At the Big Top Oscars: What Defines Monte Carlo Gold? Jaw Dropping Judging at Latest Fest Crowns Mediocrity, Snubs High Achievement

Here I go, treadling on sacred ground, hoping you will go with me.   There are people out there whose opinions I respect who will disagree with me, and I hope you/they will check in.  I was not there.  Maybe you were.
                  
We are talking what makes an act worthy of a Gold Clown.  Is it merely best of show?   No, because often the festival hands out multiple Gold Clowns.  So it’s not a true competition.

Is it an act marked by a legendary trick never before witnessed, such as the quad?  Such as a new high in the number of clubs or hoops kept in motion by the juggler? Or a mode of showmanship so inventive as to in itself please?   If this were so, then it could be argued that the American lad on his wondrous unicycle, Wesley Williams, should have earned a clown of some kind for the unprecedented height of his single wheeler.  But he did not, so it is not always the ground breaking trick.  

Then what is it?  In fact, I haven’t a clue what makes these judges tick, other than a mixture of interests seeming to favor  the most respected names — or countries — in the business.   Some years back, spectators were outraged over an act from Vietnam getting the royal cold shoulder.

So, let’s take a look at this years sole recipient of the Gold Clown, from Germany, horse riders Rene Casselly, sister Marylou and their partner Quincy Azzario, seen above. I watched the complete act on You tube, three times. This is the one that clocks in at 13.08   It starts out  with promise, but gradually runs low on  energy.   Overall, the entire display included time-consuming before and after ground acrobatics that made no sense; in fact ironically, the highly polished acro-dancing may only have set up an unflattering contrast to what followed on horseback. I was left distinctly wanting. May I explain?

1.  PACING.  Slow and plodding, looking more like a labored work in progress not yet quite ready for prime time.  I recalled the gusto and comedy of the Hannefords before my eyes, the thundering Cristianis in photos.  And how the  Russian Cossack riders whirled around their steeds as their steeds whirled around the sawdust.

2.  EXECUTIONS: Some  tricks were flubbed or struggled through, or simply failed. The head-to-head stand on horseback is theoretically stunning , I can’t recall such a feat, if only it had lasted more than half a second. It did not hold, and either a trick holds, even after a heroic wavering to save it, think Colleano on the wire  — or it folds, as this one did. Tantamount to a quad flyer missing connection. Another failing end point: Rene turned a double somersault, only to land as much on his hands as on  his feet.  There is a word that comes to mind — agility.  Sad to concede I saw too little of it here.  Are you still with me?  

Emphatically triumphal executions, I believe, are infinitely satisfying and the single most defining moment of any great  circus trick or act. The artist either succeeds or does not.   In this regard, I was surprised to read in a rich in-depth write up on the festival’s “fairy-tale history” by Raffaele de Ritis, of his giving the three German riders the highest marks for  “a polished anthology of acrobatic rarities, balancing absolute technical brilliance with a smooth, easy going presentation.”  Absolute technical brilliance?  In fact,  I saw the very opposite.

3.  LIFELINES.  Worst of all, Rene’s riders use a mechanic for at least one of their items, which spells the instant death of risk-taking integrity. Please, will somebody at Monte Carlo beg, urge, push, bride the Princess to mandate that, henceforth, no act resorting to lifelines will qualify to be considered for a Gold Clown?  Let them compete for the honor of Silver, the validation of Bronze.  Rene’s ground choreography and the mechanic epitomize that murky intersection between circus and ballet that we are living through, where each lessens and dilutes the impact of the other’s core elements. Which is why, I believe, shows like the gutsy Brit Circus Xtreme are actually more like the legit circus in its pre PETA, pre CDS heydays.  (Read Helen Stoddart, kids)

So ... was it Rene’s inclusion of two tricks alleged by de Ritis  never to have been seen before in any circus – a three-high balance on two horses, and a double somersault on horseback?  Might the content alone have won the judges?  Perhaps.

Back to Wesley Williams, without whom these posts I am doing  on Monte Carlo might never have happened, one thing leading to another.. I have stronger reason to believe  that the showmanly Wesley was incredibly snubbed.  Not enough ballet?  Not from the right family? The right country?   

More reason to rue the absence of outside critics like Lz Arratoon and Ernest Albrecht.  I would love to have read what they might have written about this one.  Their differing summary comments about the 2014 may leave you wishing, too.

From Arratoon, “This year the jury, headed by Princess Stephanie, was spot on with the Gold Clown awards, which went to the wildly popular Desire of Flight and the Sokolov Troupe.”

From Albrecht, judging the festival against others he has attended over 13 years:  "The lineup of acts was not only the slimmest in terms of number of acts, but also the quality."

The princess may be listening to too many insiders.