Sunday Morning with Showbiz David: A Tale of Two Circus Reviews

Continuing my periodic discussion on the value of criticism, today I will address the subject of how best to know if a “review” can be trusted. That is, if the writer has sincerely endeavored to offer an honest account of his or her reaction to a show.

Because very few circuses — as holds true for stage shows or films — are thoroughly perfect or thoroughly awful, we expect most notices to reflect both the good and the bad.

I am looking at a review published in The Brooklyn Paper of Cole Bros. Circus, and I believe it. It is very mixed, full of both praise and put downs, and I believe it. I do not believe it because I agree with anything in particular that the critic, Jared Foretek, says, for I have not seen the show. Nor do I believe that Foretek is necessarily right in every regard. But because he seems quite able to affirm and reject, I consider his opinions worthy of serious attention. In general, he was well entertained by the aerial acts and the animals, though not the camels, whose “synchronized” work he found “boring.” He termed the Toprasta's seven-high wire walk “incredible,” the wheel of death, “undoubtedly one of the best.” What he did not at all like were the clowns (“a drag’) and certain of the ground acts, calling them “Neanderthals of entertainment.” For example, Foretek was not impressed by a juggler manipulating bowling pins — “I’ve seen better on You Tube.” Now to me, the idea of a somebody juggling bowling pins amuses.

Overall, Foretek’s notice began by calling Cole Bros.“better than average,” and concluded on a warm note: “I must be a kid at heart, because when I left the Aviator sports complex, I had a smile on my face.”

Can a review be of any value? To circus owner John Pugh, who takes great pride in his show, it might. That is, if some of the criticism is in sync with feedback Pugh might be getting, or with his own perceptions. Indeed, he might be motivated to address areas of weakness, which will only lead, theoretically, to a better show and greater customer satisfaction. Surely, from the average circus fan, Pugh will get none of what The Brooklyn Paper has given him.

Newspapers tend to print real reviews such as the above (very rare these days) or general feature stories, usually published in advance of the show’s opening, in essence heralding circus day. There are a lot of these, especially in the smaller papers which virtually never send out reviewers.

Of late, there is a third very clever form, which the Felds may have had a hand in engineering, a form that vaguely lends the impression of being a review but upon closer examination bears the unmistakable marks of either a die-heard fan or a reporter flaking for a circus. This was what I found in a recent issue of The Denver Post, in a story headlined “Zing Zang Zoom Puts New Spark to Trad Circus Model”

Cruising the piece quickly, you may get the impression that the writer, John Wenzel, is endorsing the show. He extensively quotes Kenneth Feld, whose voice colors and directs the article’s affirmative tone. (In reply to an e-mail query I sent Mr. Wenzel, he confirmed that he interviewed the circus boss for the article.) I could not find one specific item in the show that Wenzel critiqued as a critic would, but I did find a couple of statements he made that arguably reveal a pro-Feld stance which permeates the entire piece. Exhibit A: “no other circus act comes close to the vibrance, scale and general appeal of a Ringling Bros. Show.” Notice how Wenzel uses words “of a Ringling show” and not “of Zing Zang Zoom.” He is not focusing in on Zing. He has, quite obviously, turned the story into an endorsement of the Ringling products. Exhibit B: In acknowledging the reach of Feld Entertainment, Wenzel makes a blatantly misleading claim that Kenneth Feld has had his hand in “numerous Broadway hits.” I checked the Broadway database. The Felds, indeed, invested in the hit musical Barnum during the late stages leading up to opening night, for the right, I believe, to pitch concession in the theatre lobby. Other Feld produced shows have had woefully short runs. Even Kenneth Feld’s critically acclaimed Fool Moon lasted but six months on Broadway. His other efforts trod the boards from seven days to four months. "Numerous Broadway hits" they were not.

Here is how the story opens: “Ferocious Bengal tigers and death defying acrobats. Disappearing Asian elephants [there was but one] and whirring blades of steel. Human cannonballs and clowns galore. Sounds like a good old fashioned circus, doesn’t it?’

This is neither a review nor a serious feature story. It is a veiled pitch for Feld Entertainment, plain and simple. In this instance, John Wenzel, whether he intended to or not, was turned into a part-time Ringling press agent. He would not be the first nor the last. Beware.

[photos: top image by Boyi Yuan; the Toprasta Troupe with Cole Bros.; Ringling Bros. Zing Zang Zoom clowns]

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Friday Flighty: One Drop at a Time, Will It Be the Moon or Cirque? ... Bello Stays Near Earth ... Forbes, Clueless -- or Calculating

Drop downs and Drop Ins: We are very much out there, and out there is, he would like you to know, Guy Laliberte of Cirque du Soleil, who from what I gather hoped to land major media attention for his spacey stunt designed to advance public awareness of the water issue. Our Guy may be wondering where all the cameras went. Oh, boy, of all days to be reading a poem he wrote to the world from Up There, he had to pick the Nassau day, when those spacey Moon-struck bureaucrats are again trying to prove that water flows on the Moon. They say they’ve now got the evidence, having just bombed it, but others are snickering at what did not appear on the visuals. As for that other man out there drop drop dropping good vibes, I wish he’d bring a few free drops back to his touring circuses, where once upon an earth free water was to be had during intermission. Must I go Up There for what I once enjoyed Down Here?

We are, still up there, but down here too, back at Lincoln Center in NY, where Bello Nock, the guy whom they keeping reminding us is, according to Time Magazine, “America’s best clown,” is going legit on a high high wire. America’s best proved his grit by completing a sky wire walk over Lincoln center, so studiously executed as to remind me of the similarly dull performance by his senior relatives, known as the “Nerveless Nocks” when John Ringling North brought them to America in 1954. I could not wait to see them in ‘55 — to witness those breathless “mid air exchanges,” which turned out to be about as graceful and intrepid as a rescue mission of stranded victims from sea to helicopter. Anyway, our cool Bello fellow is the real thing on a wire. Those stunts have never much dazzled me, for they are merely walk overs, without artistic programming and music, and a context ...

Wonder if this means that Bello will be working a wire or rope act in Big Apple’s new bash, soon to uncork in the Big big Apple. Ooops, it must have already uncorked, for I read all about it in Forbes Ten Best Circuses list. I am still awaiting word back from the Forbes group on just how they reached their cockeyed verdicts. Today, all you have to do is pitch your next-season intentions, and you might, without even opening, land a Forbes “Best” placement. Which makes me wonder why they failed to honor Franco Dragone’s new show, still still still in the planning stages. Dropping in on the subject, trouper Ben Trumble trumbles, "I'm afraid the magazine was looking for a quick puff piece and didn't dig much." Or maybe they dug just enough, Ben, to serve the mighty on yet another of America's many hidden Wall Streets.

End Ringers: Passing on to Up There, at 56, is Benny Williams. The obits failed to mention his time with Circus Vargas. For a few seasons, he and the elephant Anna May, responding it seemed to the terrifically torrid scoring of the live Vargas band at its red hot best, put on one of the most memorable one-elephant turns I’ve ever seen. A real heart-grabber ... Speaking of which, Zippos Circus animals have been allowed back into the English town of Haringey, the city council having reversed its aversion to such entertainment. Already, the anti-crowd is lining up to protest ...

After Bello made it to the other side, a bigger than life-sized balloon of his trademark persona inflated upwards. Nice theatrical ending, which the walk needed. This sober demonstration came with none of the whimsical antics that have made our funny guy liked and adored by the moppet market ...

Okay, so not much is happening up there in space. Don’t blame me! So let's stay Down Here. I’ll have another drop of tea, please ...

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Memo to Leno: How to Sharpen & Save Your New Show

Dear Jay:

I really want you to succeed, for two or three reasons. I love being able to watch a late night show early night. You’re a nice guy. Your opening monologue usually lands a few big zingers. And some of your other stuff (the frenetic google search bit) is very amusing, even refreshing.

Since I read today that your ratings on Thursday night last sunk to a new low (something around a 1.5, whatever that means), in a fit of charitable selfless intervention, I am sending you this list, pro bono, of the things you need to do to save your new program, the sooner the better, and spare me reverting back to our local daily Bay Area body count (aka: the 10 o'clock News):

1. Move OUT of that sprawling and flashy mall walk through of a set. At times, you look like a rejected spouse cruising a pricey boulevard for supplementary late night relief. Find yourself a smaller apartment, cozier and less flashy. Get yourself just one comfy chair, preferably a rocker or one with desk. And settle in. I don't tune in for the neon, stupid. I tune in for the talent. And that includes yours.

2. End once and for all that pandering hand-shaking opening when the audience (or audience extras) crowd around you like a flock of stricken pop star groupies. This odious ritual is gratuitously time consuming and it makes you look like one needy guy. Are you that insecure, or that determined to prove what a universally loved icon you are? We get it, icon! We really do. I don't want crowd supplication. I want solo star delivery. And I want it now.

Go right into your monologue. Are you getting my drift?

3. Okay, one more big -- or little -- thing, before another: What’s this rather lame ongoing gag between you and Kevin alluding to a secret love? Calculated pandering to a gay demographic? Problem is, the strained schtick just isn’t very funny. Don’t Ask Don’t Tell falls flat on your show.

Now, as for the material. Some of it (like that Wendy’s girl) clicks. Some doesn’t. I found the twittering orientation at the senior center delightfully inventive, though uneven. The kids toppling into the talking photo booth kept me giggling.

Sharpen and shape. Cut the chaff and go straight for the laugh. Focus and fight, guy. Now go do it!

Showbiz David / provisional twitterless 10 p.m. follower

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MIDWAY FLASH ... MIDWAY FLASH ... latitude laliberte ... latitude laliberte ... cirque du launch ... cirque du launch ...

second umbilical will retract just moments from now. there it goes. main entrance start. we have main entrance start. engines at maximum thrust. lift off. lift off of the Soyuz rocket as jeff williams, max aray and guy laliberte begin their journey to the international space station ...

good pitch program according to flight controllers. heading for a linkup with the international space station two days from now. good first stage performance being reported. the Soyuz delivering one hundred and two tons of thrust from its four boosters and its single engine. first stage measuring sixty eight feet in length, twenty four feet in diameter.

is normal. and everything is nominal on board the soyuz. pitch and roll reported to be nominal by russian flight controllers. one minute ten seconds into the flight. the velocity now eleven hundred miles per hour. passing through maximum dynamic pressure. so we can see you quite well. excellent. about twenty seconds to go until the jettison of the four strap on boosters. all systems reported to be in excellent shape.

one one zero. one two zero. we have separation. two minutes seven seconds into the flight. we have the jettison of the four strap on boosters. the soyuz now traveling thirty three hundred fifty miles an hour. and now it's comfortable. now evident as the boosters fall away. about thirty seconds from now, we should be hearing the confirmation of the escape tower and launch route jettison.

coming up on the three minute mark, into the flight, the soyuz traveling at a speed of forty seven hundred miles an hour ...

now a view of space flight participant guy laliberte in the right seat of the soyuz vehicle. soyuz performing nominal, three minutes fifteen seconds into the flight ...

we can see you are showing us thumbs up. as far as we can judge, it means you are feeling good. he just said, "super." guy said, he's very happy.

the crew reporting back that it is in excellent spirits heading uphill, three minutes fifty seconds into the flight ..

...

the second stage fifty six feet in length, thirteen and a half feet in diameter ... a single engine providing ninety six tons of thrust.

...

...

launch occurred at two fourteen and forty two seconds a.m. central time.

second stage separation. the four liquid fuel engines have fulfilled their role for today, now dropping away.

...

...

...

all of the soyuz systems performing perfectly, five and a half minutes into the flight.

i can see william, and we can see the lion.



... the soyuz now traveling at about ten thousand five hundred miles an hour .

.. ... ............ .... *** ***


* *

we're sharing our impressions ...

almost thirteen thousand miles an hour ... ^ ^ ^

^ *

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Sunday Scramble Showdown: Saints to Shysters Converge on Midways of Life ...

Oh, where to begin, it is so so hot here in Oakland, almost as hot as a James Hargrove phone room ... Almost as hot as Lillian Leitzel (above) thrilling a packed tent on an Iowa afternoon. Almost as hot as all the New York press paper alluding to a mementos Big Apple Circus artistic power transfer that already happened.. Don’t believe the latter. BAC is moving thru a long and slow, more tepid than hot transition, with founding Messrs. Paul Binder and Michael Christensen monitoring the process every step of the way. You thought the French guy (Guillaume Dufresnoy) was now, finally, at last, officially -- in charge? Wait another season or two. He’s in there, with other eyes upon him. Next year might be his first real year, or maybe the next. Or? ... The new opus starring the returning Bello Nock, about to uncork, is being guest directed by Steve Smith, who also staged last year's show. From BAC company manger Don Covington, came these precise clarifications. “As far as I know, e-mails Don, "Guillaume still plans to hire a guest director for show 33." End of quote. But, but, seems that Paul and Michael will serve as "creative consultants." As for Show 34, stay tuned for further glacially slow details. Me thinks Binder, wanting to preserve what he honorably established, is handing the reigns over later than sooner, wanting to be as sure as he can. I’m thinking that Binder's chosen protege will indeed preserve the Binder legacy, as Binder preserved Old Europe. Not hot, but solid warm. Perfect for Grandma’s arthritis ....

As hot as a phone room run by Jim Fletcher, outed in the current issue of that sizzling tell all organ, The Bandwagon. Among his many boiler room shenanigans concocted to plant the fear of police rejection into the hearts of Main Street merchants, Fletcher would play a sound track of dogs barking while he dialed for bogus donations. To the victim, sighed he, “Oh, they are putting another one down. You’ve got to help these animals!” Hot hot hot were the coerced dollars our Fletcher fleecer extracted ... Another Ma Bell shyster posing as Grandma Charity was one M. E. Van Dorstan, who made known to those unresponsive merchants on Fleece Street that a check mark would appear next to their name on a big list, because, only because, well (clearing his throat, no doubt, as Barrymore might have), “The club members wanted a list of everybody who said no.” And guess what THEN happened? Up went the heat. Out came the billfold. Jez, I recall as a kid reading The Billboard and wondering, ad after ad, what “phone man” meant. Working press for Sid Kellner, I soon learned.

Let’s turn down the heat a little and, do, what? Bring out Ms. Leitzel the great. Did you know she was a very accomplished piano player, who also had the smarts to realize she would likely not make it on the concert stage, so she stayed in spangles and threw her fate to the Ringling gods and to their 15,000 seat big tops. Did you know she too feared that which she was paid to do? Here’s Ms. L, being interviewed for a story only hours before she took her fatal fall in Copenhagen, that caused by a rigging malfunction. “You have to continue your act and fight the trick that has teased you until you can master it. It is the only way to fight fear ... I can wake up in the middle of the night sacred to death by the thought of not being able to remember how to do a specific trick. But during the act it comes naturally.” Among Ms. Lillian's close Hollywood friends was silent film comic Harold Lloyd. How I would love to have interviewed this infinitely interesting woman!

Mutual Admiration, belatedly reported here in a hot tea tent: John Ringling North II inking clowns Steve Copeland and Ryan Combs for another season with Kelly-Miller Circus. To me, it flatters both producer and performers. Those two guys put up with a lot of mud to bring their talents to audiences, and they must like the man for whom they labor with such dedication. As for North, heading into his senior year as a tenting tycoon, he shows himself as a showman wishing to take a higher road. I won’t detail the lower roads. I’ve already elsewhere on this midway said my mind ... On the other Ringling hand, reading Crash Moreau's 2009 circus visits (there's a link to his blog, over to your right), in which the Shrine Circus shows come out wearing kudos, as does Cole. Bros. Circus of Stars ("probably the best [Cole] performance in years.") and BAC, not so Kelly-Miller. While Crash utters not a negative word, he says virtually nothing about the K-M performance itself, only listing names of the acts and spending his praise on the exemplary physical operation. Which, to me, sounded like somebody singing the scenery on his way out of the theatre. Hmmm. no, no, David. Don’t go there. Whiplash city. Oh it got so hot in here again. All of a sudden. Cooling off on Zeus iced, courtesy of Boyi. I must take my break before it breaks me ...

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From Homemade Shrine Buffoons to Cheapskate Big Tops, American Clowning Stumbles to New Lows

It was never a charmed path, not for most of those who donned greasepaint, eager to make people laugh under big tops big and small. Many in years gone by were acrobats and horse riders before retiring to take up clowning as a second career. And not on a summer lark. There above are some iconic greats on the Ringling show in 1955. Most of them stayed in makeup for their entire lives, building up household images and taking comfort in painting smiles on children of all ages.

Not so anymore.

Lately, the situation seems particularly bleak, what with some shows treating comedy as if all you need are some red noses and a few pratfalls, and anybody can do that, right? Or worse still, what with the "clowning" on too many Shrine dates being handled by the Shriners themselves, who have helped decimate circus art and drive it to new lows. Shame on you, Shriners! And shame on your enabling producers who refuse to uphold even the most basic artistic standards!

There was a time and a place when a Shriner did not pass himself off as a working joey. He would not dare on the Polack show in the 1950s. Even a time, perhaps, when the circus producer he hired would not have tolerated such selfishly indulgent amateurism. Nearly a quarter of one audience exiting a Shrine circus in 2000, surveyed on the "poorest features" of the show, included Shrine clowns. Brazenly they flop on and flop out. One Shrine temple had not a single Shrine clown act on its 2000 program. By 2007, it had two.

Irvin Feld’s attention-grabbing Clown College, conceived in spin to fill an alleged void, feels to me like a sad distant memory, a sort of make-believe oasis that never really existed because it did not, like other schools, keep its doors open permanently. This will be hard for many to accept. Even Paul Binder, who admires the school, may resist a truth inherent in the Feld operation. It was first and foremost born of ballyhoo, ego and imagery. Would you say the same of Yale or Oxford, Florida State or Texas Tech? — or that humble little community college up the road from where you live? When last I checked, none of these institutions had closed its doors. Real schools tend not to.

Feld may have had his heart in the right place at first, but this consummate master of circus press agentry immediately turned his academy into both a publicity mill and a means for replacing the older clown alley he had inherited when he purchased Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey in 1967. Dismissing most of the old-guard clowns with ageist ingratitude, Feld set out to restock the alley with young energetic pretty faces (stress pretty) who were designed and directed not to be (theoretically) scary.

There is a sad dichotomy within the Feld fun factories. The circus got and still sometimes gets what it needs in the youngsters it hires to perform its sometimes very clever production gags. So the circus treats “clowns” like dime-a-dozen Forty Second Street hoofers. Which is why, I suppose, I have usually been more impressed with the work of some of the show's producing clowns than with the eager young recruits hired to take their direction. Reviewing my notes after taking in past Ringling performances, I am impressed at how much of the original comedy delivered ample amusement.

Indeed, this resourceful circus is a producing machine with or without a subsidiary training wing. Think the inventive duo of Kelly-Miller Circus cut-ups Steve Copeland and Ryan Combs (above), who came off the Ringling show but not through the college, which ceased operations in 1998. Now here is a theoretical question: Had they attended the college, might they have been as good, not as good or better than they turned out? Talent tends to find a way.

Ironically, some of the best clowning produced under the Felds may have come out during the last ten years. And I'm not talking audience participation bore David Larible or cute, charming, all around performer Bello Nock, hardly a memorable laugh maker. For example, in 2000, the mirth makers stole the show working three big gags, one involving a TV riddled with bad reception; another, a robotic cow; and the third, two huge inner tubes.

Beyond a few names like Bary Lubin (Grandma) and Bill Irwin (the latter, a CC graduate whom the Felds did not hire but who then established his brilliance with another great Pickle Family Circus clown, Geoff Hoyle -- aka: Mr. Sniff), what became of all the others? Approximately 1,200 students attended the school. Where are they today? Not with most of the shows I see. Not even, I suspect, with the very circus that nurtured their young dreams. Among the alumni, Greg DeSanto, who clowned on the big show for ten years and spent five winters directing Feld's funsters, proudly estimates that up to one hundred graduates are still working in circuses today. I strain to imagine where all of these one hundred are. Mark Gindick, a Big Apple Circus asset last season, made it through the college. Usually, the clowns I see are from Mexico and Russia and other foreign ports.

Many of the matriculating mischief makers who landed Ringling contracts soon fell out of love with the novelty of trouping and/or the insultingly low wages they received. Some quit mid-season their first year out. No matter, Clown College kept turning out more bodies.

Why did it close? Not for lack of funding. The circus that ran it is today filthy rich. No, I suspect that Kenneth Feld tired of the whole thing and realized he does not need a "college" to attract and audition prospective talent. Which does not exactly honor his father's artistic argument. Let’s not kid ourselves, kids. Irvin Feld’s grandiose vision was never about building up a strong and enduring Ringling clown alley. It was about cheap bodies to fill the floppy shoes and free publicity to sell tickets. It was about a circus with little patience for character, really wishing to white wash clown alley and serve Feld's arching aesthetic: Young and beautiful. . Maybe that is why I feel a deep sadness. Behind a noble idea lurked a cynical game plan whose legacy, I believe, is weak.

The artistic ironies that dominate our big top scene are not flattering: This last summer, at Zing Zang Zoom I watched the most unfunny group of silly make-do clowns I think I have ever seen on a Ringling program. Yet, at another Feld unit, Boom A Ring, I rejoiced in the comedic genius of three glib entertainers from foreign shores, two of whom, Russians Vasily Trifonov and Stanislav Knyazkov, are seen here in this picture.

Clown College taught students at four campuses: in Venice, Florida; at the Circus World Museum in Baraboo, at the Opera House in Sarasota, and in Japan. Ringling’s website claims that its legacy lives on through the materials it provides to various schools around the world and to the training the circus itself offers the new recruits who sign on to tour with one of Ringling’s three units. Certainly, some of the comedy still seen on the show is better than average for an American circus. I still see very good production gags now and then, but rarely does a particular face stand out.

Once upon a time, many of the greatest ring buffoons, like Otto Griegling, worked well into their twilight years. That was before Irvin Feld came along to replace an aging group of pros with his exuberantly cheerful young acro-clowns. They still come and go. Some will amuse us. A few may hang around to endure all of the hardships and the low pay. Most will vanish quickly back of a heartless big top.

Ten years following the demise of Clown College, at a reunion held in 2008, 170 grads showed up. I wonder what they felt deep down in their hearts? Some would no doubt tell you what a thrill it was to be taught by Lou Jacobs. Others may share fond memories of life in and around the sawdust rings. That was yesterday, and yesterday is now history. Cry, Clown College, cry.

[photos, from the top: Ringling-Barnum stove gag, 1955, produced by the late Paul Jung, who had been with the show since 1917; Yaarab Shrine Circus and Carnival clowns, 2009; Irvin Feld addresses a new Clown College class, circa 1972; Steve Copeland and Ryan Combs on Kelly-Miller Circus, photo by David Miller/Loveland Magazine; Vasily Trifonov and Stanislav Knyazkov, with Boom A Ring, 2009; Otto Griebling with Ringling-Barnum, circa 1969]

9/23/09

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Sunday Scrambler: Cirque Tackles Vaudeville, NY Firemen Carwash an Elephant in Protest ...

New Yorkers getting blitzed by circuses up and down and all around the Big Town: Cirque du Soleil still determined to grab Gotham winter summer spring and fall. Cometh next, Montreal's entry into stage show stuff. They’re calling it Banana Shpeel: A New Twist on Vaudeville, and its hitting the Beacon Theatre next Feb. 11 after a break-in try in Chicago. David Shiner (of Kooza) directing. Cast of 33. Says Cirque big gun Daniel Lamarre, “It is, as the title says, a vaudeville show with a twist.” But don’t count on Gypsy Rose Lee redox. This one’s “a family show with a simple and compact narrative,” and they’re not talking Mae West East South or North. ... Cirque is also mounting, come 2011, an annual 4-month summer splash on the Radio City Music Hall stage. Acrobodies around the world: Start your warm ups!

Speaking of which, here’s cliff taunting acrobat Eskil Ronningsbakken (is that really a name?) doing arm stands on a rig perched over the edge of cliffs. He sees redemptive art, and feels “honored to be an extension of God’s beautiful nature.” The self-described “educated balancing performer” will be appearing at a cliff near you, if you live in greater Europe ... Brings to mind Beethoven light -- that's when orchestras play while acrobats fly high through anchored musicians ...

Not nice for plastering posters on telephone booths and road signs is the Great British Circus. Culture police also on edge over a video showing one of its elephants being hit by a groom ... There was a time in big top history, some of you might know, when there were not yet pachyderms prancing around rings ... Back to New York, sort of, where James A. Bailey's old home at 19 St. Nicholas Place sold for a cool $1.4 million, considered a bargain. Built in 1886, five years after Bailey and Barnum put out the very first three-ring circus, this palace should, I hereby feebly command, be turned into a NY circus museum. Hey, Big Apple folks: do you see what's been going on under your big toppy hats for many years? ...

New York Forever, cont'd: None of the populace too thrilled with firemen taking circus breaks, and against their professional will, to hose down a Ringling Bros. elephant, cleverly hatched for free press coverage, plenty of which it landed. Firemen first refused, and the circus kept moving up the chain of command, finally getting New York city officials to okay the brazen stunt, forcing the men who man red trucks to demean their stations in life which might have been critically needed ... PETA deliriously in there throwing more fire on the heat ... Cliff Vargas once sent a behemoth through the spray line and landed big publicity and nearly overnight discovered a road out of the phone rooms ... Just thought I'd mention that ...

Cooking up a storm of support for Circus World Museum: In Baraboo, chefs in combat to prove their kitchen charisma, and they raised a boffo $149.000. ... 30 eateries entered the tasty and tastifiic tournament. Silver Tray Awards handed out to the top stove stars, whomever they were ...

Artful Images: Princess Stephanie of Monaco hosting a circus photo contest for the young, it's lofty purpose to show “circus as part of our shared culture.” I love Stephanie for taking her father's torch with such dignity and devotion ... Back in biz is Circus Juventas, re-approved to give performances, its precarious sets apparently brought back up to code.

America’s Got Circus, so why not that as a TV show? This country from sea to polluted sea teems with young talent and old talent hungry for exposure, legit or non. So let ‘em all come on and do their thing. And maybe they’ll get more respect than they do on the other "Got Talent" show. Am I running dry here? Okay, tea tent's down, thank you Don Covington ... Try Starbucks across the midway ... And, oh, yes, Krisnamurti channelling in sends minimal regards to all non-non-non believers ...

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