Meet Mario, queen of the circus

He may be an American man playing a street performer with a Spanish accent but Clarke McFarlane says New Zealand has been a major part of his career.

The street performer is currently in town for the Auckland Arts Festival and graces our shores as his character of Mario once more.

"It's just very fun to write for Mario because he lives in a work of sex, drugs and rock'n'roll," McFarlane says.

"He doesn't know about the news or current events or facts or anything important, so it's all just crazy fun for him. It's a part of me which I wish was more reality."

Mario is the self-confessed Queen of the Circus (possibly because all of his acts are performed to Queen songs).

McFarlane says it all started with 'Another One Bites the Dust', because the nature of the song meant it didn't matter if he dropped his juggling balls.

"I thought about doing other Queen numbers with Mario and I thought, that's going to be terrible, it's like a bad sequel like Terminator 2. And then my friend said no it's not a bad sequel, it's a theme and I thought 'oh that's great'. So thank you Cornmo, my friend, for saving my career."

Clarke McFarlane's first trip to New Zealand was as a solo act 14 years ago.

"Christchurch Buskers [Festival] has been a major part of my career and a major supporter of Mario early on," he says.

"I first started coming here in 2003 for that festival and I've been there since the earthquakes and it's just an amazing testament to that town and the relationship it has with that festival that it still goes on."

He says New Zealand audiences are "particularly special" because they are so happy performers make the effort to travel such a distance.

"Half the battle is won as audiences are just like 'oh you're here, thank you' and we just think 'oh, we are the luckiest people in the world to be here'."

Next year marks the 25th anniversary of the Christchurch Buskers Festival and McFarlane says he has every intention of coming back to mark the milestone.

Before then, Mario in La Soiree is part of the Auckland Arts Festival from March 8 - 26.

Newshub.