Friday Flashes: Ringling Canvas over Coney? ... Kelly-Miller Tigers & Clowns Deliver Socko Payoffs ... Mud Show Apologists Try My Patience ...

Here comes talk once more of a big top labeled Ringling, this time linked to fading tattered old Coney Island, where kids can still ride one of the best roller coasters that ever was. In my extreme youth, I loved the monster. Seems that the Feld machine is negotiating, kind of, and the hurdles hit upon concern concession rights. Oh, how Hugo apt! (Thanks a ton, Don Canvas Covington, for keeping me up on this one). ... And where might Big Bertha rise again? Over the recently finally once and for all put out of its glitzy misery Astroland. I hated that title from the get go. I remember as a wee boy being swept up into the sky on the Wonder Wheel and dropping down back to earth on the big parachutes ... My grandma, who made girdles for Brooklyn ladies and dames (charging them per her on-the-spot perceptions of their bank accounts) took me there. Will Kenneth Feld concoct another lame-brain title that nobody but he digs? Here's one: Barnum's Coneyscope.

Kelly-Miller in bits and pieces (Grit my teeth, I tell myself, those mud show apologists are now glued to every word I am about to utter. I sleuthed out two You Tube videos, one of Casey McCoy's classy tiger act, with a set of tenderly integrated tiger maneuvers that hereby crown the man as a minor if not major master. He's the real McCoy. I’d seen his two-tiger hind-leg walk and noted my appreciation (and it wasn’t, thank the Gods, interrupted by a Peterson Peanut Pledge break) ... Here, more of the act is revealed. McCoy's persona is closer to an elegant ice skater than that of the macho cage man. And he has a remarkable way of appearing to be almost whispering to his smoothly compliant charges. Through line: One tiger does a backward hind-leg walk and tucks himself neatly between two seated tigers. Then all three sit up, and the two exterior cats rise up onto their hind legs and hop forward. So seamlessly joined (with “music” leaving a lot to be desired), it gets four stars from me ... Clowns? I saw the shovel gag. Steve Copeland and Ryan Combs have some whimsical interlocking movements AND a payoff that still tickles me picturing it. The ringmaster, traditionalist John Moss, having told them no more shovels and don’t hurt anyone, ends up walking into the ring with a large arrow sticking out of his proper posterior and evidently not even knowing it! (No, no, we won't take that any farther.) These visual gags tickle ... Rest of the show? Have no idea, other than its tour so far sounding messy, what with changing lot conditions and acts coming and going ... I'll continue on the You Tube front ...

"Anonymous," I’m not your “dude”! Or am I? Makes me feel young and edgy when somebody too too courageous to list a name hides behind "anonymous" to call me "dude" and take me on over my agitating views on the coloring book issue. A, consider yourself lucky I let you in. When it comes to anonymity, I’m going to allow myself a kingly capriciousness in deciding whether to publisher or toss. Says A, "Obviously, you've never been on the road.” Well, a few times, maybe in it. And, furthermore, says A, “So GET over yourself, please!” Okay, A, now why don’t you tell that to your friend and idol Steve, for it was he I was quoting, he who cried out through the depths of post-concession pitch desolation, “stupid coloring books!” And, A, I was actually sympathizing with your guy. Now, as for Steve's blog being just for an adoring circle (and my not being welcome there), I did not have to sign up to view it, and I practice journalism with the times, wherever I can find it. You need to calm down and smell the nuances — anonymously. BTW, is John Ringling North II still on the show?

"Mud show" apologists, paaaaleze. I am tired of a certain school of troupers who endlessly drop this pathetic term to justify all manner of show-stopping interruptions. When I hear the term, I think of that boring book about the Hoxie Circus, which did not thrill me the one time I saw it ... Why can't they bear me? Fact is, if there were more mes out there, I would not seem so extreme. Plus, many of these so-called mud shows likely never ever face the harsh lights of a real review; they year after year read the White Tops and Circus Report, and they hear the fans up and down trails telling them how wonderful they are, and I guess they believe it. And, know what? All of this collective gush may blind them to reality. Have a cup of bitter tea ...

End ringers, Tranquility Mao for me: A show around Broadway, Humor Abuse, by one time Pickle Family Circus clown, Lorenzo, son of PFC founder Larry, engaging an impressed New York Times critic. (Not sure what the White Tops will say.) About many things. The kid had a hard time cooping with the collapse of his parents marriage; so did Larry, who told me that’s what he most regrets about his years helming a once charming little San Francisco show. I rue its demise. It was like pure sunshine over pure green grass on a pure summer day ...

Britney (why do I even drop her sleazy name on my pure midway?), okay the gal toured a kids hospital in Miami (good going, gal) and she handed over a big check to Big Apple Circus. What next for Brit? A Peterson lap dance during elephant rides? ... And here’s news of a thriving circus and school up in Minnesota land, Circus Juventas. Now and then, these scholarly acro-gyms float into my skeptical view, and maybe one day they will teach themselves how to turn out first rate ring stars ... Ringling Zing getting its pr due in NY. Director of record Shanda Sawyer, “It’s a very ambitious show with many layers: the acts; the story, the transitional moments, the magic.” But will it have any real payoffs? I'm eager to check out the new Zingmaster guy, who sounds refreshingly off axis ... Yeah, off axis might be Feld's big breakthrough. ... I’m still giggling over the John Moss arrow-recipient-of-the-year walk ...

And that’s a muddy wrap, folks!

[photos: Astroland, New York Times; Casey McCoy and John Ringling North II; Circus Jeventas photo; "Zingmaster" Alex Ramon and Levitytia, in TheatreMania, Feld Entertainment photo]