At the age of five, he was sent to the École de Gymnase in Lyon and, after six months of training as an acrobat, made his first public appearance as "The Boy Wonder".

His superior skill and grace, as well as the originality of the settings of his acts, made him a popular favourite.

[1] He was encouraged by William Niblo to perform with the Ravel troupe in New York City and was subsequently part proprietor of a circus.

This he did on 30 June 1859,[5] and a number of times thereafter, often with different theatrical variations: blindfolded, in a sack, trundling a wheelbarrow, on stilts, carrying his manager Harry Colcord on his back, sitting down midway while he cooked and ate an omelette,[3] or standing on a chair with only one of its legs balanced on the rope.

No blame was attributed at the time to either Blondin or his manager; the judge said that the rope manufacturer had a lot to answer for.

[7] In 1861, Blondin first appeared in London, at the Crystal Palace, turning somersaults on stilts on a rope stretched across the central transept 70 feet (21 m) from the ground.

[12] On 3 August 1896, at the age of 71, Blondin walked on a tightrope across Waterloo Lake in Roundhay Park Leeds, several times.

[13] After a period of retirement, Blondin reappeared in 1880[3] and starred in the 1893–94 season of the pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk at the Crystal Palace, organised by Oscar Barrett.

[citation needed] Blondin died from complications of diabetes at his "Niagara House" in Ealing, London, on 22 February 1897, at age 72 and was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery.

[16] Charles Blondin married Marie Blancherie on 6 August 1846, legitimising their son Aime Leopold, after which they had two more children.

During the run-up to the 1864 United States presidential election, Abraham Lincoln compared himself to "Blondin on the tightrope, with all that was valuable to America in the wheelbarrow he was pushing before him."

A political cartoon in Frank Leslie's Budget of Fun took up this quotation on 1 September 1864 depicting Lincoln on a tightrope, pushing a wheelbarrow and carrying two men on his back—Navy Secretary Gideon Welles and War Secretary Edwin Stanton—while "John Bull", Napoleon III, Jefferson Davis (representing England, France, and the Confederacy, respectively), and Generals Grant, Lee and Sherman (representing the military) looked on, among others.