#9 - More Circus! - June 10, 2012

Sunday itself was pretty packed - but I'll finish Saturday first. 

We rested a bit after the record-breaking, and just after 3, I left to buy slightly-in-advance tickets to the Cole Brothers Circus.  It bills itself as the world's largest circus under the big top.  I have no way to tell how accurate that is. 

I got to the location and went up to the ticket booth.  The woman behind the counter had some crazy eye makeup and an Eastern European accent.  "Why not?" I thought.  "The circus takes all types."  So I put the tickets in my pocket and walked back to Gortja.  I had the Kindle and read for a while.  The rest of the family came a little later, and we walked into the Big Top.  The first thing we all noticed was written in the grimace on Aria's face: the smell of animals is strong here.

Indeed, walking into the Big Top was like taking a trip into a time machine.  There was a pony ride going on in the middle, sawdust in the middle of the ring.  The bleachers were hastily constructed, with metal folding chairs that had red cushions set on them. 

Bright lights, guys walking around with bags of popcorn and cotton candy balanced on their heads.  A balding, older announcer who only spoke in rhymes using words like "amazing" and "incredible" about every single act as they left the stage. 

The entire experience was surreal - the metal cage you see suspended from the ceiling came down for the first acrobatic act, which featured a guy and his female partner running inside the cages as they spun.  Then he got out of the cage as it was spinning, and ran around it, and then he jumped rope on it.  We saw him nearly fall half a dozen times from 30 feet up.  Someday he's going to get seriously hurt.  I would also say that the term death-defying is not hyperbole in this case.

There were 10 tigers in a cage (insert comments about the questionable morality of caging tigers here) and they did a few tricks.  Disappointing, actually - not a good value for the money and not nice to the tigers.  There was a baby elephant that danced, and a cute poodle act, some gymnasts from Romania (and I think the guy said they were former Olympians).  There was a metal cage for 3 motor cycle riders to ride at the same time, a magic act, and then intermission.  At intermission, Christian cried he wanted to go home so badly, he was so bored.  Libby hid on the floor she was so bored.  Jakers said he was bored, but then he was watching the whole time, too.  Aria and Katrina and I were fascinated: those women are swinging by their hair!  The clowns were not fun to watch (see tigers above), and the show after intermission was just a rehash of the first hour.  Except for the finale: the human cannonball.  You see that streak of red and white coming out of the cannon?  That's the same guy that runs on the outside of the squirrel cage.  (see the last picture)

Here's a bunch of pictures - the experience was something I'll never forget.  It was completely something from early in the 20th century.  No technology newer than recorded music played over a speaker, with the exception of the use of a lot of spandex and polyester.  It was not a modern take on retro.  This whole show is positively a time machine into the 1930s. 

Sunday, to sum up, was: church, choir, me prepping for a work presentation and then delivering it, eating something, doing laundry, and going to sleep.  Uneventful.

Here are some selected pics from Saturday: