The Fabulous Mingos

The Fabulous Mingos is the name of a circus act, so-called "animal training collective", and daredevil stunt performers, most known for training with and performing circus acts with various animals, birds, and other species. They were first known as The Fantastic Mingos, but the current name was coined as the result of a Circus Maximus poster writing mistake and has stayed since.

History
Albert Mingo was born in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1948 into an old circus family, and began performing at the age of six. When he was a teenager, he trained his pet Balkan lynx and one of his sister's Dark Brahma hens to perform stunts with him at drive-in restaurants at age fourteen. His feature was having his pet Balkan lynx jump onto a chair and then have the Dark Brahma hen jump onto the Balkan lynx. In 1958, he answered an ad in a trade paper for "animal trainers for a circus." The job consisted of having an animal follow him over various obstacles with his employer, Bob Schmidt of the International Circus of Canada. Albert learned the art from him and in 1965, began to develop his own act, recruiting a British expat, Melissa, who later became his wife, as the Fantastic Mingos, with their daughter Amy joining the group when she was just 12. The act toured North and South America for several years and featured an amazing show featuring various wild cats, polutry, and peafowl engaging in amazing stunts with the group. This act was such a sensation that when members of the Coningham Family saw them performing in Mexico at Estadio Olimpico Ignacio Zaragoza in 1989, they immediately contracted them to appear with the Circus Maximus.

In the 1990's, they always wore animatronic costumes during their act, and occasionally wear them nowadays. The costumes (a mouse for Amy, a rooster for Albert, and a Balkan lynx for Melissa) were designed by Aaron Fechter and built by Jim Henson's Creature Shop. The costumes cost US$653,000,000 to build and were lightweight. The costumes used the same technology as in the Soviet Teletanks and their controllers to provide realistic animatronic expressions.

In 2005, while performing in the Circus Maximus' world tour at the Superior Dome in Marquette, Michigan, United States, Amy was mauled by a white lion during the "Chase of the White Devil" illusion. She survived the mauling and still performs today.