Friday Flighty: One Drop at a Time, Will It Be the Moon or Cirque? ... Bello Stays Near Earth ... Forbes, Clueless -- or Calculating

Drop downs and Drop Ins: We are very much out there, and out there is, he would like you to know, Guy Laliberte of Cirque du Soleil, who from what I gather hoped to land major media attention for his spacey stunt designed to advance public awareness of the water issue. Our Guy may be wondering where all the cameras went. Oh, boy, of all days to be reading a poem he wrote to the world from Up There, he had to pick the Nassau day, when those spacey Moon-struck bureaucrats are again trying to prove that water flows on the Moon. They say they’ve now got the evidence, having just bombed it, but others are snickering at what did not appear on the visuals. As for that other man out there drop drop dropping good vibes, I wish he’d bring a few free drops back to his touring circuses, where once upon an earth free water was to be had during intermission. Must I go Up There for what I once enjoyed Down Here?

We are, still up there, but down here too, back at Lincoln Center in NY, where Bello Nock, the guy whom they keeping reminding us is, according to Time Magazine, “America’s best clown,” is going legit on a high high wire. America’s best proved his grit by completing a sky wire walk over Lincoln center, so studiously executed as to remind me of the similarly dull performance by his senior relatives, known as the “Nerveless Nocks” when John Ringling North brought them to America in 1954. I could not wait to see them in ‘55 — to witness those breathless “mid air exchanges,” which turned out to be about as graceful and intrepid as a rescue mission of stranded victims from sea to helicopter. Anyway, our cool Bello fellow is the real thing on a wire. Those stunts have never much dazzled me, for they are merely walk overs, without artistic programming and music, and a context ...

Wonder if this means that Bello will be working a wire or rope act in Big Apple’s new bash, soon to uncork in the Big big Apple. Ooops, it must have already uncorked, for I read all about it in Forbes Ten Best Circuses list. I am still awaiting word back from the Forbes group on just how they reached their cockeyed verdicts. Today, all you have to do is pitch your next-season intentions, and you might, without even opening, land a Forbes “Best” placement. Which makes me wonder why they failed to honor Franco Dragone’s new show, still still still in the planning stages. Dropping in on the subject, trouper Ben Trumble trumbles, "I'm afraid the magazine was looking for a quick puff piece and didn't dig much." Or maybe they dug just enough, Ben, to serve the mighty on yet another of America's many hidden Wall Streets.

End Ringers: Passing on to Up There, at 56, is Benny Williams. The obits failed to mention his time with Circus Vargas. For a few seasons, he and the elephant Anna May, responding it seemed to the terrifically torrid scoring of the live Vargas band at its red hot best, put on one of the most memorable one-elephant turns I’ve ever seen. A real heart-grabber ... Speaking of which, Zippos Circus animals have been allowed back into the English town of Haringey, the city council having reversed its aversion to such entertainment. Already, the anti-crowd is lining up to protest ...

After Bello made it to the other side, a bigger than life-sized balloon of his trademark persona inflated upwards. Nice theatrical ending, which the walk needed. This sober demonstration came with none of the whimsical antics that have made our funny guy liked and adored by the moppet market ...

Okay, so not much is happening up there in space. Don’t blame me! So let's stay Down Here. I’ll have another drop of tea, please ...