The woman who lived four times: horsewoman, television personality, then “the life of a skier when I wasn’t working” and finally an entrepreneur. «Alone, since my husband is no longer here»
“I am the woman of four lives.” Ambra Orfei, 59 years old, she is the woman who lived four times – mejo of Kim Novak who had stopped at two —, a surname that immediately becomes a tentpole, a circus dynasty that refers to tamers and trapeze artists. First a horsewoman, then a showbiz and TV woman, then “the life of a skier when I wasn’t working”, finally an entrepreneur, “alone, since my husband unfortunately no longer exists”.
What was it like growing up in a circus?
«It was like living in toyland, I went to feed the elephants, played with the chimpanzees, petted the lions. It felt like we were always on holiday.”
A nomadic life, different from that of all the other kids: did she miss what the others had?
«On the contrary. I looked at them and thought: how sad, poor things, they go home in the evening and it’s all dark, but here it was a celebration of lights, colors and music.”
Did you live in a trailer?
«In trucks used as residences. My house was built like a train, developed lengthways. Imagine a carriage with all the rooms in a row, then joined by a large living room with an eat-in kitchen. It was a large four-room apartment, better than many houses today.”
The school?
«The primary school was an official school within the circus with teachers sent by the state who followed us on tour. In middle school there was an itinerant teacher with us: in the last two months we stopped at a boarding school in Treviso and prepared for exams.”
A papal debut, launched by Paul VI at just 11 years old.
«I was the first artist to perform in front of a Pope, I did a number with trained doves. That little girl dressed in white with the doves sent a strong message of peace that went around the world.”
How the hell do you train a pigeon?
«With a lot of patience, having short exercises repeated many times, in small doses, because the doves get tired quickly».
She was also precocious as a presenter: at 16 she was alongside Buzzanca in «Scatolone», a variety show about the circus.
«I have the memory of a protective Lando Buzzanca, like a father, very different from the canon of the male blackbird that he represented. A person of extreme kindness, very nice.”
Then «Drive In».
«Tinì Cansino was at the head of the Fast Food girls, I was leading the Acrobates. I did the breaks and had the comic gags with Beruschi, I was his sidekick, we still remain friends today.”
The atmosphere?
«Between one block and another you joke around at full blast».
The most undisciplined?
«Ezio Greggio. He wandered around behind the sets with a lit cigarette and drove the firefighters crazy as they saw the smoke and didn’t understand what was burning. And then he organized fake meetings at 5 in the morning for us girls: the dumbest ones fell for it, he never gave me a damn.”
How did she fare in stereotypes: beautiful, blonde and therefore stupid?
«At first glance I was read as the pretty girl incapable of doing anything, of speaking sensibly. Then they changed their minds.”
Do you regret not pursuing your television career or was it a choice?
“In reality it wasn’t a choice, it was the combination of a series of circumstances: the beautiful TV I grew up on was no longer there and the era of reality TV began where you were treated like cannon fodder.”
In the meantime his life had taken a different path.
«I started working as an event organizer for companies, a profession that with Sceniko Events has become my main activity. Today I am alone, my husband died on Christmas Day 4 years ago from a heart attack, in front of our daughter who was 7 years old: it was a tragedy.”
Another drama was when his father Nando was forced to kill one of his lions.
«It was a tragedy. During a show for schools in Naples, we still don’t know how, a lion was released that was about to attack the children. My father got in the way and found himself on top of a 350 kilo beast biting his arm, he fell to the ground and was about to die of suffocation. My mother managed to pass him a gun and he shot.”
The animal rights issue has led to the decline of that type of circus.
«It’s the fault of the Greens, who at the time used a weak category to advertise. The circus began to no longer be loved by children because of these accusations, it was described as a place where animals were mistreated and tortured, where their torturers thrived.”
But the tiger and the elephant were not made to live in Milan or Palermo. We don’t have any savannah here…
«The world evolves, animals shouldn’t be in the circus, I agree. But when we started it was another world, the circus was the only way to see an animal: there was no internet, people couldn’t afford to travel with a few euros like they do today. Today the circus is not dead, it has simply evolved.”
Have you never seen any animal mistreated?
«My father was very different from what one expected: he was not a gladiator, but the kindest person in the world, he never treated an animal badly in his life. I spent whole nights massaging the bellies of horses and elephants because they had colic.”
What do you say to those who say that the circus profited from animals?
«There are still activities today where you don’t work with animals, but use them to make shoes, furs, clothes. There are activities where animals are used for racing, where they are sold, there is an incredible market: isn’t it the same?”.
His father acted in three films for Fellini, including «Amarcord», in which he had a significant role.
«They were both from Romagna, they loved the same cuisine. When we were in Rome, Federico called my dad and asked my mom Anita to prepare the tortellini. Then he showed up at midnight, often with the artists of his set: Donald Sutherland, Magali Noël, Anita Ekberg…”.
Did you eat in the truck?
«No, no, precisely in the circus, Fellini loved him».
Moira Orfei and her father were cousins, sons of brothers, but Moira was orphaned at eight years old and they grew up together. What memory do you have of it?
«Like all prima donnas, Moira was very centralizing. She was full of desire to live, eccentric, colourful, very nice to the people she loved. But if he didn’t like you, it was tiring, difficult: he had a very particular character.”
How was it with her?
«Unfortunately in a part of my life he saw me as his rival and therefore we went through difficult years. She had her own structure with her husband, I had my circus with my family, so we didn’t cross paths for a long time, in fact we found ourselves to be competitors. We were like the Ewing family of Dallas: when there are so many characters who want to excel, you can imagine how many battles.”
Did Moira also argue with her dad?
“At least 200 million times: they made peace and argued again, even with my other aunt Liana, the most gifted of all.”
In her life as a presenter, her CV also includes three years at the «Biscardi Trial».
«I was in the right place at the right time, a perfect connection. But with Aldo the relationship was complicated because he was centralizing and chauvinistic: for him I just had to stay there and act as a wallflower. I had a collection of bruises on my arm, because every time I spoke he would pinch me and say, “Shut up, don’t talk.” It didn’t suit me to look like a mute.”
But it was brilliant.
«Aldo first pitted one against the other, then said: “You’re doing everything by yourself, I had nothing to do with it”».
