New York: You’ve Got Circus! ... Steve and Ryan, You've Got My Au Revoir ...

Live in New York and still not circused out? Wait a few days, maybe only a few hours, and another troupe will come spangling into view. Beware of pachyderm poo. Look both ways when crossing Broadway; Thespians now share the street with jugglers. More circuses are on the way whether you like it or not. They are coming because, suddenly, the Big Apple is the Big Prize for big tops.

Guy Laliberte, King of Montreal, just won’t go away, even if (or maybe because) you have yet to show him the love he takes for granted in other cities. Reports in The New York Times are that Cirque du Soleil’s Wintuk at Madison Square Garden theatre over the holidays drew 20 percent less biz than the previous year. And whatever Ringling-Barnum managed to bring off at the Garden, Kenneth Feld is another you’re-not-done-with-me-yet producer. He’ll be back come June. Back at Coney Island under a tent. This is part of a big Bloomberg vision – something about the sawdust ring reviving a broken down seasize boardwalk that once drew millions, including me. Feld Entertainment "hopes" for a three- to five-year run. A circus saving a carnival? Anybody want to bet me a bag of Peterson peanuts?

Back to Mr. Guy. Our globally obsessed mogul just can’t get enough shows up to quench his thirst for ubiquity. Some insiders are wondering if he is not running the risk of overextending his hand. Doesn't matter. This man is burning up inside to make Metropolis a Second Home. Seems that his Dubai visions have stalled. Laliberte tried grabbing a hunk of real estate at Pier 40. Escrow was no go. “Dead,” he told the Times in a remarkable fit of candor. “So instead, you come in by the back door, or even a window.” So, homeless in Manhattan, Mr. Guy is settling for rentals (with that I can identify), to wit, his Grand Interim Plan:

February, 2010: CDS opens a vaudeville show at the Beacon Theatre, to be directed by David Shiner, with a book and score by pros, and slated to run more than a few weeks, assuming the public doesn’t run away.

2011: CDS tumblers and ticklers cavort at Radio City Music Hall over a four-month frame. Another ambitious “annual” outing. Half of each year will see the troupe touring Paris or London, if not Hugo.

Up there interviewing in the Laliberte latitudes, NYT reporter Glen Collins did learn from Cirque’s Genius-in-Chief that sinking biz in Vegas is “a scary crisis.”

Heck, with our two biggest big tops battling it out for Big Apple Bragging Rights, and what with all the lesser lights (Birdhouse Factory, Casual Cal, etc.) vying for a shred of the I'll-Take-Manhattan market, not to mention the well established Big Apple Circus (remember them?), maybe poor old Kelly-Miller can find a vacant clump of mud on a street corner and break some daily bread.

Speaking of which, going end ring here, (yeah, this one’s ending sooner than you might have expected, but you’ve still got popcorn and tea, I trust) ... Other morning on a walk, I was struck by an epiphany. I’d just got my daily Steve Copeland fix and it just struck me, I’ve been there done that a thousand times, and I get the dude’s drift, and so why do I keep returning to the blog? What kicked my hollow habit was Copeland’s rants. He’s a clown who just can’t resist critiquing audience reactions, mainly those that come at he and partner Ryan Combs. But when he ranted on about a convention of cellphone addicts coming between the crowds and the show, that did it for me. I had to leave the tent, and haven't been back since ... One more wonderment and then I’ll hang up this touchy issue for a while: Why would a circus allow one of its performer-bloggers to define (if not sully) any positive advance imagery they are endeavoring to cast? And why do they even allow customers to twitter and twat while the show goes on? I have my own Big Idea: Why not a blog from John Ringling North II? Why not a circus owner telling it like it is from his point of view? Now, would that get me up even earlier!

Where was I before getting twittered into a snit? Oh yes, Mr. Lalaiberte was, while chain smoking, granting the Times a glimpse of his burning ambition to take the Big Apple once and for all. I told Don Convington, who links me to a lot of these news breaks, how I envy him being in the middle of it all. Answering back, said Don, “we are living in interesting times."

[photo above: Artist's rendering of the Ringling Coney Island set up]

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Kenneth Feld’s Dubious Coney Gamble Could Dramatically Reverse Ringling History ...

Showbiz David Speculates

Kenneth Feld, finally, has found a tent in which he can feel at home. I am thinking the one on its way from Europe to America, to be pitched over Coney Island when Feld's smaller Gold Unit will appear during the summer at the sagging seaside resort.

Forget Kalaidoscape. As good as this Cirque du Soleil spin-off struck some as being, the man who for a moment wanted to go upscale and grab a part of the CDS market soon lost heart. Mr. Feld, I believe, simply realized how little patience or flair he has for such artfully crafted things, and how far better he is at the art of populist marketing. When recently, talking to a reporter, Feld described his operation, not without a touch of pride, as the Wall Mart of the circus world, I think the statement showed that he has come to terms with both the limitations and advantages of his native commercial instincts. He is a shrewd corporate animal, partly carved from his father’s example. Of late, he has demonstrated an interesting, if not always impressive, ability to shake things up as never he did before, and to tinker with a radical redesign of the Ringling performance format. Part of this is no doubt driven by the changing look of circuses world wide; part by shrinking crowds, arguably driven off by the constant PETA protests. Kenneth Feld's bolder moves may lead to novel excitement.

Now as for the Coney Island gig, I doubt this will work out long term. The location and time of the year strike me as wrong wrong wrong. Yes, Big Apple Circus does well each Holiday season, so perhaps Ringling can find a viable market across the hot summer months, assuming the tent is air-cooled. Somehow, I don’t see it happening. And New York may be saturated out, what with Ringling’s annual Madison Square Garden date preceded by the Big Apple and the Cirque Wintuk multi-month runs over the Holiday season. Come summer time, who is going to be in the mood to take in yet another circus?

What may happen, however, is an eventual move — are you ready? — for Big Bertha (remember her?) back to the big top.

Okay, stand up and cheer; or stay seated and jeer my naivete.

The American return to a single ring has posed problems for the producers who rent huge auditoriums. Pity the arena circus. As crowds thin out (and here I am assuming they are from what I have seen), these shows look lonelier than ever, what with so much space to fill and so little with which to fill it.

Feld’s first ringless circus, the oddball 2006 outing, was fairly pathetic, drawing valid negative notices from big city critics. But the producer listened to his patrons -- one of his reigning traits -- and continues to make audience-appealing changes.

Might Mr. Feld eventually decide that he will have to return to the tents in order to stay viable economically? I’m not sure. But I would not rule out such a dramatic reversal of Ringling circus history.

When John Ringling North, over fifty years ago, declared the tented circus as it then existed, to be “a thing of the past,” what weighted on Mr. North’s mind was being able to maintain the lavish three-ring format that he had elevated to such visual rapture. Under a hard top, he could afford what he could no longer afford under acres of costly canvas.

But that was then. Now, five decades later, we are down to one ring. Now, those huge arenas no longer seem as necessary or nearly as flattering, not when so few of the seats get taken.

Look beyond Coney to a possible new -- or older day -- for Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey.

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Friday Nite L’Amyx: An Obit Made in Feld Heaven? ... Kelly Miler’s Asphalt-Averse Flyers? ... Cirque’s Insects in Spandex ... By the Byrds Blessed ...

Where do we start after all this time away? Let’s salute Barbara Byrd’s routing inspirations. Last year she pitched the last American three ring tented circus in the city of my dubious birth, San Francisco, out there at the Cow Palace. Now Lady Byrd is bringing her new one-ring Carson and Barnes compact to another of my boyhood settings, fifty miles north in Santa Rosa.. At the fairgrounds come June, and maybe on sacred sawdust: the very spot, I hope, where Clyde Beatty threw up bannerlines when I was oh-so-young. What symmetry!

What is it about John Ringling North II’s lack of an advance sense that gives me pause? Take a look at Kelly-Miller's revamped blog and you’ll see a mishmash of photos both old and new, and a pull down window to check upcoming cities that turn out to be yesterday’s towns. From Steve Copeland’s breezy diary in blog form, seems this show feasts on muddy lots. And that’s the only place where you’ll see the flyers fly, for over asphalt they haven’t the rigging they need. The show can‘t plant stakes into cement, so instead of a flying return, customers get a flat trampoline workout. Now, is this anyway to run a circus that supposedly prides itself on offering a full-course program? I’d say it isn’t ... I’ve expressed high hopes for the return of the house of Ringling, but I am starting to feel like this one may be half empty. Pray for Milwaukee mud ...

UPDATE CLARIFICATION from Kelly-Miller's manager Jim Royal: "Our flying act, the Fernandes Family, can work on asphalt. It is when (perhaps twice a season) when we are on concrete and the owner of said concrete, won't allow us to drive stakes that we have problems." What can I say; evidently, I got the wrong impression from several references that Copeland has made to the issue.

Bad times for circus biz? Not so for Cirque du Soleil or Ringling-Barnum, both claiming to be doing just fine despite a depressionary climate. Cirque's Daniel Lamarre states "Crowds are still coming out to be entertained." As for the financial crisis, "it's certainly not hurting us." Over to Kenneth Feld, who told the Atlanta Business Journal, "it's the biggest year we've ever had." ... These entertainment giants are, to be sure, offering steeply discounted tickets here and there. ... And what to make of the three-month Ringling run under canvas at Coney Island? Says I, there is more to this than meets the midway, so I’m taking it to center ring a town or two up the road ...

Cirque Du Soleil insects, starring in the new OVO, can be seen in video snippets on Sawdust Nights. So perfectly skilled as disguised acrobats, and yet, in their insect spandex, somehow they look strangely sterile and so lifeless as to make it feel like Cirque is disappearing into an abstract void. I hope not, for I admire the show’s courage to take big artistic chances ...

Default to the Feld Press Kit, Continued ...About the unfortunate recent passing of Tim Holst, at only 61, I know little about the man, except that his Mormon background seems to have given him the humanity that was obviously loved by many on the Ringling payrolls. I only know he was an outstanding ringmaster, whose red hat I wished he had never turned in for a desk job. Now, about the obituary in The New York Times, why do I sense the omnipotent hand of the Felds at work pulling strings in the background? We learn through a direct quote attributed to William B. Hall III, who should if anybody know better, that Mr. Holst was the man who first recruited soviet bloc artists into the rings of Ringling. Pardon me for once again bringing out John Ringling North, who in prolific concert with one Trolle Rhodin, began importing acts in 1965. Those gave the show a massive jolt of fresh blood, and the critics from NY to LA were wowed, and the show did great at the box office. This strikes me as a ploy to add another fake feather to the Feld scrapbook of fictions ... Am I the only one who cares?

Touched by a little concern, a little praise: Some e-mailed me, wondering what was going on since I haven’t been posting for weeks. One visitor to this blog reminded me of how I felt when I likewise wrote a while back to the missing-in-action Sawdust Kid (aka Logan Jacot), asking him if he was okay. In fact, I am gratefully, humbly, even, truth be told, fearfully blessed with pill-free health; Got caught up digging out the first draft of a new book. This blog was and will always be a hobby, to which I must now and then practice not being a slave ... Oddly enough, the stats haven’t dropped much. Well, when you’ve got the loyal 7 visitors that I have, what a loyal seven they are, even when I ignore them!

And that’s a late Friday night wrap from the tea tent where Boyi and Will, showering me with friendly attention during an empty house, suddenly were bombarded with teaaholics and swung back into tea tender mode ... Which is a good thing, because the place doesn't stock Peterson Peanuts or Ringling designer snow cones ...

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And You Wonder, What Are They Thinking? ...

From the best -- or worst -- of Showbiz David
Originally published 12/07/07

Rumblings down at the runs, waiting on a circus train from nowhere... Once upon a season they were all in the barn by now -- red wagons in need of fresh red paint, ring curbs for new stars, jacks and stringers for repair ... Now the elephants wait for cues that may never come ... To be or not to be? To perform or not to perform?

Down at the runs, you wonder what Barbara Byrd is thinking. Strange how it should all come down to this -- from a man to a woman, from William Coup adding rings in 1872 to Barbara Byrd being the last to keep three of them in motion under the same canvas. Is she too thinking a single circle, or does she hear the ghost of her dad Dory telling her to stay the American course? ... Down in Florida, what is on Johnny Pugh’s mind? Time to retire? Or time to go for broke in a daring blaze, to reinvest and bring back the band?

A thousand miles down a spur track to a humble dream, a new circus is being formed in somebody’s ambitious mind, and maybe that circus has a crusty old midway to offer the jaded patron in search of the past ... Strange gaudy banner lines in flagrant violation of PC standards ...

... What might Paul Binder be thinking when he notes how long it’s been since he presented either a pachyderm or a flyer? Big Apple opens in the fall when circuses once closed, and closes come summer ... Once upon a season, the white tops slept during winter, awoke in time for early spring and were out in the sunshine chasing after the money that harvests put into farmer’s pockets....

Down by the old ice house where the train once arrived, you can almost hear the sound of a faint whistle up the rails and remember when they clanged into town under the cover of a damp morning mist. When the world was barely born and then suddenly appeared before your eyes under pennants galloping in the wind. And you wonder what Renee Storey is plotting when she considers how PETA gives her employer, Cole Bros. Circus, more publicity and might not be such a bad thing after all? What Kenneth Feld is thinking when he continues pitching the Big Cage act to customers who who evidently still want their circus on the wild side ...

And out in San Francisco, where patrons prefer Perrier over lemonade, ballet over big top, even the nuovo rich are growing restless for a taste of reality. They are taking in a very different version of Cirque du Soleil at the moment, a version called Kooza, and some of them are realizing what they have been missing for more than a season.

“This production feels like a heart-pumping cocaine binge for thrill addicts,” proclaims Nathaniel Eaton in the ultra-liberal S.F. Weekly, coming honest on how “ho hum” he found the three Cirque shows that came before.

Animals? Weren’t they supposed to all be gone by now, asks the Savvy Insider, elsewhere at work on routing and promotions, taking time out to answer his own question. No, says he, animals acts did not go away as planned. In Europe, they “have instead been reinvented” ... And you think how wonderfully ironic, that those uppity Brit Lords, sure of their agenda, paid for a study to prove that elephants are really mistreated at the circus —- a study they proved the very opposite! And down at the runs waiting for a train to pull in, you wonder what the public is thinking now...

Over road maps and sponsor contracts, watching videos of acrobats and jugglers and plotting another season, you wonder what John Ringling North II is thinking ...Bigger and better —- or the same?

Even more fun to ponder is what S.F. Cow Palace big shots, without a circus for two years, may be thinking? ... And you can almost hear a distant train whistle somewhere out there on real rails or in the back of your mind, racing forward with a world of spangled wonders to capture a waffling public restlessly ready to be thrilled by something either very new or very old ... And optimistically, you enjoy remember being told over and over again that history repeats itself ...

Down at the runs, Byrd and Pugh, Feld and Binder and Ringling North and Judkins, and yes, Laliberte the Great reinventing himself, are watching and waiting, too. Maybe wondering what we’re thinking ...

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$5 Big Show Garden Tickets ... 25% Cirque du Soleil Vegas Discounts ... The Year of Ringling? The Year of Cole? The Season is On!

Ringling is now in New York, feted with a welcome notice from the The New York Times, profiled in depth about its recent court appearances and high-profit margins despite the down times. This new edition I find intriguing, what with the big elephant escape act, more magic, and lots of other circusy stuff ... You can, if you’re lucky, grab a five dollar ticket with a special coupon, and, once inside, spend the money you saved on the sky-high concession prices. But good news! According to Big Show boss, Kenneth Feld, the concession charges are the same as last year. Oh, boy, I can still nab a designer snow cone for $12.00. Does this not demonstrate the redemptive power of popcorn and lemonade on even our mightiest midway? ... “We are the Wall Mart of the entertainment business, affordable to everyone,” states Mr. Feld. For everyone, I might add, who brings their own snow cone machine, thank you. ... He’s one shrewd operator, and I’m thinking this might be a good year for Big Bertha ... Even VIP fees for Cirque du Soleil in Vegas, according to the Times, “are, unthinkably, being discounted.” Indeed, the CDS website offers 25% discounts to Mystere, Ka, and Love.

Also, the season underway might be a fine year for John and Brigitte Pugh, whose ever-changing show title still includes the word “Cole.” They’ve revamped their website into a fresh buzz, and they're talking up their 125 year history with pride. And these two sawdust souls hardly look as if they have any intention of walking away soon. What’s best, they’ve got Columbia's Toprasta Troupe performing the 7-high pyramid walk on the high wire, along with a neat assortment of features from camels to cannons ... Pugh waxes high still on monitoring crowd reactions: “In addition to conducting formal surveys, John observes how people react to individual acts, and he listens to comments made by circus goers as they exit the tent following the show’s conclusion.” ...

Out of the past: Once there was an opening night for Barnum & Bailey’s revolutionary first three-ring opus, back at Madison Square Garden in 1881, and it was met with a mixture of awe, disorientation and a sense of inevitability. The Bandwagon’s Fred D. Pfennig III, in the current issue, reprints two reviews, one a virtual puff piece from the New York Clipper, the other a real review from the New York Dramatic News. Began the scribe, “At last Mr. Barnum’s name is attached to the greatest show on earth in reality as well as upon paper.” But this discriminating critic did not shy away from airing acute reservations, such as a broadside against talking joeys. “There was a long line of clowns stretched through Monday evening, and they were the best we ever saw, probably for a reason that we could not hear a solitary word that they said.” He tossed kudos to one of the jesters for having dressed up as a roustabout and “getting into the way of the others when they were spreading and taking up the carpets ... This is the first new thing in clowns that has been introduced since circuses were first invented.”

All things in time wear out and need rethinking. They witnessed it then, and we are witnessing it now. It’s a new season, and Carson & Barnes is headed for California in their new one-ring setup. Who knows what unexpected excitement may right now be coming our way.

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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]

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Three-Ring Speculator: Has Binder Cloned Himself? Is Feld Telling the Truth? Can Copeland Survive Coloring Book Duty?

Ring Number One: In the latest issue of Spectacle, there is a telling interview conducted by Ernest Albrecht with outgoing Big Apple Circus director Paul Binder and his protege in waiting, Guillaume Dufresnoy. Intentional or not, it produces a rather bland portrait of the new BAC top man. Dufresnoy, in fact, appears so determined not to bust the Binder book that I have to wonder if the power still resides with the founding ringmaster, whose exit never made sense to me. Mr. B. lends a clear impression that he is not going gently into any night. “I will be working directly with the board of directors on special projects and new projects.” Sure, Paul, and keeping your options open for a rescue return — just in case your protege buddie fails to follow your subliminal signals? Says Dufresnoy, temporizing away, “I am not here to create something else, to completely change everything ... But simply because I’m a different person, I’m going to do things slightly differently.” And should we stress “slightingly?” Sounds a tad timid to me, unless Dufresnoy has a hidden agenda to shake up the tent once his footing is firm. Binder’s comments make it sound as if he and Dufresnoy have held the power, not he and one Michael Christensen, curiously absent from this curious exit interview. It’s all about the nuances, and I’m starting to regard the new ringmaster-in-chief as only “slightly” more than a Binder clone. Of course, that could be all for the good. I mean, would you want a Circus Oz clone on the lot? Or a Hugo, Oklahoma clone? Keep it “slightly,” Mr. D.

Ring Number Three: Kenneth Feld’s concession in a court of law that investigations of animal abuse at his circus were not always reported to him left me — here comes that word again — devastated, as devastated as when I learned that John Ringling North II condones clowns pitching concessions. All along, in fantasy land again, whatever I thought about this Feld, who has a dark and devious side, I was convinced he had a firm handle on every detail about animal care. What an illusion! Or has this Feld fudged on the truth so that, if instances of actual abuse are brought to light, he can claim never having been apprised of such? Don’t ever forget that he and his late father Irvin are two of the most savvy media manipulators who ever hit the midway.

Center Ring: Here comes Kelly-Miller clown and blogger Steve Copleand with an arm full of coloring books to peddle during intermission, and a soul devoid of conviction. I have felt a tension over this intrusive issue rising from “not thrilled about" to Copeland's recent complaint, “I can't wait for Raul to get here and take over the stupid coloring books!" Now, as I’ve noted, this circus has a way of attracting tell-all bloggers. So far, Copeland gives us a pretty good account of business (night shows drawing more people than the early ones impress me -- good word of mouth, maybe?), but not one word so far about the other acts, about what he might think of them or how they are going over with the audience. Okay, here's my compromise on the Peterson Peanut front: why not rotate pitch duty among various performers? Why not one intermission the juggler? The next, the tiger man, and so on? Or do clowns not count on the same level as performers? Just wondering, if I might ...

Now, to put this all in petty perspective. Frankly, I’m not a Copeland groupie. I’m a Ringling North II groupie, and so I read on with interest, wondering what the clown-in-residence might say about the owner-in-residence, about any observations of or interactions with the top man. Were it not for a Ringling running Kelly Miller (in and out of the weeds through Texas) I’d likely not be following the adventures of Steve and Ryan, though they do put you right onto the lots. Just the same, I soldier on through the sink gags and the sore throats (with the latter I can identify, Steve), on good days and bad, for richer or poorer, for better or worse, with or without water.

[Photos, from the top: Paul Binder and Guillaume Defresnoy, Spectacle magazine photo by Maike Schulz; a photo from Ringling's Over The Top program magazine; Combs and Copeland, in Roma, Texas, from their blog]

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