Figure Skating Sans Commentary: The "Not Scott" Mute Button ...

Why do I resent having to listen to Scott Hamilton's excessive know-it-all chatter while skaters compete? Here's why:1. He conveys the narcissistic attitude that not until HE tells us what a skater has just done, can we validly enjoy it. Not until HE comments, has anything in fact of any import taken place. We are treated by this "commentator" like helplessly clueless spectators who lack the intelligence to enjoy a skater's performance without an expert giving us official permission. He actually may believe that we tune in more to hear him than to watch them. Not I, Mr. Hamilton.2. In the earlier years when I first tried tolerating Hamilton, he came off as a squeaky voiced insider flaking for his friends, particularly for American skaters. He sounded so provincial. Up in Victoria during...

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Figure Skating at the Olympics: When the Skater Transcends the Skate

Why does Michelle Kwan come to mind? I recall a few years ago, 99% sure, watching her at a U.S. or Worlds, and marveling at how her skating seemed willed by her spirit alone, rather than by physical technique. As if she had in the moment dreamed her body into exactly what she wanted it to do and where she wanted it to go. I detected not one trace of compartmentalized effort. I saw triumphant poetry over the ice.This is what we look for -- the journey away from physicality into spiritual transcendence. I think competitively unlucky Paul Wylie also had it. Watching the electrifying Evgeni Plushenko through his short program (I missed the long, nor did I see his rival skate at all), yet in honest recall, compared to Michelle, Evgeni is more passionately...

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Midway 'Round the World: Have the Russians Refound Their Circus Groove? ... St. Pete Puts Shakespeare Over Sawdust to Packed Houses

Mammoth elephants and auto-driving bears cavort with acrobats in a most unusual new circus bearing a theme based on the comedies of William Shakespeare. Cast of 58. Bring it on, Russia!Don't give up on those revolutionary Russians, the inventively deft souls who came of age after the revolution of 1917 and redefined circus art by incorporating shades of ballet and mini narratives into their acts. The same souls who mesmerized American audiences when they came west in 1963 and 1967. Now comes, and maybe with it the return of dominant Soviet creativity, "The Mystery of the Giant Elephants." World premiering at the famed St. Petersburg circus building, now called Bolshoi State Circus. How I love that preciously quaint old arena complete with...

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Figure Skating Commentators At the Olympics: Sandra Bezic Shines Near the Ice, Dick Button Above It ...

What a tony pleasure to have Dick Button back at the games, sharing his feelings about figure skaters. He covered many Olympics for ABC, an arrangement I think that kept him from other networks. Button actually returned to the games for NBC four years ago. This man is so much fun listening to and believing in; he brings to mind late San Francisco evenings, years ago, sitting across a cafe table with friends following a night out at Skateland-at-the-Beach (a roller rink), just cutting up jokes and talking about a shared passion. Button has class. He has tact. He is not always right, and he will show his surprise when the scores surprise him.In Dick Button's absence, I've had to stomach Scott Hamilton, whose excessive cheer leading and...

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The Morning Midway: Felds Sue U.S. Humane Society Under RICO Laws, Alleging $ Laundering and Hiring Paid Witness to Lie; The War Goes On ...

Oh me oh my, sigh, isn't this fun, imagining the exposure of crooked animal rights groups getting their due. And so legally complicated, but let me give it a little grasping attention. What I learned in reading through a long posting on Margaret's Circus Anonymous blog about a Feld Lawsuit against HSUS, recently discovered by David Martosko, Director of Research at the Center for Consumer Freedom, is that the circus is fighting back for damages arising out of false testimony, among other spitefully motivated acts pulled against it by a number of animal rights groups, and it may have a good shot at victory.Named in the suit, among others, are Born Free USA and ASPCA, all of whom have relentlessly bashed the circus for alleged acts of animal cruelty. One insider is quoted as believing that...

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The Morning Midway: Atlanta Police Chase Runaway Ringling Zebra up Freeway; Sean Penn Loses "Water for Elephants" Role to Christoph Waltz

Possibly defecting, maybe tired of show business or under secret contract to PETA, A Ringling Bros. Circus zebra named Lima, ostensibly limbering up for a night show in Atlanta, got "spooked," ran into a fence and through it in full-mode escape gallop, spooking out local pedestrians and motorists (those not lost in cell phonery) during rush hour! ... Police in hot pursuit, the chase lasting 40 minutes, over city streets, onto interstate 75, cutting through city center. Give this zebra credit for proper product placement -- assuming Lima was wearing a prominent Ringling insignia. Law enforcement in hot pursuit, blocking off southbound lanes. Not Amused in Atlanta: "All of a sudden a freaking zebra comes running down the street like a car,"...

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The Morning Midway: Cirque du Soleil's Banana Shpeel NY Opening Delayed Again ...

Add three more weeks onto your wish list for an opening night seat at a show reported to be deeply in trouble, currently in pre-Broadway rehearsal (or re-birthing) in the windy city ... Originally slated to take the Beacon Theatre stage in January, Chicago tryouts slipped into creative chaos and wretched consumer and critical feedback, so Banana Shpeel moved back its opening night back to February 25.Now, as witness this small add in Sunday's New York Times (so meek compared to a full page splash in same paper a few weeks ago), seems Guy Laliberte's latest "reinvention" will now uncork on March 17 -- barring further birthing glitches. I'm still not convinced this thing will raise a curtain over Big Apple land. On the other hand ...This banana...

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At the Olympics: Dancing on Thin Ice

Inconceivable that NBC should hold back the men's figure finals until around 10 PM or after out here on the coast, and yet give prime time coverage to compulsory dance. I am now convinced beyond a shadow of Jay Leno that NBC is run by idiots.Because of this inane scheduling, I missed watching Evgeni Plushenko and Evan Lysacek battle it out. The old compulsory dance event is simply too redundant and too similar to the original set patterns, either of which would be a sufficient lead in to free dance finals.Athletically speaking, dance has little credibility at the Olympics. And it's easy to see why the ballroom crowd has been clamoring for years for a place at the summer games, just as have roller dancers, who -- in the compulsory division, bring far great technique and team unity to the...

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The Morning Midway: Job Postings, Post Rantings

Twitters and tweets, have I. Let me see what tonight the ice my bring, which may bump this fun thing a day down the road ... The Vancouver bladsters due in fifteen minutes, but I'm NOT sitting up all night through a thousand commercials to see whether it's Japan, Russia, or the U.S. (the latter looks lithely, statuesquely spectacular -- if he delivers, I'd say Him).No, this is not the Showbiz David Talent Agency, but here I go none the less ...E-mails I now and then receive. Got one from a cool sounding dude, into magic and other things -- stress "other." Asking me for advice: how to get a circus job. Magic, etc. I was about to post his link, which suddenly vanished, causing me to dig deeper for info on the guy. Kinky. S&M. Bloody. Makes that Cirque sex thing in Vegas look like...

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Cole Bros. Circus Owner John Pugh, Just Inducted into Circus Ring of Fame, Bound for Haiti with Big Top Shelter for Quake Victims ...

He just might be the nicest guy under the big top. A native of England, he started out as a movie stuntman and performer, along the way executing the more difficult moves as a double for Richard Burton in Cleopatra, and watching the Burton-Taylor romance bloom before his eyes. He joined Clyde Beatty Circus in 1961 and has been with the show ever since.First performing as an acrobat, following a career-ending injury, Pugh was offered the assistant manager position. From there on up he advanced to the top of the big top. "For job preservation, I went on to be the owner," Pugh with a laugh told Pat Hatfield of the DeLand, Florida West Volusia Beacon.Johnny Pugh is not resting on yesterday's spangled memories, and shows no signs of slowing down....

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The Morning Midway: Atlanta's Got Three Circuses in Town, Take Your Pick

Traditional to soul, Atlanta is the place if you're in the mood for some late winter sawdust. Three shows are in town at the same time!Big Apple Circus, Feb. 15 through Feb. 28, $15-$42.Ringling-Barnum Zing Zang Zoom, Feb. 12 through Feb. 21, $14-$130.UniverSoul, Feb. 17 through March 7, $15-$25.Who said big tops were de...

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Sunday Sendoffs: Monte Carlo, Have I Got the Judges for You ... Detroit Shrine Under Canvas; Kelly-Miller in Texas Rain ...

America Judges the World: Who better to adjudicate the Monte Carlo Circus Festival than those producers who for years made American shows hot hot hot by importing great ring stars from across the great blue ocean? Remember John Ringling North, Europe? Before him, John Ringling? Somebody hitting my midway under Anonymous came up with this outrageously brilliant idea, and I am elated to front post it. It should impress Monte Carlo because it draws on circus owners, and circus owners are what they are obviously the most comfortable with. Stresses Anonymous, "you KNOW there won't be any acts from here competing and none of the world class acts perform here anymore, so our producers would be more than impartial as judges." I don't agree that "world class acts" skip us, but still I love your...

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The Morning Midway: Cirque Turkey Headed for NY Chopping Block? Critix Pens Loaded with Red Ink ...

Already, NY press talking down Cirque Du Soleil's troubled Banana Shpeel, the recipient of wretched notices in its Chicago shake-down mode, still set for NY opening on February 25 at the Beacon Theatre, where a bloody reception may ensue. New York Post writer Michael Riedel nearly salivating over reports of a colossal catastrophe, noting that Madison Square Garden, having "shoveled $10 million into this fiasco, is furious."His report dances on the expected grave of a deliciously awful, or awfully delicious flop. You can see the red ink already gushing out of his pen, quoting "several people" working on the project as calling it a "train wreck," "a nightmare" and, if that doesn't suit your sadistic fantasies, "one of the worst shows you've...

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The Morning Midway: Out, Damn Judge Judy!

I have an embarrassing confession to post: I may have fallen into a Judge Judy addiction. Help! Started maybe half a year ago when I, with ample time, decided to indulge in a nightly fix of this hooky TV courtroom show. Cases are real. But it's Judy whom I question. Her hot-button vocabulary is limited to maybe 5 or 10 derisive words: moron, idiot, imbecile, and so on. Her verdicts are in black and white. She claims to know who is telling the truth and who is not. Really, she is like a loud vindictive aunt ordering everyone around. "You are a liar!" "You are stupid! Do we understand each other?" "Sit down!" And maybe that's why we watch. We long for moral clarity. This feisty character, who spent years hearing cases in family...

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The Morning Midway: The Bright , Then Very Sad Life of Circus Man Charles Sparks

As I read through Bandwagon's coverage of circus owner Charles Sparks, reprinting, in its latest issue just out, many of the letters he wrote to colleagues, friends and fans over the years, I was reminded over and over again of how big top business can be, in fact, more often that not is, so wildly, depressingly fickle. It takes leathery resolve to stick out a series of seasons, and those men and women who succeed do not retire gracefully from the rings.Charles Sparks was, according to Pfening's take, loved and respected by many. Pfening begins his coverage by reprinting a story about the man written by Earl Chapin May in 1924 for Collier's magazine. Sparks addresses the old tent-show article of faith: "If you can't be for it, don't be...

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The Morning Midway: The Bandana Bowler Ruffles Up the Green ...

So very rare that so eccentric a figure, and so so young, should surface on the tranquil greens. But he did, and what a breeze of heady gossip among the older pros he must have stirred, Dame Dither! His hair swirled up like one of those softie ice cream cones, and around it, a festive bandana! As if, without a trace of being ill-at-ease among his lumbering seniors, he'd been one of them for centuries. Such an easy stride, so much like one of them. Have we here a Great Gatsby moment?How refreshingly eccentric in his own youthful way, unlike his more stodgy same-age peers who now and then grace the greens with ambling curiosity, and never return. But he has returned, a few times over, and what a spectacle, this attention being paid the game by...

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The Morning Midway: Monte Carlo Honors Big Top Stars ...

How fair are their judges? I always wondered how fair a panel of circus owners could be, and yet, come to think about it, how fair would any panel — performers, “critics,” or seasoned patrons — be? The Monte Carlo winners, such as I’ve followed them, rarely with consistent attention, have usually struck me as worthy. Sure, there is always human wiggle room for honest debate: Should Artist A have been awarded the Silver instead of the Gold, or vice versa? Overall, I’m not aware of glaring surprises that raise suspicions of advance fixes or payoffs. But then again, as I’ve said, I do not regularly follow this most prestigious of world circus competitions, nor do I see anywhere near all of the competing acts that appear to have any of my...

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Sunday Scramble: Cirque Marches On, World Domination the Goal... Texas Animal Lady Lands Behind Bars ...

UPDATE: I mistakenly reported animal trainer Barbara Hoffman as having been baned from Edinburgh, Scotland. In fact, she was baned from Edinburgh, Texas.Hungry for Power: In Cirque du Soleil speak, says Montreal CEO Danile Lamarre, “I can easily see Cirque developing two or three new shows a year. Right now, we have 20 shows. It doesn’t matter if we have 30 or 35 shows, 40 or 50 shows.” Oh, it doesn’t? Thinks Wayne Newton -- remember him, one of many Vegas mortals reduced to warm-up act status in the selfish shadows of the Cirque juggernaut, CDS has actually reached its saturation point and is now — hold onto your seats, voyeurs of catastrophe, “on the wane, no pun intended.” Others of the envious class agree, and they might be right — what...

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A Tale of Two Museums: Baraboo Revisited; New Visions Needed ...

Third in a Series: Discredited Baraboo Museum Places Circus Producing Above Artifacts PreservationWhen viewed from an aerial graph, the buildings and grounds of the Circus World Museum look uniformly arranged. To walk the same turf on foot is another matter. In the late spring of 2007, when last I visited, I found a run-down sprawl of random exhibits, wagons and buildings of all styles and shapes, giving off the musty mystique of both a long-forgotten circus rusting away in the sun and a Section Eight playground. An inglorious mishmash.Not inspiring. Was this were the show ended? Once upon a season, this was where the show began. Where the “World’s Greatest Shows” produced by the five Ringling brothers came each fall to rest and renew...

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The Morning Midway: Miss Minnie’s Wild Ride on Zing Zang Zoom

She called me, wanting to share her family’s thoughts, having just seen Ringling Bros. Circus down in Miami. The family would be Miss Minnie, second from right in the above photo with her husband, Brian, their 3-year-old son Noah, and Brian’s son and daughter by his first marriage, Taylor and Dwyer.“Miss Minnie” is actually my niece, Lisa, daughter of my proud sister, Kathy, of Omaha. Some of you who fly or flew the friendly skies might recognize Lisa. Nobody was a better flight attendant than she. A few years ago, Lisa retired to raise her very first and only child, Noah (an experience that has brought new-found joy into her life), while hubby Bryan pilots the mighty United birds; they live in Ft. Lauderdale.First of all, said Miss Minnie,...

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