Friday Slices to Go: Circus Fans as Free Loaders Exposed; My Brother the Accidental Circus Critic; Ringling Bros. to Hit Silver Screen

Where to begin, there is so much and so little, bits and pieces back of the tent. Hey you circus fans who love walking in for free, you of the lot lice class. I know is not a nice term to drop, and I fully disclose my own shameful lot licey behavior in seasons past when I prided myself on sneaking in, tutored on how-to by one of the best -- Don Marcks. There was also friend Hugo Marquardt, with whom I hit the Carson & Barnes lot one warm spring evening in Santa Rosa at the fairgrounds, striding brazenly past the tent towards that coveted area where we'd try to merge with troupers and carry ourselves across the freeloader's threshold into the tent. "We clap as we go!" cracked a laughing Hugo, making hay of a long-held CFA slogan, "We pay as we go." .... Which takes us up the merry lanes of Talburt, as in interviewer and film maker Lane Talburt, who caught fire eater and ringmaster Brian LaPalme, now working a season with Walker Bros., venting not so subtly his, how shall I put this, dismay over fans wanting to get in without paying, no matter how. Even asking for free passes. Congrats to Brian for firing out his knowledge of the CFA slogan, which is time and time again trampled upon.

... I became a retro pay-as-I-go prude in recent years, doggedly sticking to my own slogan, "I will buy my own ticket, no matter how nice they are to me in offering a free pass." It's not just trying to be impartial when reviewing; it's also -- how hard is this to grasp -- a way of SUPPORTING the circus. Did you know that most shows survive on ticket sales? Enough there. Are you still with me? ... Next: My brother stumbles upon a circus from a dumpster.

... to be continued.