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 O'Donnell, 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 --- I gave it a grudging 2), 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. 

2808 1.18.26 

Chance Circus Reflections... from Olympian Flops to the Glory of Colleano ...

 

     RANDOM RANTING AND RUING, in no particular disorder.  May I begin by officially bashing the Bumblers-in-Chief behind this Olympian disaster (aka, farce). From the top, NBC, which shoves under or overwhelming personalities at us, from the dull man in the control booth to Iceland’s precious guess-who-I-really am gender bender, Johnny Weird.  Gosh, world, do you really need him to inform us that a number of male figure skaters are gay?  Duh?

     NOT TO SLIGHT the elegantly corrupt IOC.  Give them a gold for Site and Scheduling Stupidity. ... Founder of the games, a Frenchman, declared it was not the act of winning but that of entering the race itself that merited respect for all.  Today, some of the young contenders are berated by their coaches for falling short of the gold. Silver for Shame.  Bronze for Boooo!                           

     SIMON COWELL’S Extreme Desperation?  I bumped into his latest, a strained effort chasing the extreme sports market, which lingered too long between its Big Moments (one, truly close to death), and padded the slightest evidence of danger ahead with overwrought judges faking near-hysterical dread.  And then, running the action in slow motion!   Since when did I want to watch the cannon man in slow motion?  Since when was speed not a thrill?

     SOME OF THESE TRICKS are old circus and carny stunts.  Pardon my insensitivity in recalling one of the biggest let downs of them all, this from the “Nerveless Nocks,” whom I could not wait to see on Ringling-Barnum – lured by the image (in my mind only) of the performers jumping from the tip of one spar to another and passing each other in breathless  “mid-air exchanges.”Actually, those maneuvers were grasping and clumsy, as the Nocks clung to each other’s bodies while exchanging poles. A stunt, period, redeemed, however, when each of the Nocks came sliding down their respective spars, head first, for a terrific finish.

     WHEN DID THE END begin?  Here is the cover before me of a White Tops, featuring a photo that shows a sign “PLEASE HELP SAVE THE CIRCUS” You see some young people signing petitions spread out on a table during intermission at Circus Vargas, and you marvel at the date of the magazine: July-August 1975. May I repeat: 1975.   That early?   Yes .... It was a long time in coming, with PETA up and running, Cirque du Soleil yet to attack ...

     CRITICALLY GONE: Writer and critic Ernest Albrecht, from whose possibly last review I quote, this from his March 2020 Spectacle on line, which went dark thereafter.  Albrecht was reviewing Circus Sarasota, just before Corona came to call. He was was high on two acts, and left to pick over the rest with notes.  Samples of discontent:  “A juggling act called Get the Shoe never really got very interesting ... comes off as nothing more than sloppy juggling mixed with martial arts.”  About a labored cradle routine from Hannah Griffth,  “It might help if she could do something to break up the monotony and engage the audience, perhaps with some flirting.”  Like, say, a little Lilian Leitzel? ...  A thoughtful voice was  he who supported and favored the best in all forums, including what he called “the new American Circus,” which, sadly, was maybe still new but hardly thriving by the time of his passing.  A serious voice worth missing

     BIG APPLE ANONYMOUS:  Was there ever a more thoroughly under reviewed show that came to New York city than Nik Wallenda’s version of the still-beleaguered Big Apple Circus, this having marked its third incarnation out of a shaky bankruptcy.  What went wrong?   Early in his rocky trial date with Lincoln Center,  Nik threw a three-ring snit when ordered by his landlords  to remove posters on construction walls.  And this he turned into an ugly campaign that did nothing to enamor this particular Wallenda of the city that never sleeps, or forgets.   

     BIGGEST MYSTERY OF ALL is how many seats he filled.  If he attracted healthy crowds, Nik gets double-high marks for playing Gotham in the dark when  media attention totaled ZERO.  Not a single notice in any of the dailies. So I offer you a rare review, this one posted here as a comment, which I subsequently posted  as a real review -- by the ever-sharing Anonymous.  See if this does not strike you as smartly observing stuff. Samples:   

   "THERE ARE SOME STELLAR solo and duo acts, [but] the show is ONLY solo and duo acts apart from the wire act, which is made extremely cringe-worthy by Nik's several interruptions to show video and speak on mic to the audience ... It's all made worse by the suspicion that he is doing nothing but alienating his neighbors in Lincoln Center by his Page Six video, hollering about discrimination and unfairness." **
   
     IN YOU TUBE WE TRUST, when all else fails, with or without posters, Monte Carlo acts or “character arcs.”  You Tubing is the ultimate road to circuses then and nearly now. I stumbled into an eight minute stream of Cirque du Soleil’s 2014 Volta, and found two standout displays  – the shimmering acrobatics of a woman from her web; and the very circus-like action of some bike riders up and down ramps. Exciting! The rest?  Home made action to my eyes, even the props, or the way they were worked, looked humdrum. If this is a typical Cirque entry, I can’t see them packing the tent.  

     AUSSIE AWESOME: You Tube streamed me to the image of low wire god Con Colleano, and I linked, Yes!  And  was swept away into glorious black and white, a stream of old film first showing the Big Show trains unloading in the yards, the tents going up, and then the Great One dancing upon and somersaulting over his wire on fire.   How lucky was I once upon a superior season when Clyde Beatty Circus came to Santa Rosa, and with it, Colleano.  Such passion and thunder! I knew I was watching a true wizard of the big top.  I never got to see another Great One —  Colleano’s wife, Winnie, who arguably took the single trapeze turn to its highest summit ever.   

    THEY WERE STARS in those days!  Names known!   Hollywood wanted Con Colleano, to fill in for Rudolph Valentine following his passing.  Con was not turned on to the offer, remembers an Aussie interviewed on the feature, but stuck to his first love, The Circus. And doesn’t that give you a rare good feeling in these especially precarious times? 

     GOODBYE, SWEET KIEV: Misty memory of a cool Autumn evening in 1979,  on foot in my favorite Soviet city (such sparkling grandeur) to take in the circus.  Along the way, a handsome young fellow, earnestly inclined, discretely joined my company, striding alongside.  Why, soon it became clear.  He told  me how hard it was to buy the jacket I was wearing in his world, and then commenced a soft campaign, hoping I would understand and allow him to purchase the prize off  my back.  Politely I declined.  Gently, he continued, from other angles.   And then I reached the circus, and he reluctantly stood aside as we parted company.  I felt a genuine sadness. I can imagine him, maybe 20 years later, finding a jacket like mine in then-liberated  Kiev.  Tomorrow?  I am not so sure.

**to read the full review link  to "circus reviews" found on the right sidebar and scroll down a ways.

You're Not Welcome Here, Nik! Upitty Koch Theatre and City Ballet Order Big Apple Circus Posters Off Construction Walls ... A Fearless Wallenda Blasts Back On Eve of Show's Opening ... ...

This is one for the ages.  Remember when the circus came to New York in the spring and the press covered it as tantamount to a holiday?

Remember when crowds stormed the ticket windows at Madison Square Garden to grab the best seats for the greatest Greatest Show on Earth?

Today, it seems that even New York’s own circus can’t get a pass on plastering plywood walls encircling a construction site with posters directing customers to its hard-to-detect box office, and then to its tent, somewhere back there.  Good luck on this shipwrecked midway.

Heartbreaking to listen to the show's new producer Nik Wallenda spill out his heart — a great spokesman for the growing disdain in general that many circus artists are being made to suffer in a land that has gradually been talked out of its love affair with spangled wonders under billowing white tops.

Yesterday, a day before opening, there in a bizarre affront to a tradition once embraced by the millions, was the lonely figure of Wallenda removing his own ballyhoo sheets ---as if the show had already come to town and was leaving. 

The famed wire-walking grandson of Karl Wallenda  told Page Six, apparently a wing of the feisty New York Post, that construction in front of the building was  “completely blocking our box office.”  So he raised the posters in order to direct customers through the makeshift maze. 

Can Wallenda turn this ordeal into a public backlash --  swelling the coffers and filling the seats? So far, media coverage of the shows third reincarnation since fumbling out of bankruptcy has been anything but boffo. In fact, hardly aware at all. Told silence from The New York Times. 

This is potentially one hell of a human interest story, and how it may play out  in the Big Apple could have some effect on America’s nearly brain-dead indifference to true circus.

Said righteously articulate Nik, “We’ve trained our whole lives, and to be treated and beat up for who we are is heartbreaking.  It’s like our art form isn’t worthy — which is obviously offensive. It’s green mesh construction barricades. What are we hurting by having signage, so people know we’re here?”

Show uncorks tonight.

Stay tuned.

Thank you, Don, for the link

The Yawn of Posting These Days ... The Vile of Anonymous, Alive At Least ... The Gore of Booming Brit Tops, Thrilling the Crowds, At Least ... Le Freak! -- Let's Dance! ...

                    The defining element of true circus? Risk

    LAZY OVER HERE. How can I make much out of not much?  I cover skimpy midways.  I wonder as I wander, how much longer a dry drill? ...  Even five years ago, I had stuff to knock around, laugh at and run with,  blow up or toss out ... Hardly anything left but scraps and peanut shells, even screwed-up documents in e-mail, such as, from Carson & Barnes to me, a print out I can' read that I am suppose to approve for my 'earnings" during 2021, under the name of Wang.  Did I tell you how dead it's getting out there? ... Tenting in the Twilight Zone ... Hugo, what were you thinking?

   BEAR WITH ME, or giggle in front of my back.  I'm scrambling around here, like poking in sticks under the old cedar of Lebanon in my boyhood front yard, looking for something to play around with ... Trying to kill time cobbling together a posty.  It's a drag when what you have to work with is the sad spectacle of the trouping wounded managing to keep their shrinking canvas in the air, smiling to the public and it smiling back, wanting to believe still in circus day. Can you hear the beat of Chic in the background ?... 

   A FEELING OF being stranded in a morgue ...  There was a rare streak of life from our beloved visitor, Anonymous, reveling in the darkness, declaring Big Apple Circus, yet to open, "garbage."  Well, it felt real, at least ... and I ponder about Big Apple Circus Comeback Season 3, to be produced by Nik Wallenda. Why do I already feel uneasy over its prospects? Stay with me here.

   NEW YORK PRESS  & MEDIA not turning even fake somersaults over the news, possibly worn down by resurrection fatigue ... What the Hook This Time? Comeback Producer 1 (the doctor) offered us stodgy, Comeback Producer Number 2-3, sleazy. And what from Nik?  Here's my queasy: Can the 7-high wire walk be really that much a pull, since it was performed in the first comeback, and anyway, as executed under so small a tent on a wire closer to low than to high, the feat may be unable to achieve maximum awe  ..  A trapeze act would be a better draw.   Production Values: Show's creative staff shows a composer and a sound engineer, but no musical director or band leader, which hints of money problems at the outset ... To Manage and Perform: Nik himself will still be walking the wire (his life). thus, his focus on managing (new to him?) may be severely compromised. Lean Line-Up  ... The solo-intense cast leaves me feeling a bit, what --recital-ish? ... Circuses for the most part thrive on the family or the partner(s) factor. Or animal friends.    

    MAKE 'EM SCREAM across the Big Pond!  Can you feel alive? Can you feel a crowd? Gore is the new freak show, and it's knocking 'em dead. Crowds so great at Circus of Horrors, producer's sending out a second tent, relays Douglas McPherson from dare-to-terrify Over There.  This may be good news, kids.  Hear me out: I do believe that the public, whether it knows it or not, is hankering for something far closer to what circuses where (as in sideshow kink and true daredevils) than to another recycled acro-ballet bore.  In other words, CIRCUS.  I saw a You Tube of another edgy UK offering that dares to call itself  "the daredevil circus," Circus eXtreme, giving acts of great skill and dangerous risk-raking.  The gall of it all!  Big crowd in the tent.  Yes, a mass of live bodies, some wearing masks.  While I'm not advocating  a Stephen King bloodbath, I do exult in the kind of authentic circus that can raise the pulse and hit a visceral nerve in the human spirit.  And when I see such a venture drawing a crowd, I can still see a future out there. We are still at least hanging on. God bless our dedicated troupers who endure against all odds ...

   FEW HOURS LATER.  Back at this whatever post, I'm now listening to Chic's 1978 disco hit, I want Your Love, and it feels good. No, no, I'm not going off my rocker, only grabbing a few vibrant bars of some of the best pop music ever composed, for inspiration. Monte Carlo is coming back in January, and that's good, right?  Who was big when Chic was big?  Cliff Vargas was in the early stages of his career, on the mad rise to something really big ... The Felds had Ringling riding high. So many solid American shows out there posting arrows, following arrows onto and off of grass and mud and weed and cracked cement. Crowds lining up to embrace the tattered magic.  The animal hysterics had not yet formed.   Some of the best tunes were composed pushing disco onto dance floors and kept it there for years ... I'd like to hear more of it under a tent ... It was always about the music for me.  And for you?  And where is this going? It's Saturday night, tomorrow is Sunday, and I may post this then ...Or maybe, NOW.  Yes, it's 9:06 pm PST. They want our love. So, let's give it back ...

Welcome to Little Circuses, America's New Normal ... To the Season of 2021!

 Good bye to ..

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey

Cole Bros. Circus

Big Apple Circus

Carson & Barnes Circus

Kelly Miller Circus

And welcome to Little Circus, USA. Welcome to little big tops with big hearts.  This is the new normal in America. And, it would appear,  ours are no longer the most prosperous rings in the world. England now seems to be in the lead.  I can't think of a more deserving place, for they invented this thing called circus.

At the Zoppe Family Circus.  You can see horse riders and trapeze flyers. 

Warms my heart to see that Circus Vargas is back in operation.  They should have California all to themselves, far as I can see.  Please don't forget us up here in the Bay Area, Mr V.! Ah yes, the great "Mr. V" as he was so fondly called when he produced awesomely. 

 

I'd love to see the "dream-come-true" for former Ringling ringmaster, Kevin Venardos -- as he calls his circus. His lovely little tent seats a compact 350 souls, easier to sell out --- I hope  He is now trouping through  Colorado. 

 And here's the redoubtable Culpepper & Merriweather Circus. They've got a big little cage act in the show!  

I'd guess that Hanneford may have the best show on the road. Or, could it be ....

Yes, "America's black owned circus," as they ballyhoo it  to the max.  The cool are calling it the coolest show on Earth.  It's funky, I know that, painted in exotic colors, humored by sass and jazz.  I only saw one show, years ago, and was struck by two or three outstanding acts. The rest was a fizzy funny party.  

I have to hand it to them for marketing.  They got a full proof lock on protest-free patronage.  Funny, I do not recall the best acts being of black skin.  But of colors elsewhere.  You got to hand it to them: This is -- I assume -- a show cleverly and naturally in sync with woke culture.   So then, the big UniverSoul Question: Will they draw the big crowds that few circuses have been drawing the past few years?  And how will we ever know?  Maybe it's best not to know. 

Wait just a moment! Writes Don Covington, bringing to our attention another big player now brilliantly in motion,  "Las Vegas based Circo Hermanos Caballero is also back on the road, featuring young Anru Caballero performing the quad in the flying act.  He hits it just about every show.  After two Nevada stands, the show will move into California."

YES!   And I can't wait!

A ringmaster watches his little living dream.  John Strong would happily relate.  I am urging everyone to spend high at the ticket window.  Show a lot of green.  You know what they have all been through.

6.23.21

Big Top Bits: Ringling Risks Blue States Fallout ... Chinese Risk Higher Flights ... Rampaging Gorilla Risks a Tour of America. ...

 From Out of the Past ... Guess when?

Answering Connecticut’s drive to outlaw use of the billhook (ankus) by bull handlers, Kenneth Feld threatens to ditch every date in this blue blue state. Now, that takes guts. And may it turn Connecticut truly blue. New Cole Circus’s Renee Storey is taking a tough rhetorical stand against the bill’s co-sponsor, one Diana S. Urban, accusing her of false statements (which, indeed, she has made) and undue action. The circus big shots are suddenly going constitutional. Here’s Storey citing the Equal Protection clause under Section 8 of Article 1. Go, Esquire Storey! ... Kenneth Feld’s daring threat could also backfire: What if he ditches Connecticut and nobody makes a fuss? Might other states and/or cities follow suit against elephant acts? ... Then bourbon for Ms. Urban?

Let’s chill out for a wee moment, okay. Can Feld afford to start a blue-state trend against his three touring units? A few thousand miles away out on bluer than blue west coast, there’ll be no Bellobration at San Francisco's Cow Palace this summer, marking the second season in a row without a Ringling visit ... Who could ever have guessed? All I can get from Cow Palace tickets agents, who grant that Feld ditched them, not they him — is a generic excuse about Ringling wanting to play Stockton instead. Stockton? This year in the labor day slot that for fifty years belonged to S.F., Ringling makes a round trip to Portland between Northern Calif. dates in San Jose and Stockton ...

While America’s big top moguls continue struggling to figure out what their vanishing audience base really wants — if anything at all — the fringers appear to be having a ball out there making hay of traditions in peril .... Up in Portland, there’s the Wanderlust Circus, promising 3 Leg Torso and DJ Global Ruckus, AND "ecological and educational amusements..." Also purring through pc-perfect Portland right about now is the Moscow Cats Theatre. The fluffy eqiuilibrists started out on sawdust and are now the queens and kings of stage. "Direct from Broadway!" spiels an add ... Go, kitties, go! ...

Other oddball offerings that intrigue: San Francisco’s eccentrically kooky dinner-circus under a tent by the bay, Teatro Zinzanni has cooked up a new concoction that sounds deliciously off kilter: Ukranian illusionist and original cast member Veronin returns. So does juggling chef Michael Davis ... Between bites, sample the "sensual power duo" Vertical Tango, opera diva Svetlana Nikitenko and German aerial acrobat Crystalle. And while your chasing those little cable cars half way to the stars — or the bars -- you might check out Circus Center’s first-year aerial program students on high, Ethereal Bodies and Crazy Clowns. Slated to perform June 2 at 7:30.

From hoops to traps, the Chinese are more and more pushing their flawless artistry skyward, and isn’t that a heady turn of events ... The Shanghai Swingers gave UniverSoul's 2005 opus true gold ...Another example of Asiatic stratospherics are the rambunctiously inventive Yunnan Flyers with Ringless Bros. On a stage, I find the various so-called "Chinese Acrobats" from here and there a little predictable and boring. In a ring and in the air, and mixed together with a diversity of performers from far and wide, these gymnasts add guaranteed zing and luster. Soar, China, Soar! ...

The Return of Gargantua? That would be our 400-pound male gorilla, Bokito, who is on display at a Netherlands zoo when not out on escape scaring the living daylights out of zoo goers. Now, what will Peta do about this? Bokito got loose and rampaged all over the grounds, sinking his teeth into a woman and dragging her around, panicking dozens of patrons. Our manic-depressive big ape only needed medication, so they say. In his break-out wake, four people were injured, that’s nothing to laugh about. Everything else — well, Bokito’s news-grabbing behavior marks him as a natural for an American big top in needed of a crowd. Jim Judkins, ahead of his Circus Chimera in an effort to bolster a weak gate (things are "very very difficult," he writes in a humbly haggard tone) might see about importing Bokito for a season or two ... There’s a lovely "jungle condition" cage in Baraboo — maybe for rent.

And that’s a gargantuan wrap!

3.25.07

Sunay Pause: Will Summer Be Another Bummer?

 I like the way they have of filling up the ring.

When will it ever end? And when it is said to, how long to get people under the tents? All the viral spin-offs out there keep me on edge.

Circus being a big thing still for little tots new to life and too young to spin conspiracy theories or cry social injustice to media whores, I'd guess, barring the teachers unions banning big tops, too, that the kids should be good to go by June. Biggest reason: the critical kiddy demographic had been thoroughly immune to corona's touch. I am deferring  to SCIENCE.

Of course, the parents might not be so okay with it. Which poses a conundrum (my first time using that word, and maybe the last). 

If I had kids, I would want to go, but inside a warm stuffy tent?  Outdoors surely is the better, safer option, requiring only the raising of the sidewalls. In the wake of the horrific Hartford circus fire of 1944, Ringling returned to the road under the open sky and the crowds came  The smaller community shows that already thrive in parks should have an easier time recapturing an audience.

Let me right now check out the Big Apple Circus website to see if I can detect a telling difference over there, one way or the other. Be back in a jiff!

Glumly unchanged, as like an empty storefront awaiting a new tenant:.

Big Apple Circus is not currently performing due to COVID-19 safety and assembly precautions.

Far more promising is the cheer and hope from Smirkus up New England way:

"Last April, when for the first time in Smirkus' history we announced the cancellation of the Big Top Tour, we never thought it could happen twice. However, public health guidelines will still not allow us to travel throughout New England, and even if the world begins to open up this spring, it will not allow us the safe and effective window needed to plan a traditional Big Top Tour.

"But the creative thinking and optimism that are part of the DNA of Circus Smirkus remain unaffected by the pandemic! ... We will have more for you in the months ahead: more virtual programming; more messages of hope and excitement from Greensboro; and more ways for you to engage with us. Let's embark on a re-imagined 2021 together!  

Wishing you joy and magic,




Jennifer Carlo, Executive Director

Now, doesn't this not  make you feel a little more hopeful?

P.S. Do you ever inside your own living space catch yourself wearing a mask, or pulling up a sweater over your nose?  Would this, too, be a conundrum? I need to look up the word.

Showbiz David’s 2020 American Circus Evidence of Life Awards

   At UniverSoul last month

What is there to write about a season that wasn’t ?  That it will stand out in American circus history as, yes, the season that wasn’t?  And what’s to look forward to in 2021? As Nellie Hanneford so simply stated, when I reached her by telephone, “It’s out of our hands.”

And the sooner it’s back in, the better.  But even then, I wonder.  There should be plenty of Americans hungry for the kind of down-to-earth live entertainment that circus can offer.  And if the Feld of Felds does make good on his promise to bring back The Greatest Show on Earth, that will be, by far, the best thing that could happen to the big top scene here. For, Ringling-Barnum symbolizes American circus. When it died, so in the minds of many did circus die.  A successful return could work wonders for an institution that is closer than ever to the abyss.

How does 2021 look to the trouping wounded?  I dialed their numbers, sent out e-mails seeking their thoughts on what lies ahead. My rankings here are partly based on the responses received; also on my knowledge of each show’s history; and a gut feeling.

2020 American Circus Evidence of Life Awards         

1.  UniverSoul

No need to call them.  The sight of an actual tent in the air anywhere over the U.S. marks a milestone. They pitched theirs for a perilous period last month down in Texas.  Whether the crowds pitched back is another matter. Photos I have seen show only a few strays in the seats. But something is better than nothing, right?  My hat's off to you, Cedric Walker.

2.  Cullpepper Meriweather

Why so high on this list?  They are small enough to have, I assume, the smallest nut, and they’re run by pros, and have been around for a long time.  

From Cullpepper’s Jim Royal:  “Show owner/manager Trey Key is monitoring the situation daily.  We are in touch with our local sponsors and ready to set the route.  Everything hinges on the pandemic. I know, no surprise there.” 

  3.  Royal Hanneford           

I’d never spoken with Nellie Hanneford before, such a sweet soul.  She tells me they are working on dates, and she nearly mentions one in particular, but I do not press. These days, “in particular” could mean a whole season.  

4. Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey

They should be at the top, and soon, they might be again – if Kenneth Feld follows through on his announced plans, through brainstorming sessions with many people, to create the return of Ringling, originally projected to happen in late 2021.

From VIP Stephen C. Yaros, in reply:  “Thanks for reaching out to Feld Entertainment. Due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, our plans to relaunch The Greatest Show On Earth have been delayed.  As soon as we have more information to share, we plan to do so.  I hope you and your family have a very Merry Christmas.  Cheers.”

Money is no problem for the Felds.  Only key issue, as I see it, is when best to strike.  I’d say, when Americans feel safe enough to sit next to each other at a circus.  Feld has good reason to maximize the potential for a groundswell of grateful yes-give-us-the-real-circus patronage.  Was the stage ever better set for a circus named Ringling to roar back in triumph?

5.  Big Apple Circus

It’s presence remains, I’d venture, even more  murky, as witness what you hear when you dial their number.  At the other end, a recorded message from a cool sounding guy: “Hey there, thank you for calling. Please leave us a message and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.” No name of voice or circus. Us Circus?

The guy, answering my e-mail on the upbeat,  turns out to be Jack Marsh from Circus Flora — the Flora that played a hand in the last Lincoln Center date show before Covid came calling.

“Yes, life is here, indeed!!"pipes Jack.  “Obviously hard to have a crystal ball right now, but all plans are for BAC to re-launch once the world will allow. Plan A right now is to target Lincoln Center in October, our usual time frame.... Fun plans are underway.  Fingers crossed for the industry we both love.”

His name stands above the imposing title, Executive Producer.  So I e-mail back, and toss Jack be nimble some questions:

 Is Gregg Walker still in charge?
      “Gregg is moving on to greener pastures.”
Is Walker’s company still involved in any way?
      “I don’t have precise details on the arraignment but Remarkable has some ownership of the           company, as do other investors.”
Who is your CEO?
      “That’s not a position we have right now”.  
New Owners?
      “No, no ownership changes to report.  Be careful about assumptions!”

Jacks seems to be a splendid fellow. See how much space he got here?  He even offered to set up a chat, which might have been very interesting, but I did not wish to take it that far.  Given Jack’s fluidity, I might have ended up with so much inside stuff, that I would feel guilty not writing a book about it.  So politely, I declined.

Since they can’t seem to live without Lincoln Center (their Achilles heal),  they might not be too welcome back come October. Broadway is still looking uncertain about 2021. 

6.  Carson & Barnes

Both circus Vargas and Carson & Barnes are about equally inaccessible by either e-mail or phone. I am graciously awarding an edge to  C&B because they answered my e-mail of yesterday with this lovely reply.  "Hello David, Thank you for contacting us! Someone will respond to you very soon about your inquiry."  Well, I am still waiting.  

Whereas, however...

7. Circus Vargas

Didn't get back to me at all.  When I dialed there number, I was sent into a loop-the-loop extension chase down into a hole.  No reply to my two e-mails.  So I must relegate them to this bottom slot.  You have come to the end of the rankings.  You may now take your mask off, kids.

                                                              
END RINGERS: This is the year when we lost Circus Report for good, when Spectacle suspended publication due to lack of subject matter to cover ... When the Brits showed us how to could keep a dozen or more circuses on the road for a few months.  From the land that gave us circus, I would hope for that.  Kudos to them!...  A year when Italy, which had suffered devastating covid deaths, warmed my heart by staging a great circus festival, in which star Italians inspired before masked-in audiences. ... The year when Cirque du Soliel went into and out of bankruptcy, as if anybody cares.  I have grown weary of the Cirque style.  And I believe many Americans have, too. I mean, really,  does "character arc"do that much for any of you? ... Feld Family: You are our last great hope, so don’t let us down this time!... And I almost forgot, when cyber courier Don Covington stuck in there, continuing to find all sorts of stories related to circus and sending them out and keeping me on the list. Thank you, Don!

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!

The Morning Midway: Kelly Miller Plots 2019; Bella Blossoms into Tent Status; Big Apple Sued, Website Turns Yellow ...

Ominous: Big Apple Circus in the yellow, or is it my computer?

   THIS IS NOT A HAPPY DAY.   I'm cooped up on a tragic California afternoon, when so much is on fire, up north and down south, splashes of sunshine against my large window gracing me from the unhealthy air out there.  I’ll skip the afternoon walk, and let this one roll, and turn the TV back on.  I marvel over the heroism of the fire fighters, by the thousands displaced, taking it on the chin, so many and maybe all being extra good to each other, knowing what means the most in life, the old and the young bringing tears to my eyes. A whole town, gone. Others in the balance, forever, I fear. 

    WHAT MOVED ME to this keyboard was a You Tube I chanced upon featuring clips  from the Big Apple Circus’s Grand Tour of 2015.  What a feast of tent-filling action.  This is what I live for.  Inventive all over. Lots of movement.  No wonder the New York Times raved. I offer it to you below. 
                                       
   NOW, SIGH,  to the present tense. I shall strive for positivity.  When I think of circus in bits and pieces today, I think back on the little John Strong Circus tent.  It would fit in quite dandy now, as the tops grow smaller, the ballyhoos more eager than egotistic.   Our local community ring, the free-to-see Circus Bella, advancing up and over to Treasure Island for a month-long holiday run, and under  their first little big top.  And they’re not giving this one away (more, maybe stronger acts touted), tickets going from $39 to $150.  What a daring leap from free.  Out of the diaper stage, at last. I'm feeling a rare Bella bounce, relearning to be John Strong grateful.

   NO LONGER RINGLING or Beatty-Cole.  Now UniverSoul, the  new Big Show?  Or would that be Big apple?  They, the latter, are hiding their wares behind a screen full of lovely yellow, or that’s what I keep pulling up when trying to reach inside their website.   It’s happened before.  What is going on, or coming off, over there? Too much unwanted drama, perhaps.  I know, for one thing, that a lawsuit has been launched against Big Apple Circus by two of those who helped sell the Big Apple Circus Board on selling to the Sarasota partners.  The two, in the beginning promised prominent operational roles, were gradually sidelined and then fired. Not a pretty picture.

   OF REVIEWS FOR Big Apple’s latest, I could only find two legit notices, one from New York Stage Review, the other out of the Philly’s Inquirer.  Both were pleased, though not steeped in awesome adjectives.   “Colorful and fun,” the kindly kudos.   One critic laughed a lot at the clowns, or his kids did; the other did not laugh at all.  Grandma still missed, and how sad I feel over what happened, wondering, if you will allow, if it had to happen?  

   ALL GOOD NEWS feels more terrific in these tentative times, like feeling good about Kelly Miller advertising in Circus Report for marketing people to front the 2019 tour.

When I see Asian faces on the bill (The Mongolian Troupe with Kelly Miller), I anticipate inventive, cerebral-free excitement, and I want to go.

   BIG JOHN STRONG WOULD fit in, peachy well, under the small tent he pitched (or thumb tacked up)  at country fairs, offering for free the fundamental magic in a charming showcase, he being the talky star.  “Got a big hand, Cindy!“   I just loved hearing him say that, when a young juggler kept three sticks in motion, a clown, the kiddies in tickles   When once Big John spotted me on the planks (how I wished he hadn't), the way he announced me, I felt like a potentate from foreign shores. I was somebody then.

 
   CIRQUE DU SOLEIL, still posturing  and preening in heavy-handed narrative, putting up its Volta tent over in San Francisco, for a long three-month haul.   I might pass.  Sounds like some very good acts, but even the Canadian critics were down on this show when it opened, fed up with another dull story line mucking up and retarding the program. The Globe and Mail declared the "thrilling Volta is crippled by its story."  You won’t see any of the acting stuff on TV ads. You'll see CIRCUS. So I have little will to drag my self over to SF, and there be dragged through another schizoid Cirque combo.

   SO WHAT WILL I have seen this year?  I sat on rough dry grass over hard clumpy dirt in a gritty  Oakland Park to watch Circus Bella put on a cute little show -- The Cutest Little Show on Earth? -- I'm trying.  At least they are high on Joy.  In these darkened days of diminishing glories, Joy is a comforting element.  The John Strong factor.  Got a great hand, Bella!

   I'LL ADMIT TO BEING envious over the circus fan (CFA-er) who has built into his/her DNA, the capacity to enjoy almost anything that comes their way titled circus.  I’m thinking how Plato’s theory of forms may explain for this phenomenon.. But more on that trenchant topic some other time. 

   IT IS STILL sunny bright outside, lending local peace, in a land perpetually on fire.   Somebody needs to cut down half the trees and all the dry brush, mandate stone or steel houses, restrict population, order power lines under ground. Mother nature may once have set off the sparks; now humans are doing what appears a far worse job.

Let me send you off on  a  joyful three-minute sampler of Big Apple Circus's Grand Tour, from 2015:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xboinX8BcUw

Got a great big hand, Big Apple!

Cicuses Under Seige: Judkins Jumps into Kelly-Miller Circus Ownership, Drops Exotic Animals ... Lane Talburt Interviews Copeland & Combs and John Kennedy Kane ...

So, shall we face the music once more and still try dancing?  That's how I started  the post, two down, that pulled in a staggering 3,358 page views in a single day — stratospheric for me.  Almost twice the previous high for traffic inside this here side show.  The postings that pull in the mostings are those that wallow in — or wallowed in,  thank you so much, Kenneth Feld —  all things Ringling. Maybe now all things Big Apple? 

On that stat-busting  post, "A Little Apple Reception," I took on the generally tepid reviews  that covered the new Big Apple Circus opening at Lincoln Center.  Since then, I don’t know how the show has been doing, but there’s some good news —  two dates on a so-called "national tour," at Alpharetta, GA, and National Harbor, DC, are now being touted with tickets for sale on the show's website. Hardly national, but it's a start!

It's been reported that the Anastiani Brothers, this not being their first time with Big Apple, recently set an all-time record for the number of flips on the risley.

Now, the subject  for today will not wow the mini multitudes who sometimes, by accident or intent,  gawk anonymously upon my banner lines, making me feel like one of the  tenters out there playing to hundreds rather than thousands.  (so now you know).  Let me alliterate:

Jomar to Judkins: The Jomar refers to the mobile home that was occupied by John Ringling North II, while traveling with his Kelly Miller Circus.  Unwilling to continue on without exotic animals -- and possibly having to subsidize the struggling operation, North threw in the towel and sold Kelly Miller to veteran big top boss, James Judkins.   The sale made a big front page interview in Circus Report. This should be interesting.

Judkins, made known  that, for a number of  long-time Kelly Miller staffers — I assume those who have clung to the show like orphans to the last foster home on earth — the time to leave is at hand.   I can think of a few names, but kindly I refrain.  Jim, who managed Carson and Barnes Circus for a number of good years, later spent an awful lot of his own money starting up his ambitiously non-traditional Circus Chimera, a kind of bargain basement Cirque du Soleil for struggling families on lower income levels.  Jim’s impressive  first season’s lineup cast a take-notice impression.  Over its decade-long struggle, Chimera slowly lost appeal with a class of people who still want some animal acts— at least, say, a few gifted dogs. I could never understand why Judkins was so puritanically self-restrained in this area.  Just as the same mindset on Circus Vargas makes no sense to me at all. AT ALL!

Among a handful of outstanding acts that appeared on Circus Chimera over the years, surely the brilliantly creative Alex Chimal is a true star.  The variably talented Chimal Family, a staple for many season, supplied plenty of engaging action.  

Jim told Circus Report of how happy he was when John and Shirley North reached out to him “to reinvigorate and reinvent the circus.”  Ah, yes, yet another reinvention.  I'm not sure he can match the best North II years,  but surely he can and must offer the customer a  better program than what John II allowed into his ring the last few hapless seasons.  Lord knows, there are plenty of top grade circus acts out there no doubt looking for work. 

The new Kelly Miller owner speaks of “developing a more precise image for the show,” of exotic animal acts being too costly to foresee including  in  2018.  Without the exotics, Judkins should find the trouping ahead much easier.

Over Talburt tanbark:   Open-minded video journalist, Lane Talburt, continues to capture on film what is going on on out there in the shaky present tense.   Best of all, he is able, in a few words, to ask big questions and then let his subjects answer without interrupting them or hording the spotlight.  Talburt is amassing a formidable canon of on-the-lot interviews with the trouping wounded , to wit a pair of recent examples:

Clowns Steve Copeland and Ryan Combs talking about the changes they are making in an effort to avoid being fatally associated with another aspect of  our battered big tops — clown alley in greasepaint — that has fallen out of favor with the issues-driven public.  Says Ryan, “It’s an uphill battle when you start out looking like a clown.”  You, Ryan, are one smart, articulate cookie   Steve notes  how the same gags, whether executed behind or without makeup, still draw laughs.  I agree, although I might suggest a few facial marks to subtly convey —  say, a safe degree of acceptable eccentricity? ...

A Kane for all seasons:  Talburt landed a most entertaining interview with John Kennedy Kane, sometimes a ringmaster, overtimes, well, whatever the job was that fate dealt  him down the sawdust trails.   The humbly flexible Kane, who must have left his ego inside the womb before checking out, wanted to start out clowning for Clyde Beatty-Cole Bros, but, instead, was offered the flaming role of fire eater.  Quickly, he learned, and safely he burned.  Along the way, he has pitched concessions one year, blown the whistle the next.  A shame he was not kept on with Big Apple Circus.  That warm heart of his might have warmed up a tent that — recklessly speculating here — might be a little too on the coldly serious side. ...  Which reminds me, what a shame it was that another top ringmaster,  John Moss II, left Kelly Miller a few seasons back.  That was about when the program began to deteriorate ... Next stop down the Lane of Talburt: Circus Smirkus.

End Ringers,  Covington Connected:  Here comes Cirque du Soliel in another corporate contortion, this time joining forces with the NFL to supply sideline acrobatics — or eye candy.  Perhaps CDS will give those “taking the knee” a more artfully mystical execution  ...  The passing of UK circus fan, David Jamieson, who edited King Pole magazine  for many years and was involved in many aspects of the circus scene.  Such a nice fellow, who reviewed my books fairly.  Which means, he gave  one of them only a luke warm notice.  Funny how David’s face, a photo of which came through in Don's link, is so different from an image I have for years hosted in my fuzzy mind. .... The passing, too, of Pinito Del Oro,  the most mesmerizing aerialist I have ever beheld.  Something about the way she moved (like a Beetles song) while standing on a free swinging trapeze bar, especially when she drove it in concentric circles. Luckily, I first saw her under the Ringling big top. She seemed to loose herself in a kind of surreal self-hypnosis ...Those are the moments than burn circus magic in your soul forever ...

Last tickle::  When I stepped up to purchase my ticket to the first edition of Jim Judkins  Circus Chimera, ready to join ten or twelve other souls to watch the show on one very cold San Francisco night, the fellow on the other side of the glass looked awfully familiar .. who is he?  Could it be, Oh, are you  ... Yes, I know!

Herb Ueckert.

Are we still  dancing?

Anybody still there?

Now forming in my posting mind   Trapeze in Our Time.

Elephants Returning to Madison Square Garden! ... Surfing Dogs Make Rose Parade! ... Kelly Miller Peanut Sales Sell Out! ... But It's Tough Trouping in Tough Times, Royally Speaking

Welcome to 2017!

Or, should I say 1903?

This might be fun, come spring when a circus of sorts plays Madison Square Garden, complete with performing pachyderms!  Yes, but, wait.  Close your eyes to the wires and all the artificial joints making them so nimble.  They are puppets.   And you, Mr. and Mrs. VIP, who can afford the pricey seats ($139-$129), may have to put aside your issues with show-off animals.  Circus 1903, a new stage show,  will give you a virtual elephant act, the purpose being simply to celebrate their prominence in the “golden age” of the circus. 

           Why Wait for Puppet Pachyderms

           When We Offer You the Real thing!

That should be a banner line on all circus ads for the show(s) still daring to present living breathing elephants.   Kelly-Miller Circus, said to have signed on with one of the Friscos working a trio o f Big Guys, might make it work. For, per the show’s former general manager, James Royal, in the small towns were the circus of John Ringling North II likes to pitch canvas, “the customers like traditional circus.  It still appeals to people of all ages and demographic factors.”

More from Sir Royal, below...

          How authentic, The  Circus 1903?

Yes, the posters look very enticing, indeed.  But, from one review I read, with high hopes at the start, the stage affair sounds maybe more artsy than authentic.  Like, say a, mixture of old time imagery and costumes with new time Cirque du Soleil posturing and contorting, etc.   I was set on going down to LA in February to take in a performance at the Pantages Theatre.    Not so sure now.  They have themselves booked across the U.S. through a slew of big cities, making a 12-day appearance in New York at the Madison Square Garden Theatre, April 5-16.

          Puppet PETA Protesters?

Why not.  After all,  to be true to their  progressive opposition to circus animal acts of all kinds, dare such a liberal — the sort to whom, I’d guess, this show is being marketed, patronize a show that celebrates performing elephants in any form?  Is such chic patronage, therefore, not an act of philosophical hypocrisy?  (Somebody, check the Constitution, please.)   If you cheer the imagery of a circus staple fast disappearing, do you not embrace the actuality of it?  I take heart in  Circus 1903's glowing embracement of elephant acts of yore. 

         Surfing dogs at the Rose Parade

Yes, and what a hoot, and just another circusy manifestation on the edges, proving the enduring appeal of true circus itself.  I’m hoping that President-Elect Tweetie Trump will take in a real circus, make a big Tweet over it, and make it okay once again for the public to do likewise.  Do you remember the Trump Tent, as it was called --- when, as I fuzzily recall, Mr. T. funded a new big top for Big Apple Circus?

          Royally Speaking ...

James Royal, who has managed both the Big Apple and Kelly Miller tops,  had a lot to share with me on the challenges facing today’s owners, and I intend to reprint his full e-mal to me in the coming weeks.  For now, suffice it to cover a few points that caught my eye:

Big Apple Circus’s Big Operation: “Moving the show was extremely expensive  ... The show moved on 33 semis, plus vans, pickups and Rvs ... The show could do good business in a smaller venue such as Charleston ... but the cost of getting it there was huge."

Did you know they took their air-conditioning units on the road?  Now I do.  Another two semis, fork life and separate generator, details  Jim.  Now, do you see why they are bankrupt? 

North and Royal.  They ended their partnership at the end of 2015

Kelly Miller’s banner season, when?  Seems it was 2012, during a presidential election year, when,  by tradition, big top biz usually drops. “For us that season, it was the reverse  We had our best season.“

How very interesting. The DVD of the 2012 show, which I just reviewed, a few scrolls down, with high marks —  might that show have been a big part of the reason?   I did not ask Jim. 

Jim’s reports that Culpepper & Merriweather Circus, which now employs him, had a good season.
. 

          The Peterson Peanut Test

I am really stretching it here by making a good sign of the fact that,  before the end of the Kelly Miller season just passed, per John II in his note to me,“Petersen Peanut Co ran out of peanuts. So, no nuts." He always enclosed, with his new DVD, a package of Peterson's finest. 

Somewhere, somehow, someway, there are evidently still hordes of people with a lingering yen for the common peanut.  But not the sparse crowds who turned out to see Kelly Miller in 2016.  When I asked Brenda Rawls about how the year had been, by phone  — I had called to see how I could send JRN II a thank you note, Brenda answered with a long sigh. “This was a down year”.

And then she added, with a good Hugo Byrd Chirp. “But, we’re going out!”

Read Jim Royal’s full missive in the coming weeks, right here.

Here are some Kelly Miller photos ...