The Game Guide also states: some locations have a specific audience with specific things that entertain them, so it's a good idea to experiment and find out what sorts of things will amuse the audience you're performing for. This means that each area will respond better to certain moves, emotes, and possibly costumes.
 

Emotes

Most players believe that using Emotes during the performance increases the points given, although this is yet to be confirmed by Jagex.

Rewards

A player wearing the Acrobat costume.

In addition to experience received during the performance, at the end of each performance, Balthazar Beauregard will tell players how well they have done and give them a reward.

The reward depends on the score obtained, and the players with a score of 1,201 or higher will have the chance of obtaining the coveted Ringmaster costume. The last 50 scores obtained by players (which is different for each world) is displayed at the Circus Performance Scoreboard accessed through the Ticket vendor.

Experience

Each unique activity during the performance (not including emotes), rewards the player with experience. Repeating any activity will result in no experience being given, so players wishing to use the highest level actions to maximise their points and gain the top-prize costumes do so at the expense of experience gain.

Each performance has some groups of seemingly different actions that are all considered to be the same, and will not give experience on attempting another action in that set:

• Magic - Each level of difficulty counts as one unique action, therefore performing a Teleport and an Alchemy spell on any one target will only give experience for the first attempt, and attempting to levitate and blast two different targets with the same suggested level will also result in no experience gain for the second one.
• Ranged - Each level of difficulty counts as one unique action, therefore taking the same level difficulty shot at both targets will only give experience for the first.
• Agility - All juggling tricks count as one unique action, therefore juggling any number of items with different levels of difficulty will only give experience for the first one. In addition, each level of difficulty counts as one unique action, so performing a juggling trick and agility trick with the same recommended level will result in gaining experience for only one.

Successful actions can be worth over 2,000 experience, and vary depending on the type of skill used. A total of around 17,710 Ranged, 25,006 Magic and 8,800 Agility experience may be gained from the performances if all tricks are unique and successful.

Circus costumes

The items received are as follows:

Costume	Items	Score
Audience		1-500
Acrobat		501-1,000
Clown		1,001-1,200
Ringmaster		1,201+

When destroyed, the circus costumes can be retrieved from Balthazar. In effect, the costume(s) can be stored in the circus to save bank space. Players can perform in each area once a week, and therefore earn 3 pieces of costumes each week.

Personalities

• Ringmaster
• Magic assistant
• Ranged assistant
• Agility assistant
• Circus barkers

Music

Music track unlocked:

• Circus

Trivia

The set of rocks that mark nearly all Circus locations.

• Almost all possible locations for the circus are marked by a unique set of rocks, sometimes with or without examine options. Jagex used similar markers with Fairy Rings before their release.
• Every Wednesday, the circus moves to another town. However, on the week of release, the town started at Seers' Village and then moved a day later to Catherby. This allowed many people to get complete sets of any uniform based on their performance.
• If a player logs out in the middle of any performance, upon logging back in the event, the player will automatically finish the performance and will be given a reward, preventing the player from starting where he/she left off.
• Players are unable to see other players in the circus.
• If players change gender after receiving a part of the Audience and Acrobat costume by going to the Make-over mage, when they wear the costume again, it magically switches into the appropriate gender. This is similar to what happens with the Prince and Princess outfits from the Frogs random event.
• Originally, some players were unable to begin the next week's performance even after waiting a week. Players would complete a week's performance and wait, only to be told that they had already done their performances the following week (even if they hadn't). It is unknown what caused this, but it appears to be fixed now.
• There was a glitch where if people wore circus clothes and got their gender changed by the Makeover Mage, any area they had circus clothes on would become invisible until the clothes were taken off. This has since been fixed.
• If you examine the rotating target, it says "Stay on target!" which is a reference to Star Wars.
• On the first day of release of the 2008 Thanksgiving event, performing the new Give Thanks emote on the tightrope would make the player return to their regular clothes instead of the tightrope uniform. The emote was disabled for that area the next day.
• If the circus is in Seers' Village the people in the crowd are all druids.
• When on the Agility Performance platform, if a weapon is equipped, then the player acts like they are holding an invisible weapon.
• When on the Agility Performance platform, male characters will always appear clean shaven regardless of the facial hair they have when elsewhere.
• The Circus barkers around Runescape call the circus "The greatest show on RuneScape", another reference to Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, also known as "The greatest show on earth".
• Several players experienced problems with the ranged performance regarding where to stand when the circus first came out.
• There used to be a glitch, where the "Tightrope" walk could be taken out of the circus. This was done by using another glitch before-hand, and using a "Penguin" emote on the tightrope. This would allow you to tear the circus ticket, and exit the circus. The player would appear outside, and be able to freewalk as if they were on a tightrope. This glitch was fixed on 26th October, along with the Halloween 2009 Update.
• Many players are enraged that you cannot choose your reward, as many high leveled players get a good score but want the Giant hand but they get the acrobat costume or above.