"That's not the circus I grew up in and not how I want to carry on"
-- John Ringling North II, to The Oklahoman in 2017, referring to circuses without animals on his decision to leave Kelly Miller.
***updated 10.9
Two major big tops recently passed each other going in opposite directions. One was holding its own, honoring the roots of circus. The other, having given up on itself, was following instead a road to Montreal in a final act of self-annihilation.
First, to Baraboo. I recently read of Circus World retiring its two elephants for good, no surprise. A little sad, yes. But sad turned to glad when I read this from its pied piper-in-chief, Scott O’Donnell, above, that: “Circus World will continue to have equine acts, as it did this past season. Future animal act options include cows, pigs, dogs, cats, zebras, camels and other animal stars awaiting their turn in the center ring.”
YES! You warmed my heart, Scott. In my book, what you are doing defines a reasonable road to preserving one of the key elements of true circus, and why some shows, like UinverSoul and Royal Henneford, still daringly feature them — PETA haters and media morons be damned.
Another gift from Baraboo, by way of Greg DeSAnto at his International Circus Hall of Fame and Research Center, itself now back in full giggle mode, is the return of the late Pat Cashin’s Clown Alley blog. Best of all, they’ve handed the steering of it to board member Steve Copeland. Great News. I have missed Steve’s blogging when he clowned on John Ringling North II’s Kelly Miller Circus. His was a big part of what is now seeming to feel like our newest good old times — the last days of Ringling and Cole and Binder’s Big Apple, of Carson and Barnes and Kelly Miller. And of so many blogs then on parade.
Steve’s blogging was full of emotion and revealing, and his boss had no problem allowing the day to day details of trouping, as he reported them. I am hoping that Steve will re-charge, re-boot, and revive the best of himself to regale us once more. Surely, he should have much to say about the state of clowning today.
Okay, onto the state of circus in America today. To the new “Greatest Show on Earth,” which no longer calls itself a circus — give them credit for honesty in advertising. No clowns. No Animals. No Ringmaster. Breathtaking. Covington Connected, I linked onto a 27 minute sampler of action, put out by Ringling. Here are my first raw impressions, based on those 27 minutes and 27 minutes only. Taking in the full spread may be a totally different affair. Nor do I have any idea how this stream may have been edited. And, of course, I may have missed what others give higher marks to.
It’s visually stunning, with set pieces changing colors, brilliant costume design and lighting effects. Overhead LED screens strike me as lamely superfluous I did not feel the “immersive” experience promised by Juliet Feld. Sometimes there is more than one act in motion, conjuring up the old 3-ring mystique. The action is well paced (or well edited in this video), solid and sufficiently pleasing, without for the most part and to my great surprise, being remarkable. I could usually count on Ringling for a few world class acts. I can see at least two here --- One in a photo on the show’s website of an ensemble Mongolian three-high jump roping act that looks sensational. Another to follow shortly.
*** And since posting this, a few others not wishing to be identified have sent me videos I did not see. There is too little of a high wire act to comment on. Another is the Flying Caceres cross-trapeze act: Notwithstanding the excellent work of the individual flyers, on balance the concept itself comes off as something of a long drawn out fizzle, and I can see why it was not included on the 27-minute sampler.
This mostly ground-bound edition sells gusto over substance. Casting and springboard send offs destined to land on large pads yield the strongest response. Contortion in various forms are all on the slow side and quite respectable. Juggling with fire is basic, there’s flashy foot stomping gaucho dancing. Youthful extreme bike riders up and down ramps struck me as not very daring for the sport — complexity is in short supply here, especially given Feld’s touting having scouted the world over and over again for the very best. (Maybe the very best did not want to sign.) Second big moment: Hands down, the big star was our own Wesley Williams on his sky high unicycle. The kid is finally getting a big national audience he has long deserved. I overheard a smitten young girl chanting “Wesley! Wesley! Wesley!"over and over.
A moody musical score, some of it sung, is vaguely unmemorable. And no wonder, turns out it was taped! Good grief, no band, too? This ringmaster-less, carefully controlled production, smooth as a Swiss watch, could use a little more humanity. Overall, there is a slightly cold and impersonal feel to the long-awaited rollout, all of which, in the abstract, can have the effect of dwarfing the performers.
In a supreme act of irony, the most down-to-earth, older fashioned circus moment comes in the famished figure of a scroungy little dog, down to the bones, as if having side-walled it into the show, lonely to be a part of it again and desperate to show what smart little doggies can really do. But our mutt is not a real mutt. Our mutt is a robot. As poignant as it is hypocritical, the "dog" it is said to be stirring a controversy, and it may only remind audiences of what is not there and make them ask, why? Yes, Mr. Feld, why?
Cutting through all the mumbo jumbo talk about intense creative deliberations (if only they could have channeled in Aristotle), I think what Kenneth Feld was all about was producing the perfect fit for his existing Disney mice-on-ice audience base, and here he may strike gold — now without the antagonists mucking up the midway. He might have taken other less profitable routes to preserve the circus. He might have led the way.
John II's Kelly Miller in 2015
Returning to the words of John Ringling North II quoted above, I think of being taken delightufly aback by that robotic dog stirring up such a fuss, and remember the last Ringling “circus” I saw, back in 2017. Four of its acts perpetually live on in my memory: The magnificent lion and tiger act of Alexander Lacey, possibly the greatest display of its kind that I have ever seen; the flying Tunizianis completing two perfect triples simultaneously; thundering horse riders from Mongolia; and a barnyard pig — another Lacey offering – sliding down a slide and bringing down the house.
Now, that was a circus. That was the Greatest Show on Earth. Goodbye, Big Bertha, goodbye.
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