Big Apple Circus Roars Back, Gunning for Gotham Return Under Nik Wallenda Control ... Solo-Heavy Lineup Awaits Phillip McKinley Direction ... America's Got Talent Alumni Promise Populist Media Eye ...

Once more rising from the ashes of bankruptcy -- a form of endurance it has become adept at outlasting --- the long-beleaguered Big Apple Circus makes yet another comeback. This third time around to uncork at Lincoln Center on November 11.  Pray they make it to Queens next April or May – and I’m going.

Alan Silva's umbrella intrigues me. The silks could use a good prop.

This time out, gone is any mention of Compass Partners, the Sarasota-based angels who bought the circus out of bankruptcy in 2017, and may now be dining on food stamps behind sad faced clown masks.  Gone too is Remarkable Entertainment hired by Compass, which not so remarkably blew its chance at Comeback Season 2.  You may remember a retired spinal surgeon who took on Comeback Season 1.  The media chirped.  Will they replay the chirp for Comeback Season 3?  Their patience may be running low. So far, little evidence of hometown media running with the news

Johnny Rocket.  He makes me laugh already. A runaway Nock?

Enter new lead man Nik Wallenda, whose name alone should guarantee ample New York press coverage.  The nephew of legendary Karl Wallenda is partnering with a conglomerate of entities too fuzzily reported on to make complete sense of.  One is called  “S2BN Entertainment,” another Grand Slam Productions. Remarkable is nowhere in sight.  I’m not wasting any more time trying to untangle this web of murky control, only wondering who really is in charge. For the moment, I’m going with Nik

And just in the nik of time, when Big Apple Circus looked eerily close to a fire sale  Shall we count on three being a charm?  Heck, I’ll even go for four, or more.

Singing swinger Eli Huber, yes she sings, too! And oh, how daring you don't look with your iron mechanic.  Nik: You booked her?  

And what to look forward to? Most impressive to my eyes are at least the first two of these three promising elements, all of which speak well to Nik’s showmanship:

1.  Show to be directed by Phillip William McKinley, a former Ringling knockout stager with a gift, when it is turned on, for brilliantly shaping and pacing circus action.  His Ringling unit at Coney was the best damn circus show I have seen in many seasons.

2.  America’s Got Talent contributes as a valuable tie-in, thanks to the populist exposure it has given to a few of the show's acts.  This gives Nik’s PR department ample human-interest material to push on the media.

3.  The Loner Edition? On paper, a slew of solo artists from around the world — perhaps too many solos —  promise a vibrant spread of intense novelty. Houdini Illusion to tiny dachshunds.   Some have worked on Cirque du Soleil shows, but none tout Monte Carlo medals. Should we be surprised by the lack of Asian faces? I am disappointed but not surprised, given the simmering US-China tensions.  The bios on them are wordy, and two do not even spell out what the artist actually does!  Excuse me?

Classy: Katya Nikiforova

From Cirque land, James, Gonzales: Let's see, at least we see some kind of a prop, and since he toured with Cirque's Kurious (the last good CDS I saw), perhaps he learned to go super abstract.

Golly, have we a duo?  Count them two solos in one! Ethiopia's Yab Brothers.  So, what exactly do they do, bio writers? Yet to be determined?  Risley, maybe.

Okay, so three’s a charm, a good theme for now.  Nik’s forebears tried taking out a circus of their own, and the tents fell in weeks. Has happened to other performers, too.   But ... but, the Ringling Brothers were performers before they turned themselves into circus kings. Paul Binder and Michael Christensen performed before they produced.

Yes, they are not miniatures but real!  And they rocked America's Got Talent.  I saw the You Tube. Pure gold, kids

"We can't wait to reveal the new show that will certainly mix traditional circus and modern updates," said Wallenda to AMNY.

On balance, I see Nik making some very smart moves at the outset. Not sure he can be both star performer and effective CEO. But this I think:  We can rest assured that “character arc” does not count much if at all in his mind.  Pray he keeps the dramaturgs out of his tent.

Simon Cowell -- Closet Circus Fan? -- Pumps Circus Acts to Lure in the Crowds, Dumps 'Em at Finals for His Favorite Singers. America's Got Gall!

Okay, Simon, why are you so afraid of the circus in your own show? Is that why you haven't the guts to give its best moment the honor they deserve?

I am starting to look deeper into the win history of America's Got Talent.  And I am finding what should not be a surprise.  Most of the winners are the singers.  A few are magicians and ventriloquists

Top dog?  Only once did a real circus act bark off with top honors -- an act introduced to Americans in 1989 by Cliff Vargas --- surprise! -- Olate dogs.  You did know about Simon and the dogs?

Runner up? Only once, to an acrobat

Just Another Rigged Reality Show?

To be clear, I only watch parts of these drawn-out episodes.  I have seen so-so circus acts, now and then the occasional star turn.  There were three men this season doing, from a bit I caught, a fantastic balancing act. They brought the judges to their feet, as the judges sometimes do for circus acts.   You might get from Simon rare verbal acclaim -- "The best act of your type we have ever seen here!"  Maybe even "the best I has ever seen  anywhere!"  And how exciting to hear, Simon.  And where from there?  Onto no where.  Pumped and dumped.

Here's my best guess: Simon does not want to risk giving circus the prime attention he gives to the singers, lest he produce the image closer to a vaudeville show than a singing contest, right?

Other night I tuned in and saw three acts standing on the stage -- only one would be named to go to the finals. One of them were a terrific group of ladies on unicycles who turned in a dazzling display.   Would they get through?  Of course, not.  Another singer was plucked to stay the course. Singers ... singers ... singers ... BOOOOORING.

Rigged? Who really knows but Simon and his cronies.  I've read the audience may be mostly what are known in Hollywood as "audience extras," meaning paid shills to fill up the seats. Better yet, to take their reaction cues from scripted signals.  There are plenty of complaints out there alluding to rigged judging, and I have to believe them, simply because I believe Simon will not dare turn his precious little let-me-hear-you-sing showcase into something closer to a Barnum concoction.  Thus, they use 'em for come in, shun 'em at finals.   

I have noted here how lucky we are to at least have America's Got Talent, if only for the continued national exposure it gives to circus arts. Which means that it will continue to infuriate me.

Power. Agility. Perfection. The Face of the Chinese Acrobat, No Longer Welcome?

Whether scampering up and down poles, throwing up audacious human pyramids on rolling bicycles, or diving through stacked  hoops, they win us over.  Breathlessly.  Emphatically.   They are the essence of circus. The dazzling manifestation of its ancient roots giving rise to yet more ground-breaking wonder in the here and the now. But these days, the here and now may be leaving the lot.

It is, of course, a political question, given the rising tensions between the U.S. and China.  Anti-Asian currents rattling pockets of Asian communities into fear and retreat are said to be on the rise.  The tragic irony  here in the Bay Area is that the older Asians being attacked are among the most civil and law-abiding and productive citizens anywhere, their young hoodlum attackers, the very opposite.  The crippled agenda-driven media here in the state of insanity is too timid to clarify. 

But those currents are felt elsewhere, too, and the question becomes: How detrimental will these anti-Asian hostilities be to Asian circus acts?  Hardly an issue, really, considering  the demise of the two shows that could afford to routinely import from China and other Asian capitals: Ringling and Big Apple.

     Nixon’s Gift to the Big Top

When Richard Nixon went to China in 1972, he established a cultural exchange program, which opened the tent to the Shenyang Acrobatic Troupe the following December.  Chicago welcomed them with raving receptions. Dates in Indianapolis, New York and Washing, DC followed.  The ring had been set. 

China’s most profound impact on the American circus scene was produced 14 years later by  Kenneth Feld in 1986, when he ingeniously integrated the various acts of the Shanghai Acrobatic Troupe into the program.  East and West merged in a spectacular three ring smorgasbord0. The public took note.  So did Paul Binder, who checked in two years later with his own The Big Apple Circus Meets The Monkey King. Any good circus producer, and Binder was one of the best,  soon learns that to get your best acts, you must go abroad.

 The British Validation

Over across the pond in the 1990s, Circus owners  Carol and Phillip Gandey were awestruck by a group of Chinese acrobats they saw at one of  Monte Carlo Festivals.  They could envision a rebounding road to robust ticket sales, and thus they smartly established The Great Chinese Circus.  The Brits responded with billfolds wide open.  In the land where circus was invented, how could they not spot the brilliance?  It has been written that for many years in the UK, Gandey’s Chinese unit drew the greatest patronage.

   Sky Bound, Too

Traditionally preoccupied with ground acrobats, in the last 20 years Asian acrobats everywhere have expended their repertoire, onto wires and swings.. One of the best multiple rigging  flying acts I have ever seen were the Shanghai Swingers, with UniverSoul some years back.   You may have seen footage of the North Koreans at Monte Carlo, of the young star flyer who executed five somersaults over a long arc.  YES, maybe not adhering to the traditional flying return set-up specs, but a hell of a trick on its own, and a longer lasting one to enjoy.

 Now A Harder Sell?

Over here, we may be seeing less of the Middle Kingdom, I currently fear.  On America’s Got Talent the other night, which I now and then scroll through, I was stopped by the sight of a group of  acrobats already in progress.  Of course, I was hoping to see Asian faces, for I knew the odds would favor something special.   Close up, the faces were not Asian.  The young men performed an ambitious routine of mediocre content, though a couple of the judges swooned, one of them conceding she loved a certain member's body. Somebody cracked that Simon had given them the buzzer. Simon knew best.

Does this mark the new normal?  I hope not.  Given the absence of Ringling and Big Apple, and worse yet, the ominous rumblings over Taiwan's precarious future (truly frightening), we may not have much of a chance in the years ahead to be thrilled by those fiercely driven wizards of wow-full invention.

But I do believe that American circus goers, who have long understood and appreciated the truly international nature of great circus, will respond as vividly as ever when offered the genius that comes our way from other lands, no matter the politics. 

Above: The mesmerizing Ty Tojo on Big Apple Circus, 2013

Sunday Morning Pics, From Piedmont Hills to Piedmont Avenue ...

Okay, Blogger, so you want these two pictures at the top?  You have a way of shifting things around behind my back.   I did not consciously put  them there! But why not.  I want to go to St.Leo's someday, for more than a brief sit down. I must admit, I love the rich atmosphere of being inside a Catholic chapel -- or is it cathedral? . I remember attending one on Christmas Eve in Glasgow, Scotland, many years ago. 

The border between Piedmont and Oakland, where I live,  crosses through my apartment building, it has been said. Which might mean that I sleep in Oakland and, up the hall, do my laundry in Piedmont.

Sometimes, above and below, with my Canon SD 780 1S, which I took to China in 2010. Sometimes, it seems in the right mood and I love the results. Other times I raise my iPhone SE to the view, forever suspicious that it is pixelating to dazzle me with something closer to a techno seduction than to a  more intimate connection with nature and art.

 

And yet, I can't tell you for sure, picture to picture, which camera took which one. I think my iPhone came in handy for this image, as it did for those along Piedmont Avenue.

We are, above and below, on Cambridge, my favorite street in Piedmont. It is hilly and cozy, winding and filled with a variety of homes, not all that spectacular except for this one, my favorite house in all of Piedmont (of those I have seen).

 

 

 

 

This corner house bears the most lavish new landscaping, it must have been sold. It is for me impossible to photograph, so here I have simply gone for a wide view through the iron gate.

 

If I may say, this is a keeper, which I came upon up above a stream below that winds its way under and along  a series of blocks. It's that little brown shape that makes it for me, whatever it is -- it looks alive.

The impromptu chairs. I love reading here, and often I have the spot all to myself as people and dogs amble by -- my current paper mate, a Hamish Macbeth mystery. You can hear the trickling stream down below.  Nobody knows how the chairs got there, at first there were only three greens. Sometimes they take a break and are gone and I fear they will never return. Happened a week ago, and I assumed they were gone for good. And then they came back!   So now,  to the Piedmont Avenue part of this post.  
 

The Piedmont Grocery went mask-free for two or three daring weeks.  Of course, it  couldn't have lasted.   The un-vaccinated are the problem -- sorry if you are and feel offended.  The two shot protection is so amazingly good (99.9% against hospitalization and death),  that  what really boggles my mind is how many health workers resist it, too. Which only goes to show that those who administer science-based treatment to others do not always accept the same treatment for themselves.. We are innately irrational creatures.  

I wondered who that was in the window. Oh, it was me!

I could cry,  Ninna's was my favorite Thai restaurant on Piedmont Avenue.

And Gaylords, still shuttered.

This was a total shock. Greetings. I thought it was invincible, I have bought so many things there over the years, mostly gifts.  The walls were lined with greeting cards, some blank, from the world over. They always had just the right thing.. So many small business owners got screwed by one of the most shamefully self-serving governors ever to rule the State of Insanity. A smug self-entitled despot who faces a recall.  And may have plenty of time, if he gets the royal boot, to wonder what all went wrong at the French Laundry.   

Goodbye, another our-town Piedmont Avenue luxury.  My last purchase a few days ago was a  colorful little child's book with blank pages, which I will give to my friend Boyi's son, Ethan, come Christmas.  You can see him up there, top right. playing a game of rescuing me (that's how it felt when I hid and made funny sounds and he came after me), during their visit a couple of weeks ago. He is such a cute kid, and now he can say name perfectly -- when he wants to. Oh, the joy a child can bring with just one word.

8.8.21

U.S. Circuses in the Age of Virtual Reality: The Struggle to Placate Ambivalent Americans

The late Henry Edgar once posted a comment on this blog to the effect, What if you were to offer the customers what most of us would agree is the best circus possible and yet they still failed to fill up your seats ?  A very good question given shrinking crowd sizes over the last thirty years.  Maybe it's time to review not the show but the audience itself.  To continue Henry's thread, I have a question:

What is the circus owner to offer a jaded public turning fickle on big top staples?  

The Very Real Circus:  Not Virtual Enough?

Perhaps the force of circus being a live show no longer holds the same drawing power, as more people turn to virtual realities, albeit it everything from texting to eDating, video games to porno.  

I have long argued the compelling reality of circus.  More and more, I am starting to doubt the argument’s relevance in this new and rather frightening era of electronic interaction where, one day — people as smart as Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak have ventured — “computers are going to take over from humans, no question.”  Wozniak can see ourselves becoming the pets of our robots.   

Item: A group of friends sharing restaurant table space, but not each others company, preferring interaction with their smart phones over the people actually sitting next to them.

Item:  Check out the movie Her, in which a man forms a relationship with an advanced operating system named Samantha.  Frightening.  And very believable.

Enter the Ambivalent American Audience

Yes, Mr. Producer, I feel your frustration, even if you don’t.  You no longer enjoy the total attention of a crowd.  You now must complete with smart phones and tablets and other tweety distractions, ad nauseum.

You now must also compete for the respect of a crowd that arrives with issues about the contents of your show.  Oh, those weird looking clowns.  Don’t .. Come ... Near ... Me ... Look at that draggy tiger, think it's been mistreated?   Which reminds me, I've got to get some suppression pills for my pit bull. No, he can't attack anybody in the nose muzzle when we go out walking. ... Oh, no, look -- she's not wearing a safety wire, is she?   Sometimes they don't?  What if, oh God!  [Another day, another show]: Oh, look, she’s strapped to a wire!  Must be a beginner.  I could do that.

Even granting that a live show can still draw big crowds, then what next to question under the big top?  There's plenty according to the critics.  On parade, here come the most politically incorrect offenders.

Circus Staples Under Siege

DAREDEVILS
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This key element of circus  may be losing its luster to more spectacular acts of risk-taking on TV reality shows or aerial stunts in the great outdoors captured on film.  Compared to which, the sight of a mere human scaling a wire only thirty or forty feet above the ground may somehow seem, reverse affect here, old school.  Another trend that is emasculating the show are the solo and duo fabric aerialists who throw more focus onto slower balletic moves. I think this sort of action, some of it, to be sure, quite exciting, has nonetheless eroded the public’s taste for the more perilous tricks we associate with the single trapeze.   Would Pinito Del Oro, above, have settled for a silken web? For a static trapeze?

The protected aerialist: The presence of lifelines (mechanics) has done more than anything else to produce today’s ambivalent audience.  Courage or cowardice, which will it be today, Circus? With some performers flying under protection, others not, the vacillating impression does nothing to sustain a committed identity.  And the primal power of circus suffers.   

CLOWNING

This old-time jester might today consider either less greasepaint or horror flicks

The heavily painted funny faces are not so welcome anymore.  Reports and images of creepy characters in grotesque clown makeup terrorizing citizens on city streets and in public places have produced a growing number of adults who fear taking their kids to a circus for this among the other reasons.  In Europe, there seems to be a trend towards less makeup, down to a red nose maybe and a few whimsical marks, sufficient to paint a face in mirth, but not one of implicit mayhem.  This is a viable route for today’s jesters.  After all, a clown is a character far more than a painted face.

ANIMALS

The elephants may be on the way out. So, too, the big cage cats.  But there are still plenty of dogs, horses, camels and other critters — well, if  Jenny Vidbel can find and train them. I think that John Ringling North II made about as shrewd and sensitive a move as a circus man can make these days by featuring just one small elephant, Louise, on his Kelly Miller show last season.  The dancing of Louise, nothing like I have ever seen, was pure magic.

Encore for Elephants?  If the public’s skittishness over performing pachyderms is ever to be reversed, it may take one elephant at a time.  And it may take a far simpler approach like the one advocated by UK author and critic Douglas McPherson in his book, Circus Mania: 

“The elephants don’t need to be oversold with gimmicks.  Just walking into the ring and marching, stopping and turning to command would be enough.” 

Indeed, a day may come when an audience new to such a spectacle as elephants on parade will thrill to that alone.  Certainly the children will.

Bring back the one-act show:  Circuses may help their cause by removing the intermission and running a shorter show straight through, as once they did.  Promise patrons less time away from their gadgets.  On their way out, happier, they may still be more inclined, maybe more so, to patronize the rides and concessions — the vain lure of selfies.

 Remember When Circus Day was Guilt Free?

Unlike their forebears, today's patrons enter the tent loaded with electronics and with overwrought minds buzzing with issues over whether to patronize a circus is even a good idea in the first place.
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That long-gone circus day that enjoyed the total attention of an undistracted crowd not fraught with issues, that long ago world in which we once thrilled to a circus show feeling not a qualm, reveling in the honest and simple joy of it all --- that wondrous world, I am sadly afraid, no longer exits.

The Big Show in Council Bluffs, Iowa, August 23, 1953

Next: Can Kenneth Feld Rebuild The Greatest Show on Earth?

Photos above: On horseback, the Cristiians

On the high wire:  The Wallendas

On the single trap:   Pinito Del Oro

Clown Buzzy Potts.
Barnum & Bailey on parade, 1908
Under the big top At Gil Gray Circus (from the Circus Blog)
Ringling elephants on Parade, 1978, with Ana May in the lead, the Woodcocks in charge

First posted January 18, 2016