When Paul Binder and Michael Christensen met at the San Francisco Mime Troupe in 1972, they clicked right away.

“We had a great time together,” says Christensen. “We made each other laugh. We enjoyed hanging out. Ideas would tumble and we always existed in a spirit of play. We played a lot together, like brothers.”

They are a study in contrasts: Binder, a Brooklynite, is loud and takes the lead; Christensen, who is from Walla Walla, Wash., is quiet and chooses his words carefully.

“And therein lies the tale,” says Christensen.

Having hit it off so well in the mime troupe, they were off to Europe in 1975, juggling on street corners and earning, Binder recalls, “enough to eat and get to the next place.

“We weren’t starving, but if it rained a few days in a row we’d have to hustle the next time we went out there,” he says.

In 1976, they were invited to perform with the Nouveau Cirque de Paris, “an intimate, theatrical French circus,” Binder says.

“We found ourselves in it and said, ‘This is what we want to do for the rest of our lives,’ ” he recalls. “There was an energy that the audience brought back that we had never seen in anyplace else before – certainly not in any circus in America.

“We wondered, ‘Why aren’t we doing this kind of thing in America?’ and we answered the question.”

They answered the question by founding the Big Apple Circus, which begins a 23-show run at West Nyack’s Palisades Center today.

“We’re still answering the question,” says Binder, who appears as ringmaster at most performances.

Binder is the artistic director; Christensen is the creative director who also oversees the circus’ Clown Care program, visiting children in hospitals. His clown persona is Mr. Stubs, a greasepaint-bearded funnyman with baggy pants.

The difference between “creative” and “artistic,” Binder says, is “the difference between Paul and Michael.”

“In the job description, this guy (Binder) has the final say on the artistic side,” Christensen says.

“Michael is the creative energy in the process,” Binder adds. “My job is to facilitate and edit the process as we go along.”

“We’ve evolved into these roles over the years,” Christensen says. ”… I have what I consider the best job in the world. I get to keep the creative spirit and ride shotgun over the whole process. But with each director, the show evolves differently.”

This show – “Celebrate” – is directed by Michel Barette and written by Christensen and Barette. Each show takes a year to plan and build; next year’s show is already taking shape as “Celebrate” continues its 11-month, 10-venue tour.

After 30 years, the audience’s expectations have changed and the circus has changed to reflect that, Binder says.

“There’s a great line in John Lahr’s book ‘Notes from a Cowardly Lion’ about his father, Bert Lahr, where John says ‘Dad, how do you know what’s funny?’

“And his father’s answer was ‘I listen to the audience.’

“We’ve spent 30 years listening to the audience: What creates an emotional response in them that we can then take to another level? What are they laughing at? What are they crying at? What are they cheering for? What are they kicking the person next to them about? If we know that, then we’re going to communicate with them.”

Christensen agrees. “In the early years, we might have a clown piece go on for 10 to 12 minutes. Very clearly over the years the audience has become more educated about what they’re seeing – more discriminating. Now that clown piece is four to six minutes.

“We’re more conscious about the pace of that show,” Christensen says.

Binder says the circus reflects its audience.

“Kids today grow up looking at screens, they grow up on the Internet, with quick-moving imagery. So they’re no longer tolerant of the kind of slow-moving pace.”

Still, in “Celebrate,” the audience sits rapt watching a slow-motion balancing act featuring three performers who are painted gold. It’s an artistic, stylized moment not exactly crafted for the Internet Age.

“One of the reasons that is effective is the way it is framed, what comes before it,” says Christensen.

Before it is a clown act, with Barry Lubin playing Grandma. Having clowns to comment on the action is classic circus stuff, Christensen says.

“When circuses first started, the ringmaster was an equestrian, a retired military horse master in that red costume and he had one horse going around and he had the great idea to put a ballerina on that horse. One of the very next things to appear on that horse was the clown in a tutu to parody what had been done. Parody is a powerful and wonderful vehicle.”

Binder sees the circus as more than a diversion.

“This is not just frivolous entertainment,” Binder says. “It’s an attempt to connect with the core values of the audience.”

“When we connect with those values,” Christensen continues, “and they’re not mysterious—we’re talking about joy, delight, celebration, awe and wonder— all those things that are our birthright. When we connect, it’s transformative.”

As an example, Christensen points to the impact the show has on prospective donors who come to the nonprofit circus’ “cultivation events.” Their walking-in attitudes – stressed, harried or depressed – change dramatically by the intermission.

“I characterize it as an amplification of joy,” Christensen says. “Everybody is capable of joy, of celebration, of feeling good, of being transformed and energized. Everybody has those qualities. They come in here and through the craft of what we do we amplify those.”

Binder likes to quote Felix Salten, who wrote the original “Bambi” story: “People in the circus have in them two attributes, which even singly are rarely found, but which together make nothing impossible in the world, namely boldness and diligence.”

The ringmaster explains.

“Nothing that the people in the ring are doing is impossible,” Binder says. “In fact, what they’re doing is real. That guy who’s walking on the high wire is really walking on the high wire. That guy on the trapeze is really flying through the air.

“What sets him apart from every one of us – because he’s just one of us – is he’s diligent in his approach to his work and he’s bold in his execution. Add courage to that, and heart, and a sense of beauty, and you’ve got the complete circus artist.”

Christensen says he’d add another attribute: vulnerability.

“To have an artist execute all of these tricks and do these incredible things is fantastic,” he says. “But for us, we need the added quality of being vulnerable human beings while they do that so that connection can be made with our audience.”

Did it take boldness and diligence to start the Big Apple Circus 30 years ago?

“Thirty years ago, there were two young, energetic guys who had a lot of fun doing what they loved to do and never knowing for a moment that they were ever going to be doing this 30 years later,” Christensen says.

And here they are, in West Nyack, till July 2.

Photo by Tania Savayan/The Journal News: Michael Christensen, left, and Paul Binder, co-founders of the Big Apple Circus.