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The article discusses the cultural role of circus in Brazilian 20th-century avant-garde movements, focusing on the Modernist literary movement and the Tropicália music movement. Subjects discussed include the relation between avant-garde movements and mass media in Brazil, the use of clowns as a symbolic identification by both Modernism and Tropicália, and the circus in Latin American literature. Public figures mentioned include singer Caetano Veloso, clowns Piolim (Abelardo Pinto) and Chacrinha (Abelardo Barbosa), and modernist Oswald de Andrade. [editor summary]