Tent Tix Tumble, See Cirque du Soleil for 25.00! ... It’s a Virtual Twofer thing ... Blasted “Believe” Drawing Customers ... Wanna Know Why? ...

Was never a breeze, stocking the seats. Takes willing customers. Or plenty of shills. Seasons came and went, showman trouped on the fly. Now with this semi-depression thing on our lots, even the mighty monarchs are resorting to those discount deals ... Cirque du Soleil offering $25.00 tickets to five of its Vegas darlings, at the moment hurting for fans, that is, if you enter with a full-paying friend. Hmmmm, didn't I just see an offer sorta like that on the Carson & Barnes website? Very interesting. So, I did a mock purchase, pretending I wanted to see Ka, and the CDS promise came true, plus a few extra dollars. Perhaps that pays for a comp bag of peanuts. Now, if they will can add free airfare, they might attract millions of new believers (pun intended)...

The biz springboards up and down, it does. Yes, I know, you’ve heard me go on about this before. Well it’s fun, and, hey, have you anything better to do at the moment? So let’s wonder out loud about what this all means. I still see Cirque saturation backfiring on Guy Laliberte, who, the gambler he is, can’t seem to stop signing contracts right and left to install more shows in more venues.. Tie-ins with McDonalds? KFC? Feld Entertainment Presents Kooza? ... Cirque du Soleil Presents Feld’s Motor Sports? Who do you think will end up solvent? In the end, the money man outlasts the artist producer. Demolition Derby lives on. I feel here, Covington Connected, like a juggler journalist.

Big Apple is pushing half price tickets on Memorial Day. And the Russians, remember them, are ruing aloud, why oh why won’t the government support us as like it once did? This from current Russian State Circus Company director Mstislav Zapashny, a nice man, very talented wild animal trainer whom I recall interviewing back in 1979 during a two week whirlwind interviewing spree through four Soviet cities. Twas so different then, security, guaranteed wages, regular work, the respect of an astonished world. The great Moscow Circus it was. Envy of the globe ... There's Russian clown Slava durng a production of Snowshow.

Now what? Discount diva Barbara Byrd may be able to rent her services to the upscale tycoons hurting, she being one of a tradition of American tent show owners who somehow can keep a touring tent on the road when the road is bereft of customers. I still don’t know how she does it. Maybe with secret subsidies. Or Pledge Breaks. Carson & Barnes are coming back to the Bay Area, and that tells me they either did okay last year or are determined to crack a cold hearted market full of naval gazers, tarot card types and those precious thinkers with “issues” about you know what. C&B will again pitch canvas over the Cow Palace parking lot, an amazing occurrence considering how indifferently received they were last time around. Or was the scarcely attended show I went to an aberration? There’s always the second date, and the third ...

But not at the Santa Rosa fairgrounds, where I had hoped they would perform. Those Byrds in berets are evidently tenting up at a cultural performing arts center on the tony north end of town ...

About this part of the world, seems that Katherine Ringling North, daughter of JRN II, who does design work, is now a resident of Baghdad by the Bay. Strange that a Ringling should end up in my ex home town. We’ve yet to hear from John Ringling North III. Might Russian Hill, where Ms. North now resides, become the new West Coast production headquarters for Kelly Miller Circus?

Memo to all Med Schools: Banned are twins Marty and Jake LaSalle, (seen in the photo above) known to juggle for the Big Apple Circus. If the picture herein posted is an indication of the type of act they perform, I am hereby, in concert with the Big Top Brethren, issuing orders to all med schools to deny them admittance. How dare they desert the big top! So there. On this midway, poetry not biology rules. Now, that felt good ...

End ringers: Logan Jacot, over at his Sawdust Nights, high on a little circus called Nebbia, that he adores for its simplicity. I, a simple type, was likewise charmed, also by an air of whimsy about comical features. Would love to see that one. Sometimes, a slight nuance in another direction is just what the public might want ...

And why might the public be patronizing, in fair turnouts, the critically blasted Believe? At least, per a newspaper report I read. I have an idea here, so go with me if you will: Believe has a real live face, familiar to the public that might flock to the show. Face belongs to an illusionist named Chris Somebody, (okay, Angel) and that might be just what CDS needs, to come out from behind the masks and be a little more human ... Hold that face, Chris ...

Let there be discounts and let there be affordable dry ice. Now, San Francisco, have you an issue with that?