ohbloodyhell8

We went to the circus the other evening.  The Cole Bros. Circus under the big top was a wonderful, old school circus.  Amazing acts-the aerialists in particular-and the whole presentation was traditional.  This is their 137^th season, impressive record in my book.   They still use the old tricks of diverting your attention with the clowns while they strike the one act and set up the next one.

They did a fantastic job of blending tradition with today.  The aerialists came out dressed in pirate costumes marching to the theme from Pirates of the Caribbean.  Imagine half a dozen “Jack Sparrows” holding the ropes for the trapeze artists.  The one was using the silks (or whatever they are called, I’m not wonderfully schooled in circus lingo) and the long white pieces of fabric looked like the sails on the mast.  Another was using a net and creating images of the sea.  The dozen or so worked together to create this flowing ship using nothing but fabric, netting, trapezes, and physical agility the likes of which I’ll never possess.  It was awesome.

The motorcyclists (including a 12 year girl!) braved all three of them in that metal ball thing and they kept going around and around.  Then amazingly, the ball separated and the girl was on the bottom with her father (?) and brother (?) in the top half, several feet of space between them.  My jaw hung open the entire time.   I always wonder, when and how do they discover they can do that stunt?

The clowns were good old fashioned clowns.  The cops chasing the clowns in the black and white striped clothes, the lady clown clearly using balloons for her endowments, the car separating, or clowns chasing a balloon while going topsy-turvy on one of those giant trapeze type devices. 

To go with the clowns, they had the pink poodles in the car and they did their dances shortly after the camel and horses did their dances.  The tigers were beautiful and did classic routines with just enough Vegas to keep it up to date.  The elephants were still as graceful and gentle as I remembered them from my childhood.  The three grey beauties did their routine and linked trunk to tail after each trick.

All of this was guided smoothly by the ringmaster in his red coat for the first act and his white coat for the second.  The popcorn smell that filled the air was delectable.  The light-up swords and glow-jewelry lit up the darkness of the giant tent like very active and very large fireflies.  The cotton candy was the BEST I had in years…the flavor was so delicious!

As the lights came up, and the circus hands started packing things away till tomorrow’s show, all I could wonder was am I too old to run away and join the circus?  I think if my sons asked if they could, I might say yes.