The Morning Midway: Gong in the Gold ... The Unencumbered Joy of Circus We Once Knew

Last night on the Gong Show, there came a kid, wholesome, sweet disposition, on a unicycle.  Okay, what might he do, I wondered, thinking mid-level. Eager aspirant maybe trained in a class room. Average routine.  Oh,  what a false prophet  I was on this one.  The kid blew me away with his act.  Name is Wesley Williams. He's billed The One Wheel Wonder.  I did a little cyber looking.  He  comes from Florida, and I wondered if he is a Williams from the famous Williams.  Didn't find the connection.  Seems he has a little Ringling in his resume, some Smirkus, too ... So rare to see an American born talent rising to the top.  He could do Big Apple. He could do Kelly Miller ...  Heck, give him a few more years, and he could do Monte Carlo.   And, to think, made in America!

Neat to know that Big Apple Circus is still on the road.  They've put up dates for Lincoln Center, and how surprising that they will play not a part January, but the whole damn month.  Opens October 20.  I am anxious to see what Opus 2 from the good Doctor will deliver. He has been spinning  a recurring theme: We Had to make do with what we could get on short notice.  Okay, Doc, what can you show us now on long notice? 

Gong Show Gold: Another terrific act was a girl with dog, the dog flying all over the place. Loved it. From AGT to the Big Gong,  I am realizing how much we have lost beneath too much cirque-y production garnish and goo.   Paul Binder knew it when for a moment, one of his shows was all covered with Cirque-like masks. Off they came before the show went on. 

AGT and the Gonger let the acts be acts.  I remember when late old timer Tom Upton would set up a projector backstage at Polack, and the fans would gather round to watch film footage of acts.   Acts alone.

What mostly should have been gonged off the Gong Show were the timid, temporizing judges, each seeming to wonder what they others might say before they put out a score.  But the payoff was when acts tied, and the final vote went to the audience.  Old fashioned and fun!