2025 - YEAR OF THE DOG? Random Reflections on a Mediocre Circus Season --- Good, Bad, and Maybe

 Wat exactly should I be reporting on?

“Circus,” as defined by Webster’s 10th: 

An arena often covered with a tent and used for avariety shows including feats of physical skill, wild animal acts and performances by clowns. 

 I wonder if the new 12th edition has been revised to read: 

A word used by a wide variety of traveling acrobatic troupes that sometimes include animals and/or clowns.

Would this not be as accurate as was the older definition? 

We are adrift in a sea of circus show variations, which makes watching and reviewing them a challenge. I see no clear unifying thread relative to the season now ending, so I will asterisk away, first taking the time to thank Don Covington and Alex Smith, on this side of the pond, Douglas McPherson on the other, for helpfully sending me numerous news and feature items through the year. Okay, in no particular order .

* WHO OWNS BIG APPLE CIRCUS? Never in my days of circus going have  I not known the name(s) of those who owned every show I followed or read about.  Paul Binder's gift to New Yorkers seems to have devolved into a tangle of owners and venture capitalists, once if not still Sarasota based,  known as Compass Partners. If only one of them had a compass pointing to successful full season operation.

* A KING DISPOSED? Another dysfunctionally out-of-order curiosity  is the Wisconsin Historical Society, now owner of Circus World Museum. They let CEO Scott McDonnell, above, go, and then to replace him,  hired and, a few months later, fired Julie Parkinson.  When I spoke with Scott, he lent the impression of a conflict with his new overlords at the State Historical Society over future directions and goals for the museum. Why Oh Why?

* BLOOD OVER HUGO; Two tragic deaths in a single season. Traci Byrd allegedly shot dead by her boyfriend, Armando Caceras, he reportedly the prime suspect.  Worse yet, tiger trainer Ryan Easley, only 37, mauled to death by one of his tigers in September. My deepest sympathies to Ryan’s family and to the folks  of Hugo.   

                              
* BAFFLING ZOPPE NO-SHOW.  Little Ilario Zoppe, heretofore a gifted clown, this year not making an appearance until the very end of a so-so show, and not in greasepaint. He’s being trained in hand and foot balancing.  Why oh Why? I waited to see both him and his brother, Julien, and was stood up. Their absence left a hole in  a thin program. Makes no sense whatsoever. 

               
* L0SS OF A WONDERFUL BIG TOP BOSS,  Johnny Pugh,  February 17.   I never met the man, but was lucky to interview him by phone. Talk about warm and caring.  A  swell down-to-earth guy — heck, the nicest guy who ever ran a circus? Born in the Kennington district of London to showman John "Digger" Pugh, John came to the states as an acrobat,  and  would help save the Beatty-Cole show.  He also served as a judge for Prince Rainier's Monte Carlo Circus Festival.  What a pleasure it is to watch YouTubes of Beatty-Cole in the 1980s, during that last great American circus decade.  Even through the gauze of crowds streaming down the track during  the first displays, action in and over the rings keeps  us completely satisfied.  Circus straight ahead. It always starts with and comes from the person at the top.

* FINDING BIG STARS UNDER LITTLE TENTS.  Rarely am I not wowed by one or two.  Happened this past year when You Tube rolled Flip Circus my way, a name new to me.  Two standouts:   A fellow scaling and body-contorting up and down a Chinese pole, so refreshingly novel an attack. And on the same bill, two dashing jugglers working a brilliantly inventive routine — even with too many flubs. I wold gladly pay to see them again.  
 

MAYHEM IN GLOBES OF DEATH, from Rome to America. I’d never known of a single accident over here. But, as scrupulously researched by Douglas McPherson, turns out it can and has happened to motorcycling daredevils madly circling each other. A few riders over time have not come out alive. At least one this past year, in Italy, and four non-fatal crashes in the UK.  Broken bones and dead bodies sustain in the public's mind the element of risk at the circus. And their popularity tells us that the crowds still want risk.

* ONLY IN SAN FRANCISCO   Circus Bella, a free summer show at Bay Area parks featuring local talent, turns into Club Bella in December under a 300 seat designer tent, as suave as what might pass for cinema in space.  How I’d love to experience it, but not at prices ranging from fifty to eighty bucks. I’ll wait for grass. Sadly, the show's exceptionally talented composer and musical director Rob Reich, 47, passed away earlier this year.  He and his band gave the show one undeniably world class attribute. He could have been a giant -- when circuses were giants.

Out, Damn Cirque! 

 * CIRQUE DU MYSTIFY:  Funniest found quote, shuffling through old papers, this from Lyn Gardner of The Guardian, in a 2008 review of OVO:  "I know plenty of people who would quite happily pay me not to sit through a Cirque du Soleil show." (Her one-star review of the exhausting Cirque yawner, Amluna, resulted in the Montreal monster revoking her press pass.)  I myself loved the first CDS shows, but now, a survivor of too many plodding latter-period duds, I have tittle desire to face the dark existential gloom of ECHO, now emoting to the perfect town for such, San Francisco. I suffered through its tyranny on my flat screen. Maybe it's something about the human figure being turned into abstract body parts.  Maybe a primer on group suicide?

 * DANCE ON, ZIPPOS!  Never have I seen hoofers  at a circus carry on as if they were on Broadway and choreographed by the best. In this instance, favoring the contortionesque patterns  of Bob Fosse. What a revelation.  Called  Candyland 2024, from Zippos in the UK.  See for yourself on You Tube.

* DOGS R US.  And never more so than when a circus comes to town.  You can take this sprightly charmer out of the ring, but you'll never take the ring out of its heart.  Even Kenneth Fled couldn't resist himself in a wimpy cave to a robotic mutt he calls Bailey.  The lone figure of real circus was such a hit with customers that  Feld is giving Bailey more to do in New Ringling S2. (see more about this in my post below.)  If  performing dogs can win TV competitions before millions, what's to stop  even our most timidly temporizing owners from granting the audience that which it clearly adores and has few "issues" with? 

 *  DOGS STEAL THE SHOW AT BIG APPLE CIRCUS --- only act on the current bill reviewed by The New York  Times. Yes, true, confirmed and certified by cyber courier  Don Covington.  The honor goes to Olate's capering canines, who had previously won first place --- and one millions dollars ---on America's Got Talent 2019. And what, might I indiscriminately inquire, does this say for the rest?  The Times hates to review circuses in the negative.  Inexplicably, they ignored New Ringling. 

 * FANFARE AND FAREWELL   How sad was I to learn, from Maureen Brunsdale, that she is leaving her post at Illinois State University, where she oversaw their circus holdings.  Health reasons, the cause. So lucky was I when I queried her back in 2011 on taking my papers and interview tapes under he aegis.  She, unlike a number of unmovable others, said yes with a glow on her face (or so that’s how it felt.)  I can’t think of a more stable or appropriate place for my work to reside.  Colleges are not subject to disruptions and fire sales. Maureen landed the Henry Ringling North papers and the massive 250,000-items collection of Herb Ueckert.  She authored the eagerly received bio of Art Concello, In the Shadow of the Big Top, for which, The Circus Historical Society awarded her their Stuart Thayer Prize. I will forever miss her.

* ILLINOIS DAVID?  My first circus review was set into type at the Hohenadel  Print Shop in Rochelle, publisher of The White Tops. In Champaign, the University of Illinois Press published my most successful book,  Big Top Boss: John Ringling North and the Circus.  And now, my papers will reside in Normal. Bless you, Maureen, for taking them in, and may you find rewarding new subjects to write about in the next chapter of your life. 

DID YOU KNOW?.... A Tragic Loss, Ryan Easley, 37, Fatally Attacked by Tiger in September

A total shocking surprise to me, this happened only two months ago.  

From TMZ 

"An associate of "Tiger King" star Joe Exotic was attacked by a tiger during a show in Oklahoma earlier this year ... and now TMZ has learned the official cause of death.

According to the Tulsa Medical Examiner, Ryan Easley died from blunt force, sharp force, and crushing injuries ... due to tiger mauling."

A tragedy I will long rue, having admired Ryan's work at Kelly-Miller Circus.

HERE'S ONE FOR THE DOGS: They're "Stealing the Show" at Big Apple Circus, Reports The New York Times ... Hey, Ringling! Here's How to Make a Miraculous Trans-Canine Return

Ah,  how I love a good old fashioned real circus. Legit circus. True circus. Circus Circus!

As I have  written here, show me a dog and and I'll call you a  circus.  Well, Big Apple, YOU ARE CIRCUS. May the timid tenters out there, and they know who they are, follow suit and let some of our beloved animals back in.  

Feld of Felds, have you the guts to lead the way? Where is your courage?  Man Up, Circus Up! and let the circus back in the circus.  "Bailey" your bot is a pitiful symbol of self-evisceration.  A sad far cry from robust showmanship the world expected of Ringling .Is this how you want to be remembered?  Here is how to make Bailey the key to a true comeback.

I have the perfect story line, Disney be damned: Bailey accidentally spots some real circus mutts somewhere and is so excited, he longs to be like them.  Barks for his freedom from metal, for a trans-canine makeover.  Lights go dark, drum rolls, crashing symbols, and a great circus parade invades the arena.  Bailey is  leading it!  The excitement is so great, that he is inspired to do more things, more and more and then struggles, apparently up against mechanical restraint. Is he still really?  Miracle of miracles, lights down and up in blazing glory.  Bailey is now a REAL DOG.  

Crowds go wild!  The Gods of Circus sing Hallelujah!  And in parade the five Ringling brothers, John Ringling North and Irvin  Feld. 

WAITING FOR GODOT IN A PUP TENT? ... Celebrating Portable Amusements --- Carnie layouts to Irish Theater Fit-ups ...

              Laying down The Whip, at the fairgrounds in Santa Rosa.  

In my compulsively creative boyhood, the discovery at the county fairgrounds of how Foley & Burk carnival wagons were spotted and unloaded to form midway attractions utterly fascinated me. Rides went up in  portable sections. Wood frames for games were raised, joined together by open hinges, and covered in canvas.

My pet wagon was a quaint little thing when I first laid eyes on it, parked in front of the fairgrounds entrance.  What was it for? A few comical images and a small scrim I could barely see through posed a mystery.  When the wagon was spotted on the midway, its sides raised to form a two story structure, Thimble Theater appeared at the top. I was taken.  Had. Seduced. With the dark walk-through on the top floor, it would become my all  time favorite carnival amusement. 

Actually, Fun on the Farm, its manufactured name at birth, was trans-fashioned by Foley & Burk to feature comics characters out of the 1930s. Working parts powered animated images of them on the front facades, and within, rotating floor sections that produced the most wonderful grinding sounds. 

Infected with wagon-based zeal, I started out with my very portable red Radio Flyer wagon, a Christmas gift.  Once, I turned it into a covered wagon, another time, a cool aid concession .  And I built the portable frame for a fun house in the front yard, under scorching July heat.  Covered it with old rugs my mother had thrown out.  Shortly thereafter, the fire department paid us a courtesy visit. My most formidable creation was condemned before it could even open!

I can't remember what I was trying to bring off here.

Me with Tippy, and Patches our cat, sister Kathy to the left, brother Dick to the right..

Blame this portable blather on an unexpected article, Hollywood on Wheels, by Douglas McPherson in London, writing for The Stage. The subject is Fit-ups, as they were called in the UK, a tradition dating  back to at least 1839.  In a land of playwright giants (Becket, Synge, Shaw, Wilde, O’Casey)  ironically, there were pitifully few stages  upon which to play  Waiting for Godot in a pup tent?   This lead to Fit–up touring troupes that brought their own flats and drops, and proscenium arches, fitted them  in open spaces,  on village and school hall stages, to keep the show going.  Young actors and writers, toiling in Fit-ups (Harold Pinter, one),  were better prepared, I am supposing, to be less critical of “professional theater” working conditions.

My puppet shows went on tour, too. At Luther Burbank Elementary, I was asked to present a  show from from classroom to classroom up and down the halls. This called for the fitting-up genius of my.Uncle Teddy,  who designed and built for me a portable stage. With my record-player sound man, Ross Begley, we loaded it out on my Radio Flyer, and rolled it to school one morning. We were a big hit! 

In the smallest of wee Irish towns, you could watch a different Shakespeare play almost every night, and on Sundays, be tickled by comedies, like The Importance of Being Ernest. On portable screens, flickering images of Rudolph Valentino and Charlie Chaplin charmed the simple masses. These road shows, about 60 in number at their peak, thrived into thee 1960s.  And then came television.  

 

In recent times, reports McPherson,  Fit Ups are making something of a charming little come back.  He quotes Geoff Gould who “was raised on tales of the fit ups by his mother and father,” throwing up his own company, Blood in the Alley (handball games), sixteen years ago.  Still on the road, they are spreading their brand of mayhem in halls, pubs, tents and in the open.

My model building, photo above, honors some of my favorite rides.  

Today’s portable amusements may be better engineered and easier to set up.  I’ll take yesterday’s very visible moving parts.  Their sweaty rise over a dry field of grass and weed. The grinding rumble of the shifting floors in the Thimble Theater. Oh, what a fabulous soundtrack.  What a fun house – human hands all the way!

And that’s a fitting wrap

3390 

Ken Burns on PBS, AD NAUSEAM ...

I have a love-hate relationship with Ken Burns. He can be straight forward. He can be  sanctimonious. I found his Vietnam War to be brilliant through and through. It had narrative thrust.

Now comes, or plods, The American Revolution (or Evolution),  and I am wondering if it took as long to happen as it does here on PBS (Pledge Break Society).  I loved the first episode, and was high and riding high ... Into the second and ... Replay now or later? .. Oh what else is there to watch???  I'm not defaulting yet to the Three Stooges.

I plowed my way through the third,well no, halfway through, and am suddenly suffering from  TMD (TOO MUCH DETAIL) . Maybe that is a good thing for civic-studies classrooms, Siberian shut-ins, or repellent aversion TV therapy.

It's drawing raves. I see the Wall Street Journal called it "static." The understatement of the century. 

Static. I'll give it another chance, I think, I may, I should.  Could get better.  And maybe if I am lucky, the final episodes will be scored by Andrew Lloyd Webber.  

Better yet, maybe Masterpiece will put out their own version of the tumultuous tiff on our side that sent the other side retreating into a very very long Ken Burns night

The Phantom of Plymouth Rock, anyone? 

Who Leads the Parade at Circus World? Here is what AI told me

 "Julie Parkinson was not let go from the Circus World Museum"
 

Oh, no AI?  Please do elaborate for the morons among us: 

 "Instead, she was named the new site director in April 2025, succeeding her father who previously held the position. Parkinson has a long history with the museum, as her grandfather founded its library and research center." 

I have done many searches.  Her firing only a few months into the job seems only to  have been reported by me, following a phone call to CWM, answered by a woman who confirmed that, yes, she was let go.

AI, as I have suggested, not the first to, is essentially stupid.  It grabs snippets out there and rapid fire assembles an answer.

Its most egregious failure, in my old fashioned brain:on.  It has no memory.  Although this could change as competed services race to produce the most intelligent version of AI 

Yes, it can dazzle you with split second answers that seem to reveal deft analysis.  But revise your search and try it another time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bad Day in the Zoppe Bleachers for One Family

Preface:  It is not my policy to favor certain shows by withholding negative feedback  of them, be it a review or comment left  here.  This is a comment that was posted  yesterday at the end of my review of Zoppe's 2024 show, "Send Back the Dogs" I have never sat in the bleachers, so I would be hard pressed to comment myself.     

"We came to the circus yesterday with three families and three young kids (ages 1.5 to 4). We were the first ones to enter the tent. The seating is made of tall bench-style rows with wide gaps and no stairs, so you have to climb up each bench. As we tried to go up, my daughter nearly fell through one of the gaps — it’s genuinely unsafe for small children.

Because of that, we chose to sit together in the middle row, leaving three entire empty rows in front of us. We were sitting tightly together, not taking extra space. Someone from the staff asked us to move up, and we explained that the benches were unsafe for our kids and that adults and older kids should be the ones climbing higher.

Then the person who appeared to be the owner or announcer came over and started shouting at us, saying things like “This is my circus, this is my show,” and threatened to make us leave if we didn’t move. His tone was aggressive and completely uncalled for, especially in front of small children. I honestly started shaking — it was that upsetting. One of the adults in our group asked him to please calm down because of the kids, but he continued.

Ironically, the show wasn’t even full. Many benches stayed empty throughout. There was absolutely no need for the confrontation.

This was supposed to be a fun family outing, and instead it turned into a really frightening and stressful experience. I would never return. The way we were treated was rude, unprofessional, and completely unnecessary, and the seating setup is unsafe for young children."

ZOPPE'S LATEST PARTY A FALTERING AFFAIR: Mediocre Lineup and Superfluous Clowning Miss the Magic Mark.

Circus Review
Zoppe Family Circus
Redwood City, CA November 8
$31 tops at ringside

 

A clown for all rings: Giovanni at the opening number

How to review a circus so less than what it was the last time you saw it?  Had I lived through a two-season long Zoppe golden age?

Full disclosure: I am not a fan of audience participation.   The Zoppe audience laps it up like honey. Maybe because it has special appeal to the kiddies. Go figure, while I lay down some kind of a review.  So, let's start with some feel-good highlights, and work our way down. Feel free to leave at any time.  

Top of the pack, a fellow working from an upright ladder, leans way way  back, lets go and lands on a small  a pad below that springs him somersaulting across the ring.  Daring. Dynamic.  Dashing.   Audience ate it up.

Two robust Cossack trick riders meet our expectations well enough, and a dog act delights in the key of sufficient.  A young juggler takes the ring with such force and authority, it’s a big let down to see so many items dropped.  And my favorite for style and flash —  a fellow working a web more like a single trapeze. Wish he could have given us more.

Impressive new feature: A live three piece band, yes, LIVE,  that wraps the show in festive scoring, maybe a decimal too high. I heard a lyrical passage that calls to mind Fellini.  Kudos to these salty windjammers!

Okay, as for all the rest: In-between the acts, and sometime during them, Giovanni, a gifted creative clown, yet seems always to be there, unable to let go. Always hovering.  And since he is the owner, there is nobody to reign him in from hovering — or invading.

For example, wanting to grab hold of a cloud swing too high to reach,  he takes his sweet time combing the audience for a suitable understander. Takes a heavy set fellow down into the ring, and proceeds to climb aboard the man’s bent backside so that, finally, he can reach up and grab the swing. And show off.  And I am all the while wondering if both have life insurance.  Unless the man was a plant, I find the whole thing highly questionable.  And I can't remember a big giggle payoff, as he has produced in the past. Pointless?

 

           

Critically Missing: Three figures who gave last year’s charmer rare sheen and a Big Heart: Giovanni’s two sons, Julien and Ilario, both missing in action.  Ilario does manage to sneak in at the very end, out of a trunk, but minus clown face, costumed to demonstrate the skills of an equilibrist. All at the age of around four or five.  

The third figure most missed: The mystically wordless  ringmaster, Patrick McGuire, who gave this show such class.  In to replace him, a fellow in black who refers to himself as the manager, and whose sole function is is to eject the ever intrusive Giovanni. They perform a scripted exchange that strains to be funny. 

Too much padding.  Intermission hypes photo ops with one of the dogs and face painting..  As before, you  will not find a single photo of any of them on the website.  I hadn’t the will to try digging beyond.   

Zoppe is catering to adults wishing to take their kids to a real circus.  But the slim crowds suggest either the market – or the show — is limited. Tent, they say, seats 500. There once were two rows around the ring curb. Now, only one.  Of the last three Zoppes I’ve taken in, I’d guess they drew around on average two hundred plus customers. 

They have a special place in the American circus scene. May they endure. All circuses have their ups and downs.  Maybe the best thing about Zoppe is their ability to change.  You can go not exactly knowing what to expect. I will hope that little Ilario comes to his senses and rejoins clown alley.    

2 - ½ stars.  To see my two last reviews of Zoppe, enter "Zoppe" in the search box above  left.

SATURDAY NIGHTMARE IN NO-SHOW OAKLAND: LIFE ON THE EDGE OF A CITY THAT ONCE WAS ...

Oakland, in better days gone by,: In front of my apartment building on 1800 Lakeshore Avenue, where I wrote my first book, Behind the Big Top.  Now living half a block from Piedmont, I avoid Oakland lake the plague.

A message I sent yesterday to Laura, my neighbor in the building where I live, which she once managed, after returning from m trip to Zoppe Family Circus. 

OMG, a Lyft driver bringing me back from Redwood City on the freeway, his car starts  making bangs, I ask Luis if it’s the car, and he seems to say yes (speaks almost no English, possibly recruited at the Southern boarder, pre-Trump), but keeps on driving. Then I smell rubber burning and he exits onto Broadway, near maybe second street, goes into the trunk to get out tools. I get out and flea up Broadway  wanting to get another Lyft home.  I keep walking, looking for a place where it would be easy for Lyft to FIND ME, which is something you'd think they could and should do, rather then directing me across the street or up to an interaction. I settle on Grand Avenue, and from there summon a Lyft for home.

What is wrong with the picture I have just walked through? On the ghostly vacant street, a black man or two every block or three.  Old Asian lady with cart  waiting at bus top.  Any whites? Maybe a couple. And it dawns on me, that I was in DOWNTOWN OAKLAND on a Saturday afternoon. DOWNTOWN.  I see no people going into or coming out of the the lower level shopping mall across from where DeLaurs  newsstand once operated. I remember when there was Swansons.  When Oakland was such a wonderful place.

The last time I went down there, to the lawn bowling greens at the lake (I used to love watching the games), one of the greens was totally neglected and weeding out. No bowlers showed up, so I went to call for a Lyft, but thought, I will have to stand in front of a store, without the luxury of being able to move on if something coming my way looks like parole city pride.  So, as with yesterday, I kept on walking, up to a sane and prospering location.
    
I much prefer confining myself to the delightful city of Piedmont Avenue.  

D / upper wastelands 

MIDWAY FLASH!... MIDWAY FLASH! ...SUSPECT IN CARSON & BARNES MURDER REVEALED: ARMANDO CACERAS

Originally reported  here on 10.30.25 

Traci Byrd, daughter of Barbara and Geary Byrd, has been murdered.  Am awaiting news of her assailant. 

My heart goes out to the family.

 UPDATE (11/5/25) — FOX 23 NEW: The McIntosh County District Attorney's Office identified the victim and suspect in a homicide near Council Hill on Tuesday.

The DA's Office said 53-year-old Traci Byrd of Hugo was found dead in a wooded area near Highway 72 and Highway 266, close to Council Hill.

The suspect, 47-year-old Armando Mustafa Rojas Caceras, also from Hugo, was found in a barn nearby with injuries consistent with struggle. 

********************************************** 

The story as reported in the HUGO NEWS fails to mention Caceras. 

Alex Smith first brought this to my attention.