Friday Flashes: John Ringling North II High on Season; Logan Jacot Frames Sideshow; Tim Tegge Offers Affordable DVDs; All on the Inside, Folks!

A bundle of good news for fans of good news. Happy producers to retro sideshows, to DVD offers that are down-to-earth affordable! ... What a grand night for singing ... Tune up your expectations and get out your cash or plastic. Something to tickle everyone this way comes ...

To Showbiz David from John Ringling North II, concerning my recent blogging about bloggers and weak Kelly-Miler Circus Texas biz, says the House of Ringling, yes, Jim Judkins did promote the dates, and, yes, fewer bodies showed up in the seats, and, also worth noting, "Even Jim Judkins couldn't control the unbelievable wet and cold weather," reports North II. However, playing away from storms in Mc Allen, "business was considerably up from last year." ... Most of all, JRN II is high on his 2010 opus: "Audience reaction has been extremely good for all the acts. It's certainly the strongest show we've had since Jim Royal and I joined Kelly Miller." Now, that's what we like to hear, a proud producer who cares. We need to know our tenting tycoons are happy, they are such a rare breed, without whom fragile operations would quickly fade away ... Sir Royal had earlier e-mailed me, "We included new towns, smaller ones, as one day stands. Two of them were excellent, the others disappointing. The problem with them, was a marketing one." ...

The Young Fascinate me: Well, I was young once, and given my age, I've seen many shows and showman come and go. A strange journey it's been, once looking up at big tall men, now looking sideways (not down, always with provisional respect) at younger kids on the lot. Logan Jacot is one of them, and he's framed a new sideshow for Circus Vera, and he's high on the spread of exhibits from old fashioned kink to his own P.T. Jacot discoveries, bones and oddities, et all. How I loved once wandering under waving white canvas tents, hot and grassy, ambling from one platform to the next in a ten-in-one, feeling a neat prelude to the bigger show soon to take the rings in the much bigger top. Loved the crusty atmosphere. Loved the consecutive grind of the features, never starting or stopping, one following after another ...

Jacot's talent lineup, premiering on April 17 in Washington Courthouse, Ohio, includes the bed of nails, and "the infamous blade box," and just hearing about that body slicing illusion from a young impresario makes it feel fresh again. Renews my appetite for the hype and the color and the earthy melodrama of it all! In total, customers are promised ten live acts, 40 attractions and side show history displays. Go, Logan, go! ...

And here comes the Santa Clause of DVD sales, nameed Tim Tegge. Stand up and cheer, everybody who would love to add to their collections at prices they can afford. Didn't know it was Tim when my e-mail box blossomed into a website advertising DVDS for only $19.995, shipping INCLUDED. Yes, you read it right. I mock ordered one, and the total price came up $19.95. I'm already ordering the Ringling-Barnum 1955 TV Christmas special, which I reviewed in my extreme youth in the old Circus Review. ... And, the 1968 Ringling TV highlights show; loved that edition; once I view, I'll tell you what I think. Here's the Tegge link, brought to your attention mainly because the price is so right:

www.circustimevideo.com

End Ringers: Tito Gaona has this Venice circus museum dream I just don't get. Something about preserving that distinctly NOT attractive practice arena that Art Concello built after the show went indoors. Tito's goal still hangs by a thread with another reluctant reprieve granted from a city council in no mood to preserve what never amounted to much. Now find me a Concello seat wagon in fixable order, Tito, and I'll share your dream ... Cole Bros. Circus getting a great review stressing its impact on the kids from intern Anna Brown, for the Star News in Wilmington, North Carolina. Out of a press kit? Probably at least up to New York Times standards ... Here's one for the books: Sarah Whitt of Tupelo, Miss, with thirty-year-old Ringling circus tickets she won but was then unable to use, showing up finally, merely wondering if maybe her two grandsons could use them. Jackpot! The show ushered the entire family into VIP seating for free. How sweet a story.