These days, life is a circus for 'Brady' alum Christopher Knight

Christopher Knight, once the fresh-faced Peter on "The Brady Bunch," isn't so sure he's ready for "Celebrity Circus.""Up front, it's not fun," he says of the training for the series (9 p.m. EDT Wednesdays, NBC). "It's not fun when you're not confident."It's not fun when your routine tires you unnaturally early. All that is discouraging."At 50, Knight is one of the older participants in the seven-person "Circus." Along with younger male stars such as Antonio Sabato Jr., 36, and Jason "Wee Man" Acuna, 35, Knight is learning the ropes, literally, of circus performing, high wire and all. During this interview, he's taking a break from working the bungee, an aerial routine with cords."I'm good for about three minutes," Knight admits of the routine, which requires an amount of natural grace and upper-body strength.Knight realizes, though, that this is more than just mastering a skill. On "Circus," performers are eliminated each week based on audience votes. And in this circus, nobody wants to go home. "As much as I want this to be a competition between us, it's really an inner competition for me," he says."We are challenging ourselves to do things that are totally foreign to us. I was never one of those kids who said he wanted to run away with the circus."But after seeing my first aerial circus -- Cirque du Soleil -- I was mesmerized."This is hardly Knight's first brush with reality TV. His show-business career was revived through the VH1 shows "The Surreal Life" and "My Fair Brady." Up until then, he had gone to work in the corporate world.He compares working on "Circus" to retraining his body, almost in a metaphoric manner. "It's all about getting off the ground," he says.Knight has had weeks to learn the routines. While learning how to master the German Wheel, in which one becomes part of a turning wheel, he crushed his wrist. "I'm going to kill that German Wheel," he deadpans, "by mastering it."His right knee has also given out."I have advice for anyone wanting to join the circus," he says. "Do it before you are invited to join AARP."(E-mail Terry Morrow of The Knoxville News-Sentinel in Tennessee at morrow2(at)knews.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)