Monte Carlo Gold to Shanghai Acrobats, Richter Animals .... Colossal Ueckert Circus Collection to The Milner ... Big Apple Circus to the Road Without Grandma ...

 

Enter Princess Stephanie and Circusdome's Royal Family

Once again, Asian acrobats shine in the circus world’s most honored spotlights.  One of two Gold Clowns handed out at the recent 42nd competition went to the Shanghai Acrobatic Troupe, the other to the extraordinary animal acts of the Richters –  and how pictures of them inspire.  One Silver Clown was awarded to D'Argent Prosvirnin Duo Stauberti Duo Balance.  And two acts received the Bronze: the inner Mongolian Acrobats Duo 2-Zen-O, and the Troupe Vavilov Michael Ferrerir performing on monocycles.  A shower of other awards, as well, from different groups, made the festival a glorious affirmation of great good  cheer.  Touring these dazzling images, how impressed,  proud, and hopeful I feel for the future of world circus arts. Thank you for another spectacular showcase,  Princess Stephanie!

Colossal Collection, Sarasota to Normal: 250,000 circus items bequeathed to the Milner Library at Illinois State University by partners Herb Ueckert and Neil Cockerline.  I had no idea that  Herb, a retired school librarian, was such a prolific collector.  In a statement he issued through ISU, said Ueckert,  “We are absolutely thrilled they have accepted our collection and look forward to seeing the items shared and used for educating ISU students and the larger public.”  Thrilled to accept was the Milnar’s  Special Collection librarian, Maureen Brunsale,  seen above, at her post since 2008, calling it “the largest donation during my time here ... When you think of circuses, these are the kinds of things you think of ... I would love to be able to show this stuff off." ... The awesome archival acquisition follows another formidable gift — the papers of none other than Henry Ringling North.  All of which should give CFA circus fans, who convene for their annual convention in Normal, come April, reason, I suspect, to await tantalizing previews of the goodies from Brunsdale & Company ... Take your bows, mighty Milner!

 

END RINGERS:   Carson & Barnes Circus is on the road. Show opened season in McAllen, TX, there now through Feb. 5. ...  Watching old Ed Sullivan TV programs — my, did Ed know how to pace a program  — the occasional circus act, unadorned by modern day pretensions, reminding me of how wonderful it was, long ago, when watching a circus act on its own terms was easier to appreciate and enjoy, and more than enough ... Do you know the name Deyanira Rosales?  I do now, having been blown away by her dazzling hula hoop routine on a video John Ringling North II sent me, of the last performance of Kelly Miller under his ownership. WOW!  You older ones, think of Francis Brunn manipulating hula hoops like he juggled clubs over his body.  The best damn act on the show.  And from a garden variety hula hoop  hater, that’s the kiss of exaltation.  Indeed, one of only two hula hoop acts I can recall sitting through that swept me away, the other being the wondrous work of a Russian kid with Jim Judkin’s old Circus Chimera, whose mother dazzled equally well with big box illusion ... What a segue -- I’m hoping that Jim, Kelly Miller’s new owner to the rescue, will route his show out my way into markets he played annually with Chimera.  We are in desperate need of a real circus out here, Jim!   But, please, at least give us a dog act.
 

 

, .

And finally, about Grandma and Barry Lubin. I think we are all suffering a silently shared shock and sadness over what recently happened.  It hit me hard.  I’ve read the New York Times report at least five times, and find it somewhat meager.  I do not know what to say, and so I will not say much, other than to express my great sorrow and sadness to all parties concerned, and to note that sometimes a fuller truth not known in the beginning may eventually surface ... This will not diminish my respect for the wonderful character that Barry created, a character I hope will ultimately live on in some form.  Most of all, I feel a deep sadness for the American Circus, at a time when it struggles to reverse an ominous downward trend, and so, the best I can do is to end this on a note of admonition, to quote from my musical, Those Ringings:

The show must go on,

must be moved every night

If you love it, you shove it,

you push, you pull,

and you fight! 

MIDWAY FLASH! ... Showbiz David Called "Borderline Racist" in Amazon Book Review .... Has He Finally Reached Prime Time, He Wonders ...

Full disclosure:  I have never asked a single person to post a review for any of my books on Amazon.

For the most part, I believe my books have been fairly reviewed by Amazon consumers.   Only twice have I been savaged, by somebody working an agenda, I believed, but never on a circus title. 

Recently, very recently, checking up on two of my books, I came upon very good news and very bad news.

First, the good:

FALL OF THE BIG TOP: When it was published, it garnered  a couple of good reviews on Amazon, and a 2-star stinker, my being accused of “a lot of whining and ranting about the old days."    I could see how it might have been my fault, in not making clear that the narrator, a guy called Sage, was  meant to have a voice of wistful regret, going a little poetic in his exclusive hold over a small crowd of people having arrived on a near deserted midway to see a circus.  Yes,a little tongue-in-cheek, I thought.  On this count, I wish I had done a better job at the outset of setting up and defining Sage.  (I talk about this in my book, Big Top Typewriter)

Well, let the whining and ranting take a bow.  Yesterday, I discovered to my elation  a five star review on Amazon, posted by one Hugh Lowther, about whom I know nothing.  I checked on his other book reviews, and there are dozens of them on a wide range of subjects. Of a few other circus titles he has reviewed, he gave four stars to The Circus Fire, only two stars to The Great Circus Train Wreck, and four to The Hartford Circus Fire.

Surely, he was well prepared for the adversity that opens my book on that fateful day in Pittsburgh. I had often wondered about its placement.  Now, I’m glad I put it there.

Okay, onto the bad news, I guess -- to my alleged status as a "borderline racist"

INSIDE THE CHANGING CIRCUS: When the book came out, it received two good reviews, a five and a four star.  Now comes a blast to deflate my air, if there is any left in my ego.  Me, a racist?  My mind scrambled to recall, defaulting to the usual object of such complaint.  What had I said about or referring to  African Americans?

No, turns out that BaderState Transplant, the Amazon critic, was offended by a term I've coined and often used, "The Mexican Family Plan," meaning a family of Mexican performers with varied talents, bringing many acts to a show, some average or below, one or two possibly outstanding, and likely a good bargain for your typical struggling circus owners.  But let me quote my new accuser: 

"The final nail in the coffin for me was his borderline racism. He often referred to shows use Latinx circus performers as using the 'Mexican family plan.' It doesn't matter that a large amount of these families come from Central and South America, he lumps all Latinx performers as Mexican."

I checked Transplant's other reviews, of which there are six, one of another circus book -- five stars for Paul Binder's tome with that impossible-to-remember-spell title about Sea Lions, a book I also much enjoyed. Congrats, Paul!   And, please, another? ....

What can I say?  I'll  only note, that on this very blog, I recently raved about one of the top acts that appeared on Jim Judkin's Circus Chimera: Alex Chimal.  The gifted juggler came with a Mexican Family Plan, THANK YOU, Chimal family.  And Gaonas and Vazquez, and on and on ...

This borderline jolt has caused me to wonder:  whenever I criticize a white circus performer, am I not also being a racist?  And if I am, who will accuse me of the sin but another person of my own color?  White performers matter too!

ALREADY GONE TOO FAR, David. No, No.  I could have a field day with this one.  Oh, could I ever.  I'm putting a gag order on myself.  NO MORE.

Euro Ice Nationals Transcend Quad Mania ... Young Russian's Brilliant Blades Make the Big Trick Secondary ... Tara Lipinski Commentary Merits the Mute Button

Dimitri Aliev is the name.  And how many quads did he execute?  Funny, I have no idea, if any.  I know I was mesmerized by the totality of his generous program.

And how refreshing a break from last week, when over here we were driven to count count count quads. All the talk dominated by quad obsession.  He may do five!   Oh, well, he did get in two!
That was a surprise, we had not seen that quad coming!

And how narrow a focus, reducing the event to a one-theme contest.  Great figure skaters should sweep us up into a journey of flight. I caught the top rated  men in finals and posted my own grades.   I gave Dimitri my highest score -- 94, my second highest, 92, to the commanding Spaniard, Javier Lopez Fernandez, a little more athletic, if only he had not missed or smeared several ill-fated landings.  He seems to hold the "reputation" factor.  Between the two men, the competition in Korea next month should be fierce.

This event was never intended to be a showdown over just one item.  The ridiculous focus on quads --- seems more prevalent over here --- shoves us into a fixation on just that one component, rendering all the other jumps and the spins less important,  the routines less wholly satisfying. 

Leave it to Russia to show us the way.  And the way is only 18-years-old.  Dimitri is a compelling artist on blades, from his mastery of big tricks to an interlocking choreography that does not seem secondary at all.  A sublime pleasure to watch, his body movements forming fluid sculptures in motion.  Rare to have artistry and athleticism so evenly matched.

And what a surprise, his routine was over, already?  I  couldn't believe how fast it went - the mark of a skater's avoiding middle-of-the-program slumping and slippage. Other than one failed landing, Aliev was near perfection.

Commentary from hell

About the side line critics:  I rather enjoyed, actually could appreciate the brevity of Johnny Weir's  remarks, certainly compared to the annoying jack hammer banter of  Tara Lipinski, who sounds like a stock market analyst rattling off facts and figures.    Seems to me that a skater's performance, like that of any talent show competitor, should be, for the most part,  critiqued after the event, not during it.  I don't need the condescending  Ms. Lipinski to tell me what I can actually see for myself.  She is such an in-our-face annoyance, that I may turn down the sound while trying to watch the Olympics, or I may skip the whole damn thing altogether.

Ice Dancing at Figure Skating Nationals - a Refreshing Break from Quad Mania ... What Grant Hotchstein Shows Us ...

Sanity amidst the madding crowd: Grant Hotchstein

Watching men's singles at the Nationals, it felt as if I had been away for ages. I recall when a few of the best men were turning a quad.  I said, a quad. I returned to witness an insane obsession with but one goal: FIVE QUADS.
 
Where have I been?   He did five!    Oh, how brilliant, that's four quads  ... only one to go to hold his place! ...  He is absolutely on fire with the quad. This sport is rocking!  Look, another!  Are you kidding? No, no, who knows, he may try for a sixth!

Pardon me, you raving Hamilton cheerleaders, but am I watching an ice skating competition --- or a reality TV stunt skating contest?  This giddy preoccupation with quantity effectively renders second or third rate all of the other items.  The fourth quad down, and, and, and ....  FIVE!  Nailed!  ...  In the bag! ....

I am bored already.  How about half a dozen?  Or better yet, a mandatory cap on the maximum number allowed.  Oh, say ... a thousand?

There was one lone skater in men's finals who did not produce a winning routine, with too many passive sections, but gradually he earned my respect with his artfully expressive moves, some of them thrilling. He looked lost in the pack, a stranger from another time and place, and  I was reminded of saner days that delivered more fully satisfying free style routines.   I think his name is Grant Hochstein.  He missed his true calling. He should have been a dance skater.  Let the vulgarians chase the quinny.

The hucksters who run this so-called sport should cut the pretensions and  carve out a new, more honest and potentially more gripping event, guaranteed to inflate crowd size.

AMERICAN NINJA ICE WARRIOR

.

In this more athletically pure event, no music allowed, each skater will have to execute a set list of items in fixed order -- such as axle, salchow, camel, chop suey, loop-the-lutz, traveling camel, upside down camel, and then onto mandatory jumps -- single, double, triple, quad.  And by God, as many of those as he/she can bring off, the first one missed spelling sudden death.  Option:  After completing a quad and then, and then, landing a QUINNY (quintuple), INSTANT victory.

For this mathematically scored challenge, a file clerk from the outside will check off each item completed.  Only one fall allowed.  As for sloppy landings, a panel of judges will deduct points from the score based on three degrees of slop:  Barely missed.  Heroically clinging.  Creatively executed.  This will keep the door to trickery slightly ajar, where judges can still make their under-the-table deals with each other for mutual score fixing.

ONTO DANCE, and please,no quads!

.

Hubbell and Donahue

I was appalled at how the pairs team of Kayne and O'Shea, were robbed of first place, and then outraged when I learned that only the first place team, Sciemeca and Knerium, won a spot on the Olympic team. So, once again skeptical of the judging, I took out pencil and paper during the last five free dance teams, to seriously look at each and commit a sore of my own prior to the judging marks being made known.  You may have done this on occasion, too.  It''s fun.  Here are my scores (1-100), in order of ranking, with a few words describing my overall reaction, and then, on the next line, how the judges graded each:


Hubbell and Donahue  Compelling creativity   93
               judges: 197.2

Shibutani and Shibutani  Accomplished  91
              judges   196,93

Hawyayek and  Bake  Dancing on waves:  90
                 Judges  187.61

Chock and Bates:  Hard working  75
                 Judges:  196.60

Parsons and Parsons    Humdrum:  72
                 Judges:  176.01 

For my eyes, the marvel of Hubbell and Donahue's skating is how they use acrobatic movements to serve dance itself, rather than treating dance as an excuse for a veiled, pandering pairs program. We too often see dance teams defaulting to light pairs gymnastics for easy showmanship.  To sustain dance is the great challenge.  Hubbell and Donahue were dancing, and that's what I loved the most about them.

Okay, now I'm psyched up.  Now, I'm waiting for the Winter Olympics!

A little ways down, soon, I will be re-posting something I did on the judging in 2014. 

Highway Robbery at Figure Skating Nationals ... Ice Those Judges! ... I'm Watching Now ...

 Magnificent unity through and through:Tarah Kayne and Danny O'Shea

 
Okay, let's give all things Ringling a rest. Make this a segue from Out of This World to In This world.  (Ringling, if you bladsters are wondering, was a circus)

I've been out of touch over ice for a while.  Yesterday, I nearly bumped into U.S. Figure Skating Nationals by channel surfing, sat down and watched a few of the pairs teams.  Some pretty nice.
Then came a couple, Kayne and O'Shea, who totally grabbed me.  They struck me as a little heavier than some others, but oh, how their bodies in motion matched, spatial relationships being symmetrically near-perfect, the fluid program a seamless work of art.

Great content, as well.  One or two minor flubs,  but nothing to doom their supremacy over a field I had so far seen,.

I had them easily in first place.

And then came a human interest story, a married pair returning after hardship.  They were Alexa and Chris Knieirim, an obvious crowd favorite:  Full disclosure: I knew nothing about any of these teams. I'm watching the whole thing COLD.

Alexa and Chris produced, I'll give them this, a spectacular fireworks lift off, the woman soaring high in the air.  But this is not supposed to be -- or is it? -- a stunt skating contest.  Reason I say that is because the rest of their routine was a rather messy affair, more like failed sparklers in fizzling disarray. Nothing to compare to Kayne and O'Shea.  In my mind, I gave Knierim and Knierim a second or third place.

Okay, are you ready?  Knierim and Knierim swept the field, easily outscoring Kayne and O'Shea.

ARE YOU KIDDING?  Talk about highway robbery in plain sight.  I can't recall witnessing such flagrantly biased (or fixed) judging at an ice meet, though I'm sure it has happened.  We all know about a fix between judges two judges a few years ago.  Big scandal.  

Not sure about the commentary voices. Seems one of them, once he would hear the scores given, would them come clean on what he really thought of a routine. Finger- in-the-wind scoring?

I am not going to knee-jerk a wish that Dick Button had been there instead.  But I just did.  Or anybody else with a sharper tongue.  How about, say, they get Tanya Harding or her mother to mouth off on the sidelines.

I watched casually then.  This afternoon, I'm going more serious.  The free dance will be on, and that's perhaps the most challenging event to score.  Much of it is, or once was, about subtleties.  I wonder how acrobatic it has become.

See me back later, for more icy impressions ...

Life Without the Big One: In a New Post-Ringling Age, Why Ringling Still Matters ... Splintering Circus Arts Seek Salvation in Offbeat Venues

The season about to end began on a date that will live in big top infamy: January 14, 2017.  On that day, Kenneth Feld announced that he was closing down both units of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, and sending them permanently to the barn.  So, it took a multi billionaire to run Ringling off the road.   The irony astounds: A big top, and not just any big top, going down with plenty of money still in the till.  Simply incredible.  Someday, the truth behind a lame blame game may come out.  And maybe they will make a movie of it.

Just when the Brits are gearing up to celebrate the 250th anniversary of horse rider Philip Astley’s dashing  entrance into public performing — a move that would soon give rise to the modern circus — Americans are wondering if they are witnessing the death of their own.  Say it ain’t so!

Why Ringling still matters.  The show’s relative size and supremacy, compared to all other shows out there, epitomized a near-indestructible force of American culture.  A still-thriving industry.  Splashy television ads alone symbolized to millions of Americans at least the illusion of endurance. The Greatest Show on Earth  would be with us forever, promised a more passionate Kenneth Fled only a year before to The New York Times.
 
So disproportionately vital had Ringling-Barnum become to public perceptions of the industry’s well-being that, without it, other circuses are already suffering.

Trickle down publicity

Circus Vargas co-owner Nelson Quiroga told Alex Smith of Circus Report that, when he played in the Bay Area around the same time that Ringling was also in town, he got a good boost in ticket sales from his proximity to the Feld ad campaign.  But no longer.  “It hurts us ... Circus gets into people’s minds, somewhere, they may not even go to Ringling but it’s in their mind when they drive by and see our tent, many times, they come. This year they thought it was over.   All circuses.  So attendance dropped for a while.”

How savvy an observation. Many with a shrug dismiss the demise of  the Big Show as not all that important.  Others will pick up the slack, they assert.  That’s a mighty long and wide slack to pick up.

When I am asked if the circus is dying, my answer is always the same.  If you are asking me,  will there be jugglers and rope walkers, daring acrobats and somersaulting flyers a hundred years from now?  Of course there will.   Individually they will live on –- but in what form, I can not say.

That word “form.”   Now I am feeling corned by my use of it –  cornered into a new mediocre reality of splintering circus arts taking refuge in fragmented forms —   from concert hall to cocktail lounge, stage (Five Fingers - artsy, slow), to television  (Got Talent — good and glamorous) to cinema  (The Greatest Showman – not yet seen) 

So then, ask me, is Circus Circus in Vegas a circus?  No, it is not.  Is a night at the symphony with a few circus acts thrown  in between the woodwinds and the strings,  a circus?  No, it is not.   Neither are many other clever incarnations, however well intended.  They may contribute to whatever some future genius may do to reinstate the form essential: Acrobats on the ground and in the air; performing animals in the rings,clowny characters who are us.    Do you feel a musty antiquity in my definition?    Am I myself a purist morphing into a fossil?

Can a surgeon make it right again?

At the tail end of this painful season, by far the worst in American circus history, Anthony Mason injected a note of unequivocal optimism on CBS Saturday Morning, when he interviewed the cool and affable new Big Apple Circus boss, retired DC spinal surgeon Neil Kahanovitz, above, in the ring.  Some soft CBS reporting pointed  to declining ticket sales as having driven Big Apple Circus into bankruptcy in 2016.  Out of it, a few months later it came, under new ownership.  Big Apple Circus is back!, chirped  Mason with a confidant bounce.  But are the crowds back?   An issue not addressed.  It took the skill of a crack doctor to render it whole again, implied Mason, failing to mention ticket window health or the rather weak critical reception accorded the show when it opened last October at Lincoln Center.    

To be or not to be?

So, where are we at this moment?  There are some out there, more pessimistic than I, who believe that the nail in the coffin has already been driven. “How do you revive square dancing,” asks Anonymous.  In fact, I did not know of square dancing ever having gone  away.

Out-of-work elephant trainers may find a second career as pachyderm puppeteers

We have many new forms and venues in which to view the surviving fragments of our decimated big tops.  Contortionists and fabric aerial duos are way in.  Funny faces and four legged charmers are half way out.  Puppet pachyderms -- might puppet PETAs follow?    Most of these truncated half-circuses will invariably pass..  The stage show Circus 1903, seen above, holding court at the Paris on the Vegas strip —  expecting a very long Vegas Run — after five months is closing. 

On the screen, the new film about P.T. Barnum, The Greatest Showman, faced with blistering reviews from half the critics, yet  “blew away” my family relatives n Luray VA.  Audience reactions, as rated by CinemaScore, totaled a solid A.  If only its climactic scenes had allowed into the action elephants on parade, so integral to Barnum’s actual fame after he and James Bailey added a third ring in 1881 and called their concoction the Greatest Show on Earth. Instead, the pachyderms in mass are missing, and even then, PETA is back breathing fire at all parties remotely responsible, calling for a boycott of the film, blasting away at the legacy of alleged animal abuser, P.T. Barnum.

If only the film had dared to embrace the thrilling guts of Barnum’s ultimate show biz triumph.  Obviously, the producers were too afraid to face truth of what circus was then: Exotic, messy and muscular, gloriously alive with incredible death defying feats, and tense-to-inspiring  encounters between man and beast.
 

As we enter 2018, the most famous show biz slogan - GSOE - is now only  the subject of a recent  lawsuit by Kenneth Feld claiming trademark infringement against singer Kid Rock and Live Nation for using it.  I’ve heard others lately refer to their wares as greatest shows on earth. Me wonders with a grin:  In order to validate the value of the title in court, might the Felds have to put it back into legitimate use?  It's okay to laugh.

Bring on 2018 

A new season ahead  under new managements.  2018 will tell us how successful the new BAC owners are.  They open a “national tour,” not down in Atlanta, as Anthony Mason spun it, but in a town some 26 miles north called  Alpharetta    Pop: 63,000+ The run to last four weeks.  Long sigh.  Really?

Jim Judkins, the new owner of Kelly Miller Circus, having picked up the title from the departing House of Ringling (dogged traditionalist John Ringling North II, shot down by Illinois banning exotics), promises some kind of a new day.   We’ve been promised many a new day by others before. And we continue to believe. 

Why not?  Pray for another Astley or Barnum — or for a cool surgeon-turned-showman making it big in a second act career.

And don't give up on Johnny Pugh, who only needs 350K to put Cole Bros. Circus back on the road.  The road he wants to keep traveling may be the most practical of all.  Pray, too, for Johnny, for a well-deserved miracle.

Other than that -- HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

 ****************************************

Travel with Showbiz David through over fifty years of American circus history in his acclaimed new book, Big Top Typewriter: My Inside Adventures through The World of Circus


Now available on Amazon in paper and kindle.

c.12.31.17

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.

Back Friday is THREE DOLLAR DAY at Big Top Typewriter, Now in Living Color on Kindle! ...

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All Color Photos in Gorgeously Gripping Color!

ON THE INSIDE, SEE GREAT MOMENTS IN CIRCUS HISTORY ON OUR LIVING PLATFORMS!

SEE FRANCIS BRUNN TAKE ON THE  GREAT RASTELLI IN A JUGGLING SHOWDOWN!   

BEHOLD THE FLABBIEST TEASE IN THE TENT -- MISS OKLAHOMA BEARING ALL! 

SNIFF THE INFAMOUS ELEPHANT DUNG SAMPLER! ... 

WATCH JOHN RINGLING NORTH MAGICALLY REAPPEAR!

 SID KELLNER BLOW HIS TOP UNDER THE BIG TOP!

THE SHOCKING FALL OF KENNETH FELD'S  GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH! 

A RIVETING RINGLING RETURN --

FIVE BROTHERS RELIVE THEIR FINEST HOUR!

Hurry!  Hurry to the Amazon midway!

 $3 Sale Ends When Black Friday Ends!

(This special offer will not be repeated for at least another year)

A Little Apple Reception for the Big Apple Circus ... Tepid Reviews May Not Be Enough ... Can Nik and Grandma Fill the Seats?

Okay, here goes, I suppose.

Let’s face the music and still try dancing.  This morning in bed at the crack of dawn, I thought empty field in search of a circus, took to my budget tablet in hand and dug back into a current  topic on which, it seems, many of us are banking for the future of American Circus.

Were we over-banking?

I tried finding more reviews of the new for-profit Big Apple Circus.  I found a couple that read more like recycled press releases spun into bogus acclaim.  There is, front and center, the New York Times, which seems to be treating this circus like a patient on life support. But make no mistake, they’ve put out an operationally objective notice, the ambivalent reviewer granting enough hot words to build the fast-moving imagery (in streaming on-line quotes) of solid success. I said imagery, kids.

There are so few real -- or rigged -- reviews to draw from, that the BAC publicists have shrewdly made gold out of the Times review by quoting it in three bytes, the three separated by accolades, alleged or actual, from three other sources — Broadway Blog, one of the is-this-really-a-review? jobs; Time Out New York Kids, and The Wall Street Journal, except that there is no review to be found in  the WSJ, and I have dug deep.  If there were, I am sure that cyber courier Don Covington would have sent it out.

From the Times critic,  Alexis Solosky, came a subtly mixed notice that might be construed as damning them with faint praise.  She can bite, and she can sing.   “Unequivocally thrilling” she writes, of the Wallenda 7 high walk.  Those two words, as quoted on the BAC website, might pack a marketing wallop.  But, in the negative,  she’s not at all thrilled with Grandma, and she wonders if the 7-high does not fit the more intimate BAC style.  Overall, her notice leaves a feeling of something probably good enough but hardly great.    And for this, a Critics Pick from the Times?  Oh that’s right, the Grey Lady has BAC on life support.

It’s Ms. Solosky's summing up that wowed me, NOT

“Might as well take a bite.”

Might as well?

What are you trying to tell us?    You think the show is okay.  You think, if we have nothing better to do, then go?  That, in fact, is one of the meanings attached to those three lazy words.  I embarked on a major goggling blitz in an effort to avoid being accused of misquoting the quote.

In Oxford, the meaning of -- Hear Ye! -- might as well:  “Used to make an unenthusiastic suggestion”

That’s how it felt.  Mind you, I have no idea how this show would affect me.   But there are a few items that feel anti-climactic.  One is the quad, which is being reported in some quarters as if it regularly occurs. In fact, it is only attempted, and only at the night shows. And, far as I know, Ammed Tuniziani hardly ever makes it.  He did at least once.  And how stale the air feels around  this overblown hype.  We’ve already been there.  Done that.  Celebrated a milestone.  Were this to be the first quad ever, YES, do give it a ballyhoo. But it is not.  That legendary feat was accomplished when mid-air marvel Miguel Vazquez spun his way into circus history, and kept the magic spinning for over ten years.   Since then, now and then we hear the news “so and so just did it!” And then, nothing more.

Okay, is there any customer feedback on the internet?  Any Yelps?   I googled consumer reviews, only to find those leaving their hissing comments at the end of the Times review.  An avalanche of anger, just what the circus needs, right?  Either from  animal activists wanting every last dog out of the ring, or from the learned in circus affairs, pissed off at Ms. Solosky for what she dared to write, accusing her of being unqualified to appraise.   Oh, how easy it is to rile a circus fan or professional, they are so not accustomed to this. 

I wondered about Ms. Solosky, and so I dug.  And now I am  wondering if the critics of the critic would also have blasted her when she gave a warmly embracing  review to Big Apple Circus’s Grand Tour, two years back?  The upbeat notice filled me with good feelings, making me wish I had taken the tour.  Solosky’s  take on the new show leaves me unconvinced.

There is, I should fairly add, another review that seems like it could be real.  In an on-line website that nobody seems to know much about called Theatrepizzazz.com: “Fabulous acts.” But it's not quoted  on the BAC website.  Strikes me as much more credible than the one in Broadway blog.

I was finally able to  pull up the advance WSJ coverage, which came out before the show opened.  It considers a difficult road ahead for the new owners if they do go out on tour.  They claim to have  “locked” up dates in Atlanta, Baltimore and ‘DC in 2018.

A big problem, smartly advances Wayne McCary, is that outside of New York, Big Apple Circus is little known. And boy, how little known I could see, when, a few years back, a performance of the show, given before swaths of empty seats, was live-streamed into dozens of movie houses nation wide. In the multiplex where I sat, sat seven others.  In a PA house where he sat, wrote a fan, there was only one other person besides himself.  And in a small Utah town, when my brother and his wife took a chance on the show, at my suggestion, they were the only ones in the house! 
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If the good flying doctor and his Sarasota partners-in-faith can bring off this revival and hit the road with gusto, I can think of another, much bigger circus name also deserving of a second act.  Can you name it?   Only a suggestion, you understand.

Might as well dream.

Big Top Batterings: BBC Asks, "Who Killed Ringling?" ... NY Critics Snub Big Apple Circus Opening .... No Animals Allowed Runs Ringling North II Off the Lot ... 350K for Cole Bros. Will Put Still-Dreaming Johnny Pugh Back on the Road ...

Update: 11//7:  The New York Times issued a rather ambivalent review today, forwarded to me by Lane Talburt, and it reads lackluster, but, amazingly, it gives the show a critics pick -- good news for the owners. I'll resume this topic  once enough time has passed for other possible reviews in the works to surface, and then discus them altogether.

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Here on one of many empty or semi-empty circus lots, as I soldier on through the popcorn and lemonade pestilence battering our big tops into the trouping wounded, I have more news that’s not the greatest – to share or burden you with.   So, here it is, first draft direct:

About that headline up there, I got an e-mail from one Emily Williams, an indie producer of radio shows for the mighty BBC, asking me if I had time for a “quick chat” about “circus in America.”  Oh, how interesting, I thought, e-mailing back that I was flattered with the attention from across the Big Pond, and that such a quick chat would be fine with me – cracking that there is so little left of the American circus to chat about.

Was fun talking by phone the next day to the cheerfully inquisitive  Emily. Our chat was hardly quick, we skated over many subjects pertaining to the shocking fall of the circus arm of Feld Entertainment, she being particularly interested in its hard-to-believe ending.  When I asked her, mid way through an hour plus chat, what is your focus in this piece? Bluntly came the answer, “Who killed Ringling?” Oh, well of course, I can tell you that, and I gave her a blunt answer in two little words, and can you guess them? ...  Ms. Williams, who had taken in the final performance of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey getting lost over ice somewhere out of this world, was stymied by the complicated story line, but loved some of the same acts that I did ...  She has poked thorough the buzz of Sarasota town with tape recorder in hand, asking the same killer question to a number of the famous locals, getting in reply, everything from allusions to better circus stars in days gone by --- to anger with Kenneth Feld, seen in the photo. 

.... Emily was somewhere in France when she rang me up, and shared her delight at seeing so many circuses over there, even the smaller ones, presenting lots of animals.   When I told her — brace yourselves, kids – that any circus owner in the U.S. daring to present a single elephant on the bill is committing box office suicide, she seemed oddly perplexed. Why, she asked?  It’s the current environment over here, I tried to explain.  As for the Feld fold, she’s covered the usual suspects, such as Disney.  Even got a spinning answer from Nicole Feld, when BBC  was granted four Feld minutes for the interview.  Seems the Felds and Disney are doing just fine, and, no, Disney did not ask us to shove the circus shows in the dumpster.  Okay, Nicole.  Enough of that --  other than to say, this story will only get bigger as more people come out from behind their smiling I-love-all-circuses- faces, and start going public on what they really feel about Mr. Feld.

 The new show

Onto the Big Apple Circus saga, minus legit New York acclaim: Okay, I can’t hold back anymore on my total shock at having looked for reviews of the new, now for-profit edition at Lincoln center, and finding NONE in any of the major NY dailies ---Times, Post, or Daily News.  What in the xxx*! is going on back there?  All of the hoopla about New York’s own circus getting revived out of bankruptcy, returning to Lincoln Center, and NOTHING from the NY critics?  There is but one review, very good, in a paper I never heard of,  Theaterpizzazz.com, and so I’m waiting for more reviews before I make anything of it or any other review, if there are any more to come ...

Exotic ensemble action from foreign lands -- a critical Big Apple Circus component?  Seen here is  The Dosov Troupe from Russia,  stars of the show some years back.

So, let’s spin this critical New York snub into some conspiracy options: (1) the critics went out to the opening, last Sunday, did not like what they saw, and their pallid notices were held back by editors in deference to the pestilence that has visited BAC the last two hapless season.  (2) The critics are still waiting for comps from the new PR staff.  (3) There is bad blood between certain powers in the city and the new owners.  (4) The roller skating act.  (5) This is VERY strange.  Paul Binder, seen here, is as mum as the critics, and has been missing from his blog since Sept 1. You may recall how he lavished his passionate support on helping to save the show, raising nearly one million towards a two mil goal.   He showered words of good wishes on the new owners, upon learning of their bid being accepted.    And then, the founder and the heart and soul of BAC  went silent.   Are there unseen forces of fate conspiring to link some of these elements into a subtle campaign to thwart the new big top bosses on the lot?  Have you a clue — are any of you, in fact, still reading me? ...

His Jumbo about to be run off the lots in all of Ohio and New York State,  John Ringling North II is outta here.

No Animals, No Johnny in the seats. Leaving New York for Hugo, in a rare interview, John Ringling North II, ruing big tops without animals, told NewsOK,  "That's not the circus I grew up in and not how I want to carry on."  He put Kelly Miller up for sale, the final straw being the state of Illinois  banning elephants from the ring.  He’s since sold the show to somebody, name not spelled out when I e-mailed him my curiosity.  One lingering thought: When clowns Steve Copeland and Ryan Combs left the show a few years back, a slow to ominous drop in North’s promising showmanship began.  But I still regret this sad end to the House of Ringling, same fateful season as when the  House of Feld gave up.   Anybody still with me deserves some feel-good news. A dream floated for another season that may never come to be.  Here comes a bright shining star of hope ...

John Pugh’s passion resurfaces.  What heart I took in the Cole Bros. Face Book page sent to me by Barry Lipton.  There, John is back on his feet, feeling the faith, hearing the distant blast of brassy trumpet and hammering drum, wanting to, somehow, someway, go back on the road again.  Don’t you just love this guy?  Says he, hoping to raise $350K in donations by the end of this month: "We deeply thank you for your kind consideration, and for helping to keep the 'Magic of the Circus' alive for children of all ages!".... Now, maybe, since Mr. Feld has removed himself from the red wagon, with all his billions to spend, he might kindly dole out a little chump change to those struggling U.S. circuses (of proven merit) fighting to face another season and carry on ...

 Here’s another idea for the nicest showman under the big top:  JOHN, CALL PAUL!   Yes, Paul, as in Binder.  Maybe he can give you some inside tips on raising funds for your goal.  The great ones never stop dreaming, and so, suddenly I tell myself, this is the perfect way to end this end-of-the-line post ... Anybody out there still reading me? Hey, without a lot to stand on (a"lot," as in a field, a path of weeds, an abandoned graveyard, a shopping mall), at least we can -- no no, I better not go there.

And that’s a wobbly wrap on this sinking spot.....Gotta get this one posted before those New York critics come through and put mud on my face.    Isn't this exciting in some odd ball way???