Sprng is Here, They Say. Where Is the Circus?

UPDATE 3.22, 12 pm: Carson & Barnes did show in Austin with Circus Funtastic. Event official Carrie returned my call to confirm. They gave two shows, no animals, and pulled in around 300 people at one of the shows, which she observed from afar and deemed very good.  Two sets of bleachers and several rows of chairs in front of them appeared to be full. This little date should cheer up the Byrds and put wind in their wings. Go, Hugo, Go! 

 

Hello there, Carson & Barnes! Are you still there?   Where did your website go?  Your Facebook looks stranded  back in 2020   Say, how did your “Circus Funtastic” turn out at the Austin County Fair?  I said Austin County Fair. What?  Only a few days ago, I read about it.  I got a call into Austin to confirm. No reply yet. Is Austin still there?  

Calling Circus Vargas!  Your website seems MIA.  I did spot slivers life —  you were giving trapeze lessons recently in San Luis Obispo.  Any takers?

Has anybody seen UniverSoul? Their website looks good and solid.  And what about the Big Apple Circus?  October at Lincoln Center is only six months away. What I see on their website, which looks like an empty house, tells me they are not up to it.   

Come to the circus!???  I can almost hear the winds of a strange new spring blowing hollow across baron lots, lonely for tents to punch around. Lonely for the noise it it all, the shrieking crowds, lions screaming, the band fanfaring brass and boom all the way.   Looking into what’s up at The White Tops magazine, I see too little of what’s up.  Last issue dated last fall.  Spectacle magazine is still down.  Did the CFA go on hiatus? Have circus fans collectively closed down?

A Chilly Landscape

The trouping wounded are making do on other jobs , tutor to rotor rooter.  Roman Boilshchuk, 20 years wowing Cirque du Soliel audiences around the globe, now wowing leaky faucets back into dry compliance.  Plenty are those out of spangles, humbling themselves to such toil.  Another Cirque du Soleil refuge in Sarasota is aerial strap artist Darren Trull, 34, now teaching students at Sailor Circus  Teaching has become the number one default option for the rising pool of the out of work. When everything ends up the classroom, you will know it’s over.  Are you still with me?

The American circus — I am charitably regarding it as still technically alive — may be timidly slow in catching up to potential crowds hungry for live entertainment,  now returning to public events, especially those out in the open. Hint. Hint.  I got my second Morderna shot last Sunday at CVS, and what a feeling!  Even the mild side affects next day (the chill, a new sensation  for me) made me feel like a deserving survivor.  Called my barber to tell him I’ll be in there in two weeks. He was ecstatic. Now if I lived in Sarasota, I might have grabbed a chair with a scissors man who once dazzled me with juggling.  Or had my carpet steam-cleaned by a certified clown. My Dream Sarasota Vacation would feature a wire walker turned bell hop scampering up the stairs to show me my room, wheel of death daredevil at the wheel of my taxi rattling my teeth around corners.  Hold on, sucker!

Sad, isn’t it?  We are now in spring, the time when white tops usually dance high. I don’t see any out there.  Do you?  Maybe fall? How icy cold it feels putting these words down.

He’s got a right to sing the blues, too. Even performing animals may be hurting.  The learned argue they have emotions. Our pushy pachyderm up there may be down to his last resort, into a pub for relief.  Maybe missing the noise he caused when lumbering in circles then sitting up. Missing the routines. Can you blame him? I can almost hear him roaring,  “Hey, when do I get to stand on my head again? Will somebody out there please beat some life back into me!  I'm really okay with this stuff, forget what those idiots are saying. Do any of them have trunks?  I want the circus back!"

So do we, fella.