TO CIRCUS OR NOT TO CIRCUS? ... BARABOO AFFIRMS ... RINGLING RETREATS ...

"That's not the circus I grew up in and not how I want to carry on" 

 -- John Ringling North II, to The Oklahoman in 2017, referring to circuses without animals on his decision to leave Kelly Miller.   

***updated 10.9 

Two major big tops recently passed each other going in opposite directions.  One was holding its own, honoring the roots of circus. The other, having given up on itself, was following instead a road to Montreal in a final act of self-annihilation.      

First, to Baraboo.  I recently read of Circus World retiring its two elephants for good, no surprise.  A little sad, yes. But sad turned to glad when I read this from its pied piper-in-chief, Scott O’Donnell,  above, that: “Circus World will continue to have equine acts, as it did this past season. Future animal act options include cows, pigs, dogs, cats, zebras, camels and other animal stars awaiting their turn in the center ring.”

YES! You warmed my heart, Scott.  In my book, what you are doing defines a reasonable road to preserving one of the key elements of true circus, and why some shows, like UinverSoul and Royal Henneford, still daringly feature them — PETA haters and media morons be damned.

Another gift from Baraboo, by way of Greg DeSAnto at his International Circus Hall of Fame and Research Center, itself now back in full giggle mode, is the return of the late Pat Cashin’s Clown Alley blog. Best of all,  they’ve handed the steering of it to board member Steve Copeland.  Great News.  I have missed Steve’s blogging when he clowned on John Ringling North II’s Kelly Miller Circus. His was a big part of what is now seeming to feel like our newest good old times — the last days of Ringling and Cole and Binder’s Big Apple, of Carson and Barnes and Kelly Miller. And of so many blogs then on parade.

Steve’s blogging was full of emotion and revealing, and his boss had no problem allowing the day to day details of trouping, as he reported them.  I am hoping that Steve will re-charge, re-boot, and revive the best of himself to regale us once more.  Surely, he should have much to say about the state of clowning today.  

Okay, onto the state of circus in America today.  To the new “Greatest Show on Earth,” which no longer calls itself a circus — give them credit for honesty in advertising. No clowns. No Animals.  No Ringmaster. Breathtaking.  Covington Connected, I linked onto a 27 minute sampler of action, put out by Ringling. Here are my first raw impressions, based on those 27 minutes and 27 minutes only. Taking in the full spread may be a totally different affair. Nor do I have any idea how this stream may have been edited. And, of course, I may have missed what others give higher marks to.

It’s visually stunning, with set pieces changing colors, brilliant costume design and lighting effects. Overhead LED screens strike me as lamely superfluous  I did not feel the “immersive” experience  promised by Juliet Feld.  Sometimes there is more than one act in motion, conjuring up the old 3-ring mystique. The action is well paced (or well edited in this video), solid and sufficiently pleasing, without for the most part and to my great surprise, being remarkable.  I could usually count on Ringling for a few world class acts. I can see at least two here --- One in a photo on the show’s website of an ensemble Mongolian  three-high jump roping act that looks sensational.  Another to follow shortly.

 *** And since posting this, a few others not wishing to be identified have sent me videos I did not see.  There is too little of a high wire act to comment on.  Another is  the Flying Caceres cross-trapeze act:  Notwithstanding the excellent work of the individual flyers,  on balance the concept itself comes off as something of a long drawn out fizzle, and I can see why it was not included on the 27-minute sampler. 

This mostly ground-bound edition sells gusto over substance.  Casting and springboard send offs destined to land on large pads yield the strongest response.   Contortion in various forms are all on the slow side and quite respectable.  Juggling with fire is basic, there’s flashy foot stomping gaucho dancing.  Youthful extreme bike riders up and down ramps struck me as not very daring for the sport — complexity is in short supply here, especially given Feld’s touting having scouted the world over and over again for the very best. (Maybe the very best did not want to sign.)  Second big moment: Hands down, the big star was our own Wesley Williams on his sky high unicycle. The kid is finally getting a big national audience he has long deserved.  I overheard a smitten young girl chanting “Wesley! Wesley! Wesley!"over and over.

A moody musical score, some of it sung,  is vaguely unmemorable. And no wonder, turns out it was taped!  Good grief, no band, too?  This ringmaster-less, carefully controlled production, smooth as a Swiss watch, could use a little more humanity. Overall, there is a slightly cold and impersonal feel to the long-awaited rollout, all of which, in the abstract, can have the effect of dwarfing the performers.

In a supreme act of irony, the most down-to-earth, older fashioned circus moment comes in the famished figure of a scroungy little dog, down to the bones, as if having side-walled it into the show, lonely to be a part of it again and desperate to show what smart little doggies can really do. But our mutt is not a real mutt. Our mutt is a robot.  As poignant as it is hypocritical, the "dog" it is said to be stirring a controversy, and it may only remind audiences of what is not there and make them ask, why?  Yes, Mr. Feld, why?

Cutting through all the mumbo jumbo talk about intense creative deliberations (if only they could have channeled in Aristotle), I think what Kenneth Feld was all about was producing the perfect fit for his existing Disney mice-on-ice audience base, and here he may strike gold —  now without the antagonists mucking up  the midway.  He might have taken other less profitable routes to preserve the circus.  He might have led the way.

 

 

 John II's Kelly Miller in 2015

Returning to the words of John Ringling North II quoted above, I think of being taken delightufly aback by that  robotic dog stirring up such a fuss, and remember the last Ringling “circus” I saw, back in 2017. Four of its acts perpetually live on in my memory:  The magnificent lion and tiger act of Alexander Lacey, possibly the greatest display of its kind that I have ever seen;  the flying Tunizianis completing two perfect triples simultaneously; thundering horse riders from Mongolia; and a barnyard pig — another Lacey offering –  sliding down a slide and bringing down the house.       

Now, that was a circus.  That was  the Greatest Show on Earth.  Goodbye, Big Bertha, goodbye. 

SUNDAY MORNING OUT OF CURIOSITY: Who Are You?

Just wondering,  Visits to this blog have skyrocketed, sometimes into the thousands, over the last few months, making me wonder more than ever who you are. Circus?  Musical theater? Still, virtually nobody leaves a comment.  Has no one out there a pulse strong enough to post a peep?

Or ...  are my sky high stats a fluke of AI?  

Just wondering. 

Have a nice anonymous day!

Boob Tube to You Tube ... Lost in a Billion Bytes, the Circus from Astley to Zippos ...

Blame this post on Comcast offering me a better price if I would only upgrade.  New cable box and modem (do they still make those?) and I fell into a dizzy smorgasbord of infinite video footage fit for big screen TV. And am still falling. So Easy (and tempting) to get lost, looking for this but caught by  that over there that shamelessly plays to my non-circus interests (what else do they know about me?).

But out of nowhere, too, can pop surprising delights, like Big Top Circus from 1954, a weekly “kiddie” circus, cheerfully ring-mastered by Jack Sterling. It  looks more like a circus for all ages, free of the pretentious ballet- and narrative-driven drivel that’s draining the life out of our big tops.  Take Mel Hall's three Cycling Wiz Kids, from around 5 to 10 in ages, who score big and breezy on unicycles.  The littleest one, a boy,  falls and gets back up and tries and tries again, four times, and achieves the trick before our astonished eyes. And, are you kidding me, world? – a man dancing with a bear, smooth as two aging adults over a waxy floor? 

Sunday School Barnum?   In You Tube land you learn the damndest things, such as this whopper: Not only did Barnum & Bailey invent the three ring circus, which they kind of did, but they cleaned out all grifting on their midway, thus earning themselves she honorable put down among competitors of  “Sunday school boys.” Are you laughing?  Ringling brothers: SUE.  Historical fictions leak through even on loftier PBS-certified documentaries, such as The Circus, in which it is claimed that TV killed it in the 1950s.  So, have I been been hallucinating for the last fifty years?

A sharper image through fewer pixels: Looking back at the bear and  man dancing together, and the little ones riding their one wheelers,  you can feel what it was like to be fully and perfectly pleased by a circus act plain and simple, before the invasion of Cirque du Precious.

Countdown to Ringling Redo, beginning TODAY. And how might production embellishments  be used —  or abused —  by the Felds when they launch their sanitized version of the new Greatest Show on Earth?.  This is finally happening within hours, down in Boissier City, LA. Juliet Feld in a promo, chirps up how the audience will be more intimately involved by being seated closer to the action and connected digitally to closeups of performers.  Yawn. Didn’t they already try this in their last edition, the one that went out of this world and ended up in the graveyard? The year 2017.   Have they learned nothing?  Like really,  who wants to see a Broadway show from premium seating in the wings?   I am reminded of Al Ringling’s definition of ringmaster decorum, which might as well count for circus itself -- “elusive yet vital.”  In my book, a million less pixels will do.

So, back to earth and across the big pond, let us go zip zip zipping up and over to Zippos Circus.

Revered ringmaster and incomparable bird trainer, Norman Barrett

Hilariously original from diminutive dynamo Paulo Dos Santos of Brazia : How a balloon can be contorted into so many amusing sizes and connections to the human body.this one nearly brought down the tent. ZIPPOTASTIC.

There’s a clean effervescent flow and glow to this straight ahead big top. For my taste, the three most memorable moments are: (1) a most engagingly clever juggler who keeps tennis rackets and luggage in motion (2) that HUGE  balloon you see being ingeniously worked by Paulo Dos Santos, and   (3) The Temujin Troupe from the Mongolian Steppes.  At their best, these eight agile acrobats execute voltige and casting in a continuous stream, lending the feel of a novelized flying return act, which I could have watched  over and over again, But NO, Wait, Hold on —  STOP, correction!  Blame it on You Tubery!  Why did I say so little about them on my notes and yet now give them the center ring status here? Why? Here’s the reason why.

How you Tube scrambles reality into billions of bits, some getting mixed up with others, leaving us with fractured impressions of what really happened . Turns out, the Zippos performance I watched on You Tube contained a version of their act very different from another one I subsequently watched, from off the show's website.  Apparently, on their way to Zippos the multi-gifted Tumujins were re-programed down to a more static series of human pyramids, each followed by a drawn out reach for more applause. Gone were the streaming acrobatics.

Something I haven’t seen before: These five words usually come to mind when discovering that rare novelty at the circus that I live for, and I think of the man who first spoke them to me when I asked him what he looked for in scouting acts: John Ringling North.   Another discovery I made was scrambled my way by You Tube, ever ready to sustain my primary focus at the moment  —  a clip of ringmaster Norman Barrett, who has previously blown the whistle for Zippos,  performing the most astonishing bird act. Now, I am in awe of the man’s talents. In his youth, I am told by Douglas McPherson, he rode horses roman style.  “He stood on two galloping horses while a third ran in the opposite direction between his legs!”

"When you’re smiling, when you’re smiling ... the whole world smiles with you,” sings Sir Norman while gingerly coaching a dozen or so trained birds who fly back and forth between two little turning carousels.  How did he ever get them to .. How?. These are the moments when circus proves its true genius.        

You Tube excels when rolling out footage unmolested by expert voices telling us what we should think.  You don’t go to a circus to think as much as to feel — to gasp and awe and laugh and thrill and scream with joy.  Or to smile over  the simple yet wondrous charm of a bear dancing with a man.
 

 

Sledgehammer Showmanship on Parade: The Ringmaster Screams, The Music Drones On, and Circus Vargas Sinks to a New Mediocre

Review
Circus Vargas -- Bonjour Paris
Seen at Corte Madera, CA, August 12, 1 pm
Tickets: $19 - $75 

Note: Website photos of the acts do not give names or bios.

What a difference a few critical seasons can make.   The Circus Vargas you first spot this year, with a state of the art tent, can hold its own in design with the best of them. From a distance it’s a wow.  Up close, you might be  charmed by the sight of comfy couch chairs on the midway. The prelude air sparkles.  

 

But all things in life do not always unfold to favor first impressions, right?  This will be a doubly challenging review to write. So those who prefer their reviews sunny side up are encouraged to go sunny side down and out of here,  while you have the chance.  I do not bow to sacred cows.  

I have never, in trying to form a notice, been so compelled to weigh talent against “production values” (announcing, music, set, costumes and props, direction and pacing, etc) First, to talent. On balance overall, I’d place it in a respectable  B- range.  Good enough for an average audience, certainly for crowds newer to the circus, and especially the young  too young to have much to compare it with.  .

For my eyes, the most gripping moment came on the rolla-bolla, our maniac for the afternoon stacking seven blocks on a roller and then proceeding to place himself at the top. The crowd went wild.  We agree, crowd.  The performer’s hyper jittery nerves, real or not, intensified audience fears.  

I also liked the breezy, ingratiating fellow who works with an upright ladder, and balances large objects. Maybe on the basic side, but refreshing in its delivery.  It’s an act I would welcome seeing again.

Circus Vargas, which has long excluded animals, now seems to be moving out of the aerial sphere as well.  There is virtually little of memorable consequence in the air (only two strap acts, one in each half, well rendered), and practically no clowns.  Yes, there are two guys who make funny faces and funny sounds.  

 Safety first in the modern tent

On the ground, there’s an ambitious teeterboard troupe, a bit of a work in progress.Biggest item is a  woman in harness who is catapulted to form only a three-high. Usually, it’s a four stack that gets wired.  But now, the lifelines, it seems, are becoming more and more an accepted element in the “new circus.” In fact, our protected diva advances the acceptance of them by being lowered to the ground twice with the aid of her safety wire, thus giving it the respect of a co-participant.  She did execute a nifty feat, landing between two under-standers in a splits position.  

What else?  A young juggler offered a wide variety of manipulations, if only so many of them had not turned messy.     

There is plenty of dancing, purpose being, I took it, to flesh out a flimsy theme about the show going to Paris. An accordion player serenades us, and the cast whoops  it up line kicking in a winning can-can.

 

Second half packs a little more power, what with the standard double wheel and then the cage of three spinning motorcycles.  A more exciting turn had the bikers out of the cage and rip-rolling up and over a ramp to the other side.

Okay, ready or not, here I go.  Production values: They should enhance and elevate the action.  Here they nearly smother it.  This show looked and sounded very different from those I have seen several seasons before, and so I  wondered if there had been a regime change at the top.  Turns out, no, Katya Arata Quiroga and Nelson Quiroga,still own it.  How strange that they, in their heyday top-flight trapeze artists, should now give us a largely empty shell above.

But like it or not, there is a regime change of sorts, an overbearing regime named Jonathan Lee Iverson.  You will know him as a Ringling ringmaster. Here he also serves as performance director.  At the start of his career on the Ringling show, Iverson cut an appealing figure, and I saw great promise and gave him high marks.  But then he was restrained. Repeat: Restrained. Over the years, he has only grown more annoying, especially inside a small tent compared the huge arenas he played.  During set up for the motorcycle cage, I wondered whether a long buzzing noise I heard was part of the operation — or Iverson himself going for a new record in vowel extension.    

This advanced version of  Iverson conveys a belligerent undertone of egocentric control.  Indeed, he has a way of sucking the oxygen out of the tent with his proloooooooooooooooooooonged introductions, which he can't seem to get enough of.   To be fair, the man’s verbal blasts are not without precedent, however questionable.  I can think of at least another blowhard —  the abundantly large one who bellowed away for Carson & Barnes, as if believing that the louder and longer he screamed, the greater would be his  impact. Iverson did excel surprisingly and  magnificently in going operatic in a baritone outburst — a second career in the making?  Or mere lip syncing?

Enough. As for the vaguely dreary recorded music, how best to describe it? In a word, MO-NOT-O- NOUS  Together, ringmaster and score form an oppressive barrier  between  artist and audience.

But ... the crowds the day I attended – I’d guess they filled about half the seats —  were wildly alive, and lapped up most of everything.  Circus Vargas has had 15 shows to do in the small upscale town of Corte Madera, in rich Marin County.  They must be doing something right -- although, and I could be wrong, there seemed to be noticeably fewer people in the seats after intermission.
           
I know I won’t be returning until there is yet another regime change.   

 Early exit?

 END RINGERS Trooping in Turmoil?  Website does not name the photos.  A total of 3 ringmasters appear in two images, one seen above  Did I miss him? I only saw Iverson in the show.   There's a foot juggling act I would love to have seen  -- woman works large lotus leaf objects. She did not appear. What goes over there? ....  Music that Sounds Like Music: There is music out there that can have strong multi-generational appeal, and the '80s stand out. I bring this up because, while on the way, my Lyft driver, a young guy from Brazil who is training to be an airline pilot like his father and uncle,  had some ‘80s sounds coming from out of his system. We had fun talking up the era.  Beware the Vargas Discount Coupon.I came across a large Vargas ad in the East Bay Times, which read: Save 15% on your tickets!  Use code 15AD23"  I tried using it at the ticket window, only to be curtly rebuffed: “We don’t do those here.” Oh, really? How unlike the previous regime ... They are next headed to Petaluma up the road. I wanted to post more photos, but the website disallows saving copies. 

RINGLING FOREVER: Rethinking '56: Costumes by Vertes Inject Erotica into Circus; Floats Dead on Arrival

When this photo first grabbed me by the eyeballs, I could finally understand why critics of John Ringling North had been accusing him of staging a "night club circus." The costume was designed by French artist Marcel Vertes, hired by North to color-coat the 1956 show. Not just colorize, but evidently sex it up a lot; you need only study some of the Vertes sketches, which Life Magazine published, to spot erotic shadings in various states of fleshy titillation. The dancer, above, appeared in the hot-off-the-moment pachyderm production shaker, "Ringling Rock N' Roll."


The performance rarely captured the pagan abandon that simmers in the above rendering of a floridly sensual procession. More often, from visuals left behind, '56 costumes lent a rather delicate, lovely, and un-guady air to the spartan festivities, crimped, one can only surmise, by a circus hard-pressed for money to get itself back on the road, up to Madison Square Garden. At their best, the Vertes designs lent a graceful air of impressionistic elegance. A number of the critics were seriously impressed, as we shall see in a future post.




Above, the artist's rendering of a tulip float for the spec. Below, the actual float itself, as executed apparently without even a death row reprieve. That this photo made it onto page 14 of the program magazine, if nothing else tells us how brain dead the Ringling PR department was that sad chaotic season; indeed, North should have fired the magazine editor and all press flacks responsible for allowing this atrociously unflattering visual into print.


This and other barren floats were featured in the spec, "Say It With Cement" (excuse me, I meant to say "Say it With Flowers"). The parade that year was an utter embarrassment, for which, whom to blame? Costume and float executor Max Weldy, himself a former designer who seems sometimes to have derived perverse pleasure in sabotaging the work of rivals? Or simply a glaring lack of funds? Some troupers remembered with amusement a J.C. Penny label attached to dresses worn by spec showgirls.


This float strikes me, comparing it to everything I've seen in stills and footage, as remarkably lush and lovely.

Actually, John Ringling North's signing Vertes was a theoretically smart move, for it generated considerable press coverage in New York and helped give the show a fresh new look.


My quintessential moment with North, years later: During the one interview he granted me, I asked him if, looking back over the seasons in general, he had any artistic regrets. "I could not get Salvador Dalí to design the show." The famed surrealist wanted too much money.

That Life magazine chose to feature the painterly design sketches of Vertes rather than photographs of the actual costumes they inspired may tell us as much as we need to know.

Here is a Life photo, four months later, of the last parade in Pittsburgh. In black and white, Weldy held his own. Vertes, maybe not.

Above three photos, in color, by Sverre Braathen, The Milner, ISU.

First published 8.31.10

Sunday Morning from Out of the Past: And You Wonder, What Are They Thinking? ...

Rumblings down at the runs, waiting on a circus train from nowhere... Once upon a season they were all in the barn by now -- red wagons in need of fresh red paint, ring curbs for new stars, jacks and stringers for repair ... Now the elephants wait for cues that may never come ... To be or not to be? To perform or not to perform?

Down at the runs, you wonder what Barbara Byrd is thinking. Strange how it should all come down to this -- from a man to a woman, from William Coup adding rings in 1872 to Barbara Byrd being the last to keep three of them in motion under the same canvas. Is she too thinking a single circle, or does she hear the ghost of her dad Dory telling her to stay the American course? ... Down in Florida, what is on Johnny Pugh’s mind? Time to retire? Or time to go for broke in a daring blaze, to reinvest and bring back the band?

A thousand miles down a spur track to a humble dream, a new circus is being formed in somebody’s ambitious mind, and maybe that circus has a crusty old midway to offer the jaded patron in search of the past ... Strange gaudy banner lines in flagrant violation of PC standards ...

... What might Paul Binder be thinking when he notes how long it’s been since he presented either a pachyderm or a flyer? Big Apple opens in the fall when circuses once closed, and closes come summer ... Once upon a season, the white tops slept during winter, awoke in time for early spring and were out in the sunshine chasing after the money that harvests put into farmer’s pockets....

Down by the old ice house where the train once arrived, you can almost hear the sound of a faint whistle up the rails and remember when they clanged into town under the cover of a damp morning mist. When the world was barely born and then suddenly appeared before your eyes under pennants galloping in the wind. And you wonder what Renee Storey is plotting when she considers how PETA gives her employer, Cole Bros. Circus, more publicity and might not be such a bad thing after all? What Kenneth Feld is thinking when he continues pitching the Big Cage act to customers who who evidently still want their circus on the wild side ...

And out in San Francisco, where patrons prefer Perrier over lemonade, ballet over big top, even the nuovo rich are growing restless for a taste of reality. They are taking in a very different version of Cirque du Soleil at the moment, a version called Kooza, and some of them are realizing what they have been missing for more than a season.

“This production feels like a heart-pumping cocaine binge for thrill addicts,” proclaims Nathaniel Eaton in the ultra-liberal S.F. Weekly, coming honest on how “ho hum” he found the three Cirque shows that came before.

Animals? Weren’t they supposed to all be gone by now, asks the Savvy Insider, elsewhere at work on routing and promotions, taking time out to answer his own question. No, says he, animals acts did not go away as planned. In Europe, they “have instead been reinvented” ... And you think how wonderfully ironic, that those uppity Brit Lords, sure of their agenda, paid for a study to prove that elephants are really mistreated at the circus —- a study they proved the very opposite! And down at the runs waiting for a train to pull in, you wonder what the public is thinking now...

Over road maps and sponsor contracts, watching videos of acrobats and jugglers and plotting another season, you wonder what John Ringling North II is thinking ...Bigger and better —- or the same?

Even more fun to ponder is what S.F. Cow Palace big shots, without a circus for two years, may be thinking? ... And you can almost hear a distant train whistle somewhere out there on real rails or in the back of your mind, racing forward with a world of spangled wonders to capture a waffling public restlessly ready to be thrilled by something either very new or very old ... And optimistically, you enjoy remember being told over and over again that history repeats itself ...

Down at the runs, Byrd and Pugh, Feld and Binder and Ringling North and Judkins, and yes, Laliberte the Great reinventing himself, are watching and waiting, too. Maybe wondering what we are thinking

First posted December 7, 2007.

Sunday Morning Out of the Past: Copeland & Combs Land Paris Spotlight ... Garden Bros. Lands "F" Ratting from BBB ... El Jacko's Pedophilia Paradise Exposed ... Kelly Miller Captivates in Video Tease

Remember the Copeland & Combs who once filled our days with Kelly Miller posting?  That was Steve, the tell-all one.  I have marveled over how they went totally under cover, their once thriving blog nearly now in the dirt and sadly fading away.  I walk the dirt of desertion these days.

Whatever happened?  My best guess:  Somebody told Steve, in order to protect their precarious career (we are talking "circus" career), that he had better stay clear of all social media ...  WELL, poking around in news bits from Baraboo (did I spell that right?) I learned they played --- are you ready? --- Cirque d"Hiver (yes, I know I did not spell that right)  last winter ... Mighty impressive!  Glad they are still cobbling together pay dates there and here ...  

Under  punishing North Carolina spotlights, Garden Bros, Circus ranked by the Grenville News "the worst circus." And ain't that a shocker! Like a veteran cockroach in stolen spangles, this creepy caravan just keeps slugging along.  Compared to which, maybe King-Cole, now in its second season (the first having "wrapped" in a week or two) is A OK? I'm hoping Circus Report puts out something on this show before CR goes under come December ...

So many icons and landmarks falling ...  Yes, I know there is a "Renaissance"  of circus arts underway in this country.  And are you referring to artsy stage shows?  Summer youth circuses?  Acro-dance troupes?  Pardon my asking.

Kelly Miller's website shows a performance lineup identical to last year's,  and on a video tease they have produced, the over all sheen and talent range makes me wish I could see this one   Might they be the new Ringling-Barnum?  ... Or would that be Big Apple, the latter a strange animal, apparently straining to find hospitable cities in which to play ... 

Michael Jackson's Neverland, the subject of a brilliantly believable doc now airing on HBO, should land a slew of awards ... A quietly escalating drama of how the singer skillfully charmed and seduced little boys into believing themselves to be in full-blow relationships with their freaky idol.  Blame it on the music, and oh what music it was.   I remember once joking with friends, was that a fake detachable nose he was wearing?   How much was real?...

What people will do, even with their kids the bait, to taste fame and fortune and Hollywood money ... So many love notes floating back and forth, and in clear sight, between Michael and his "lover" (of the year), and Mommy and Daddy did not realize what was going on in the bedroom, often far away from theirs?  The voices of two of the singer's subjects, clear and calm, recounting how wonderful and not coercive it seemed, and that makes the story both challenging and even more bizarre.  Except that, Mr. J was not after long-term love, which marks him as just another very average, horny predator jumping from one xxx to another ... 

First part ends with both boys having been pushed to the sidelines while younger darlings are charmed into the Neverland seduction compound... Can't wait for Part 2, to see what happened to these two fellows as they grew up to face a life without the man who swept them out of their diapers. He, at 34-ish in a private ceremony,  getting married to his latest one true love -- all of seven years old, and ominously close to seven-year-itch rejection ...Oh, whatever happened to monogamous pedophilia?

I'm outta here.  

 

3.19.19 - Ring Stoppers

Sunday Morning Out of the Past: Rare Kenneth Feld Sightings: Big Show Boss Spotted in Action on Coney Lot

Through a bizarre chain of flukes as preciously disclosed, fate delivered me onto the Coney Island lot of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, opening night of their summer long show under a tent, Illuscination.

Sunny evening. Early arriving, I wandered into the outdoor food and rest area, past a special VIP tent. Little did I know how close I was to the Feld of Felds. When I discovered him hobnobbing with a gaggle of upscales around a stand–up fast food table, shamelessly I fell into the reluctant mode of a virtual peeping paparazzi, albeit with camera in pocket. I moved this way and that, stealing weaselly glances from afar in an effort to view the goings of a true big top tycoon.

Mr Feld was primly attired in a rather drab suit. Conservatively groomed. We are not talking metro sexual. He struck me as stout-hearted, strong on his feet and vigorously engaged. His animated manner that of a carnie pitchman, similar, as I recall, to my one fleeting Irvin Feld sighting years ago. Bear with me here, World, if I seem to be “obsessing,” but my only aim is to journalistically bear witness. Now, at this point, there was not much I could do, so I circled the power zone like an invading mosquito of slim prospects, keeping my stalking wings as under control as possible. I wondered what my subject might say that could be discretely overheard. But I failed miserably to zoom in, as they say; That sort of observational space crashing — “Well, there he is, the man himself! A fun question, Mr. Feld? Any exciting new productions planned with ex-CIA operatives?” — does not suit my shy nature. Camera stayed in pocket.

But then something substantial happened; He turned about and walked away, alone, without lackey or Pinkerton, toward the concession tent. I was struck by how remarkably short he is. I’d only seen him once before, back in the 1970s standing quietly at the edge of the performance area at a Florida venue monitoring the spec as it circled the track. The show was then, New York bound, still a work in progress. He struck me that evening as the essence of calm.

Compared to my distant mental snapshot, I had not imagined Kenneth Feld being so short, nor so animated either. Actually, one might say that this lack of height adds an overcompensating flair to his persona. The youthfully invigorated circus king ambled with the slightly swaggering air of an innocent kid maximizing an overstepped gait to project power and confidence. His glib saunter brought to mind Charlie Chaplin's Everyman character.

Through the maze of patrons and circusy things for sale I followed sheepishly after, seeking additional insights that did not rise above the level of vapid. (I report; you deride.). He slipped into the tent, and I lost contact.

He resurfaced to lead a pre-show appearance by the Family Feld, scripted and staged for the entire house. Out strode, with a statuesque air of authority and privilege, Mr. Feld and stately daughters -- counting three if I am correct, each as I recall looming taller than her dad, a rather charming irony, and neither wearing drab. Feld's appreciative address to the crowd, great to be back at Coney, etc., was strong and steady, clear and to the point. And with that, I concluded that I was done with him.

But, as fate would have it, I was not. The Gods of petty power worshiping rituals had invaded my chronic indifference, at last.

As previously sworn to my faithful four followers, in seeking relief from my crummy $10 seat only one row off the floor (too many late arrivers blocking my view), and with the sympathetic reluctance of one young usher, I stole into a better section of empties. At intermission, I discovered Mr. Feld once more (his now familiar backside, that is), standing right there in the aisle on my row conversing with an entourage of corporate and/or religious associates. Then, once more on his own, he made his way down the steps in a carefree manner. Moments later, I noticed him sauntering happily around the ring on his way out, and holding hands with a woman whom I assumed to be his wife. Together, they lent the impression of young marital bliss.

Now, we are close to the target moment. The piece de resistance! The second half is about to begin. I notice that our subject under surveillance has returned and is now sitting on the aisle directly across from the person in the chair next to mine. (For those logistically challenged, I am sitting two seats off the aisle.)

Alright, journalism is about to ascend the heights of its sacred calling. Comes now, at last, my most revealing sighting. Are you ready for the revelation of revelations? Count this your right of passage, this bright shining insight your day and your night. Your holy grail, your wind, your sail, your morning coffee and snail. Drum rolls! Trumpets! A full hallelujah fanfare, Maestro Evans, if you please!...

I happened to glance once (and only once) to my right: Exactly this I observed: Kenneth Feld was seated, well composed in his chair, eagerly watching the show.




(photos, from the top: my original seating area; the section I crashed]

First published July 28, 2010

Circus Vargas My Way Comes ... Maybe Zoppe, Too .... And then Comes Ringling --- If Philly Comes Through

Finally, a circus in my own backyard!

At last, I can see Circus Vargas in a more Idyllic setting, “Idyllic” meaning not an anonymous mall over asphalt, or that seedy lot from hell by a harsh freeway in Oakland’s netherworld —  but closer to an open field -- the (comparatively) gorgeous scrappy old Petaluma Fairgrounds, prominently located near the middle of a charming town.

They're slated for a week of shows in late August.   And now that I once again have my  own wheels, I can make it there in good time.  I’ll be getting there in my Lyft (model yet to be determined), one hour instead of the three it would have taken had I roughed it out on public transit.

Those delightful Zoppes , who played the same lot last year, will be trouping in Northern California again, so I’m hopeful they’ll spring some other dates closer.

On the return of Ringling

Yes, Alice, there is a greatest show on earth, and it's coming back later this year,  though not under a tent.  Going against modern trends, they are still sticking to the mammoth hard tops that were increasingly harder for them to even half half way fill — back in the days of lions and tigers and elephants — even dogs and ponies.  All of that older stuff erased from Kenneth Feld’s hard drive, in favor of — as I see it — Circus du Ringling on steroids

The name Nicole is nowhere in evidence. Now, the name is Juliette.   And here, I had assumed that Nicole was the heir apparent.   Me wonders if she disagreed.

    What can we expect?

From Kenneth Feld, to the Associated Press:

“We knew we were going to come back. We didn’t know exactly how,” says Kenneth Feld, chair and chief of Feld Entertainment. “It took us a long time to really delve in and take a look at Ringling in different ways. It became a re-imagination, a rethinking of how we were going to do it.”

From the company:

“A group of 75 performers from 18 countries will carry out the acts, which combine artistry, skill and strength. Some will perform jumps, runs and other tricks on a wire high above the ground. The wire is stretched into a triangular path more than seven and a half meters up in the air.

‘Flying trapeze artists will also cut through the air way up high, flipping as they move. Others perform acts on self-turning wheels, bicycles, unicycles and skateboards”.

Reviving so little

Why  have I not heard or seen a single news item about this?  Why the total silence?  It makes me wonder if the media for some reason is against it.

This will take guts to bring this off – with so much that in the public’s mind stood for CIRCUS no longer there. I do believe that Kenneth Feld has the resources and the adaptability to make changes if necessary.  He is wisely  staying away at first from  major spotlights. This way, he can avert embarrassing publicity if his first reboot backfires.

Five stars for daring-do.  And five more  for having our own Wesley Wonders, the One Wheel Wonder, on the all-human (not sure about “binary”) bill.

As I see it, they may need to infuse the proceedings with plenty of levity and clowning, for this high-tech heavy may get mired  in too too  serious a tone.    

Let it Roll!

 
Here's their route, which I share with you in the late great tradition of Don Marcks and the Biggerstaff’s much missed Circus Report.  They’re selling tickets up through Philly, into next February.  Why the stop gap?  A safety value to fold or re-think if the first dates fail expectations?   Pardon me for being prematurely paranoid, but Philadelphia is in the state of Pennsylvania.  And it was in that state at Pittsburgh, where the big top fell in 1956.

Best of all, Ringling is back in operation, and this alone may send a message that circus is still a viable option.  Kind of, a little .. It would be like Apple dumping i Phones or tablets from its offerings, only to bring them back, but vastly emasculated. Enjoy looking forward!       

 Bossier City, LA
Sep 29 - Oct 1, 2023

Cleveland, OH
Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse
Oct 6 - 8, 2023

Milwaukee, WI
Fiserv Forum
Oct 13 - 15, 2023

Pittsburgh, PA
PPG Paints Arena
Oct 20 - 22, 2023
            
Cincinnati, OH
Heritage Bank Center
Oct 27 - 29, 2023

Rosemont, IL
Allstate Arena
Nov 3 - 5, 2023

Kansas City, MO
T-Mobile Center
Nov 10 - 12, 2023

Detroit, MI
Little Caesars Arena
Nov 17 - 19, 2023

Baltimore, MD
CFG Bank Arena
Nov 24 - 26, 2023

Indianapolis, IN
Gainbridge Fieldhouse
Dec 1 - 3, 2023

St. Louis, MO
Enterprise Center
Dec 9 - 10, 2023

Oklahoma City, OK
Paycom Center
Dec 15 - 17, 2023

Tampa, FL
Amalie Arena
Jan 5 - 7, 2024

Orlando, FL
Amway Center
Jan 12 - 15, 2024

Jacksonville, FL
Veterans Memorial Arena
Jan 19 - 21, 2024

Sunrise, FL
FLA Live Arena
Jan 27 - 28, 2024

Greensboro, NC
Greensboro Coliseum
Feb 2 - 4, 2024

Greenville, SC
Bon Secours Wellness Arena
Feb 9 - 11, 2024

Philadelphia, PA
Wells Fargo Center
Feb 16 - 19, 2024

Brooklyn, NY
Details coming soon!

Newark, NJ
Belmont Park, NY
Bridgeport, CT
Buffalo, NY
Boston, MA
Worcester, MA
Wilkes Barre, PA
Providence, RI
Hartford, CT
Columbus, OH
Phoenix, AZ
Tucson, AZ
Austin, TX
San Antonio, TX
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Dallas, TX
Fort Worth, TX
Ontario, CA
Anaheim, CA
Los Angeles, CA
Oakland, CA
San Jose, CA
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Denver, CO
Salt Lake City, UT

Las Vegas, NV
Tulsa, OK
Little Rock, AR
Grand Rapids, MI
State College, PA
Albany, NY
Manchester, NH
Allentown, PA
Charleston, WV

Brit Circus Kings Keep Rings Rocking with Foreign Talent, Aggressive Showmanship. Two Giants Among Them, Now Gone ...

Circus Funtasia

The old and the new, one going, another coming.  First, to acknowledge here the passing of “Doktor John Haze,” as John Hayes Mabley was known, a dynamo showman known for his hard-edged Circus Extreme that fielded  UK’s biggest big top.
          

                                          Circus Extreme

Haze was considered the nation’s reigning circus mogul after the late Gerry Gottle, with whom he founded another long-running  hit —  their runaway success, Circus of Horrors,  billed the “world’s longest running alternative circus show.” Thirty years on, and still playing to sold out crowds. 

 

 Doktor Haze

 

Modern-Day Barnums: Cottle and Haze

A full menu showman not of the Montreal class, the dexterous Haze promoted a truly daring stunt over the sainted Thames, balancing 16 men 150 feet above the famed river in a “human mobile.” Had one of them slipped , the whole lot would have gone down.  Actually, going soft here, I am supposing that water may form a safer landing surface than your standard trapeze net — that is, for those who know how to swim.  A chilling stunt, nonetheless.  It speaks to the man’s gritty, knock 'em dead showmanship.
 
At 12, Haze teamed up with his dad --- just released from prison (reasons not given) –  to join Circus Della Beck in Ireland.  There he learned how to swallow fire, and how to fake reading gullible  minds in a crowd.   A thread here?  Again, echoes of the tough midways that once prefaced earthy tent shows of spangled glories.  They gave you the dirt. They gave you the stars.  Ballet and theatre interlopers will never understand.

In his random early 20s, Haze dabbled in rock, forming Flash Harry, its players turning circus-type tricks while riffing on.

These British impresarios strike me as adaptive, flexible, and prone to inventing as they go. And maybe more open to collaboration. What bothers/disappoints/puzzles  me about them is their nearly total deference to the no-animals format (three shows still carry domestics) .  Maybe they know something. They’ve produced shows abroad, and they’ve managed UK tours of both the Chinese and Moscow state troupes. Haze for a time ran the latter. You have an idea, comrade? Heck with the “C” word —  Let’s talk! Da?

During the crippling Corona look-downs, Haze led a campaign to unlock them, clear up to the front door of 10 Downing Street. Boris! Are you in there? Boris, beleaguered big tops calling! Boris  said yes, UNLOCK, and a nation of circuses were spared collective implosion.
.
Okay, your turn, Tracy Jones!  Her take on the biz  tells of a nation weak on the talent needed to energize the rings of today’s successfully produced shows.  Sounds a whole lot like over here?

Tracy slipped into the life by accident, when taking care of horses for the French stunt rider, Gerard Naprous. When he landed a four-week gig in Gandey’s Circus, she followed him as a horse groom, and fell for the whole party.  Told mum, “I’m going to join the circus.” Mum  put her and bag on a train.  She stayed with Gandeys for the next twenty eights years. Phillip the paymaster threw blades within inches of her fearless face, and she took them. “I trusted him completely.”  She learned the basics of trapeze and of trick riding on horseback.  Toured with  Gandey’s Circus through Shanghai, Honk Kong, and Dubai.  

All of which well-grounded our Tracy to start up her very own show, Circus Funtasia, now celebrating its 10th anniversary.  The ring is gone, in its place, a rectangular stage.  Our ringmistress is  giddy and remains optimistic. 

On Saturday nights, the tent is reset for the adult-only Cirque du Vulgar. I love it! A clever play on the Montreal formula. I can imagine a legion of restless adults sick and tired of du Precious and flocking to kink and gore for du relief.  

Biggest problem running Funtasia?  Tracy wishes there were more (like, how about a few) Brits willing to join up. “It’s really, really  hard to find British people who want to travel on a circus.... We’re in the ring one moment, selling popcorn the next." More than that, a dearth of skills and training among the hometown pool. “We [also] have a Cuban troupe of gymnasts because in Cubans they train them from very young age.”

Those communist powers do have a way with steel-handed restraint that fosters the disciplines needed to produce competitive thrills.  Now, without naming shows (you will know who I am talking about) in freer places we have kids from today’s snowflake generations being harnessed to safety ropes while performing relatively simple feats barely as high off the ground as a low wire.  Blame the whole damn thing on the Russian Revolution of 1917.
 
Tracy’s strategic planning for the next ten years? “Just carry on and enjoy every minute of it.”

Ah, what a lovely note to go out on.

A young Gerry Cottle starting out. How I wish I had met him.  

Acknowledging my sources here-- but one: All of the above and the quotes were gleaned from Douglas McPherson’s fine profiles of Haze and Jones, as published in London’s  The Stage.