Showbiz A La Carte: Outtakes and Outbursts

Rock on, if that’s the best you can do, PBS. I am tried of tired old rock and rollers wailing away for endless PBS pledge drives. Wasn’t this whole public tv gig supposed to be about education? Oh, that’s right, I need to get smart on the best guitar twangers ... If our publicly funded networks can’t survive without the Beach Boys, maybe it’s time to turn off the lights and let the cable stations pick up what deserves to go on, like old rock and roll groups, if that’s what the public really wants to go on. What I dont want to go on is Digging for the Truth without Josh Bernstein.Shame on you, History Channel! Josh was one compelling teacher when he hosted Digging, so why did you let him slip away? Whoever took over looked like another clone cable host. I will not watch the show until professor...

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Mass Performer Walkouts at Cirque du Soleil?

On the Cirque du Soleil fan website, they are talking about an ominous number of performers or musicians who have walked or are planning to — from Kooza, now playing in Northern California to rave notices. (I’ve reviewed it elsewhere on this blog.) Among the names: Jason Berrent (who played the trickster), Crystel Bujold, Theresa Bailey, Chris Bailey, Elodi Dufuo and Alexi Shirin. Some of these names do not even appear in the program I purchased at the S.F. date, which suggests a volatile turnover, does it not? And, if so, what a surprise that is.“Why is everyone leaving this tour” headlines a posting by Globasf, an usher. “I’ve heard many more plan to be leaving shortly. Quite a shame. Are people not happy?”Another contributor, Parris, opines, “I can imagine the show being stressful on...

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Another Season, Another Chance ..

Circus tents should spring forth in Spring. When early sunshine awakens, so too the ring stars of today and tomorrow and in-between, fresh and rehearsed and ready to take on America ... Kelly-Miller and New Cole, Carson & Barnes and a few others still tour the old fashioned way, spring to fall — although, without the guest roustabouts from south of the border, held up in crippling legislation against the temp work visas they and circuses depend on, the future is in doubt ... Ringling’s trains, pre-Pittsburgh labor strikes (lest we forget), were about this time steaming and whistling up for the long haul to “The Garden.” And a host of dazzling performers from across the ocean were walking through new production numbers out in the Florida...

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Big Top Bits: Cirque Turmoil to Byrd’s Big Journey West ...

We’re off on a Cirque thing, courtesy of 18-year-old Logan Jacot, new age contortionist from Ohio with a punk attitude who calls Gunther Gebel Williams his hero and who posts a boxed message that reads “Peta Kills Animals.” Logan just happened to have picked up a copy of my book, Fall of the Big Top, and liked it enough (thank you, Logan) to talk — no, make that chat it up to his cohorts on a Cirque du Soleil fan website. By accident almost, I discovered Logan’s posting, and it feels neat, being able to reach a younger generation born even after Cirque was invented .... On the same website, I also discovered swirling rumors and reports about a number of Kooza performers walking out, reasons assumed to range from displeasure to disgust with the treatment of pushy superiors ... Who’s to...

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MIDWAY FLASH ... MIDWAY FLASH ... CIRCUS WORLD MUSEUM'S RINGLING-BARNUM ARCHIVES ARE OPEN AT LAST

More later. Immediate cheers to Freese and Foley for moving the necessary paperwork with the Feld organization to open this treasure trove of Ringling documentation to the public!All researchers and interested parties should be elated. Once again, who did this? Executive Director Stephen Freese and archivist Erin Fol...

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Back to Carnie Basics for Struggling Disney Park

As many know, Disney’s on-the-cheap Calif. Adventure, meant to duplicate the patronage of its next door neighbor, Disneyland, earned a rating of Fiasco+ when it opened in 2001, sometimes looking more like a “ghost town,” as reported in today’s New York Times by Brooks Barnes. How ghostly? Average annual visitors: 6 million, compared to 15 million for the sainted giant next door. Now they are again trying to reboot the place into a turnstile-spinning success, sinking $1.1 billion over five years of upgrades. They’ve got a new ride about to premiere called Toy Story Mania. At its inception, Disney planners and thinkers took an open-minded walk around the midway at the L.A. County fair and decided to build on fundamental fun — like the dart...

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Tea Trumps Circus at L'Amyx ...

Showbiz David from out of the pastJoin me for a high-tech laugh or two here at L’Amyx Tea Bar on Piedmont Avenue in Oakland. What a trendy night. Ring my Dell! I’m feeling cooler than cool, pecking out this post on my very first laptop. Or have I again arrived just when the latest party is letting out? At the moment mine is the only laptop in the room!... Who knows, as of tonight laptops may be a thing of the past, and all because of me ... Has anybody, by the way, heard of something called a cellphone? Think I should check that one out too ..Our servers tonight are Will and Boyi, two young guys from China with a certain natural flair for sharing favored tea enthusiasms. Will, who hails from Guangxi, champions an ominous jar of thick...

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Memo to the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization: How to Make South Pacific Live Again

Dear Messsrs and Messrettes Mary Rodgers, Ted Chapin,Estate Trustees, et all.Wanting as much as any fan of the great R&H to see your upcoming revival of South Pacific succeed brilliantly, I have pondered how to make it work. While walking around Lake Merrit one morning here in Oakland, where I rent a one bedroom, I asked myself: what is the key to revival success for this soaring gem from 1949?The answer came to me in a word: CONTEXT. You must do everything you can to take the theatregoer back to that period in American history. Here is how:First of all, sorry to say, you you have booked your bet into the wrong house. Lincoln Center Theatre is way too modern a space. I urge you to break the lease, whatever it costs, and transfer to the quaint old Lyceum. Such a musty place, so...

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Some Enchanted Evening A Long Long Time Ago, They Lit Up Broadway ...

Come March, the Pulitzer prize winning musical South Pacific, created nearly 60 years ago by legendary musical theater pioneers Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, will be given its first Broadway revival. Can the kings of the “golden age” do it again? More important, can the 1950s live again? During that outwardly innocent period, R&H dominated Broadway stages. Their songs were sung on radio hit parades. Their made-for-televison original, Cinderella, was seen by over 107 million viewers in 1957 (nearly twice as many as those who watched Elvis Presley shake his sexy hips on the Ed Sullivan Show). A televison tribute to their work in the fifties was broadcast on all three major television networks. Unprecedented? As much a...

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Birth of New Game in San Francisco ... Showbiz David's BigTopolis Premieres at Leland Tea Company

A Night to RememberLast thursday evening at Leland Tea Company on Bush Street during game night, friend Doug (seen here, left) and guest player Darien joined me for the very first play of my new game, BigTopolis -- battle of the big tops. Some historic firsts:First to roll: myself. The dice added up to a ten, and that directed me to Clown Alley, out of which, by the draw or a Fortune card, I was convicted of selling moldy hot dogs on the midway, had to report to court and pay a $100 fine. First city to be licensed by a circus owner: El Paso. First railroad passage booked: San Francisco to Portland on the Southern Pacific.First to loose at my own game: Myself! First to win: A draw was declared between Darien and Doug. Just as Leland Tea was...

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EARS OVER HUGO ... Sage Streaming Live ... "Big Top Brothern" in Emergency Session at Drive In ...

Showbiz David, can you hear me down there? Down here. Yes, Sage, where are you? I'm currently in a secret position, hiding out on the rooftop of the sonic in, and old drive-in..  You're kidding? Look, Dave, tent times are tense. Down there behind a scrim around a dining table, the big top brethren are holding an emergency summit. A SUMMIT, Sage? Look, guy, you wanted real reporting in real time, right? who are the big top brethren? You don't know? The inner circle, dude, bosses and fans with tight connections. A secret society, I think.  Then you are in Hugo? I helicoptered in.  My friend Shishi's cousin runs a housewives detective service. Okay, Sage, what's the meeting about? Look, Dave, Carson & Barnes are trouping into the heart of darkness and danger next...

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