Ringling Brothers & Barnum & Bailey Does It Again

Guess what we did . . .

We went to the Ringling Brothers & Barnum & Bailey Circus
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Patti was taking The Cool Yule to the circus for her first time ever and they invited us along! This year marks the 138th year for the Ringling Bros. RB&B&B has their own clown school, so you know these are the best of the best & I'm not clowning around. (for you, fraser) Two of the clowns are from Hungary, one is from Peru and the other is "a devout Baptist" from Atlanta, GA. Oh-kayy.

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Like most little kids, Eva was afraid of the clowns so Grampsy had to be in the clown photos and get their autographs on Eva's program. (Grampsy's the one in the checkered clown suit)

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Eva was mesmerized the entire evening. She was pretty serious about the whole thing & loved it. Patti, obviously, was pretty excited about it, too.

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Chuck Wagner, who played Beast in Broadway's Beauty & the Beast, did an outstanding job as the Ringmaster. I knew he looked familiar - he played on General Hospital in 1980 - 82. He has that deep ringmaster voice and commanding presence.

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The Bengal Tigers reminded me of the circus back in my day. Every circus needs a tiger act. A veterinary technician travels with the circus at all times and a local vet is on-call 24 hours in each city they visit. You know what's cool -- they have retirement programs for these animals. I never thought about that. They retire into lives that will continue to stimulate them so they don't get bored after all that circus fun. Some retire to zoos, others go to their retirement parks in Florida.

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I wonder if. . . at the Polk County, FL, elephant retirement park . . . of course they retire to FL, doesn't everybody. . . but I wonder... do you think they sit around like this? Like maybe saying, "Hey, Sal, wanna play some Bocci?" "Not today, Gracie, my hip's killing me."

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Now this was something new to the circus since I was a kid. Meet the Torres Family. This family of eight (cousins & siblings) from South America ride motorcycles at high speeds, often only 4 inches apart, inside a 16 foot steel sphere.

"Blowing a whistle and revving their engines as prompts to one another, each rider embarks upon a set pattern, or path of trajectory, around the interior surface of the globe. Once the riders are in motion, maintaining constant speeds (which can reach up to 65 miles per hour) is critical. Still, when they are inside the globe they are 'completely focused on where everyone else is' and are making constant, minute adjustments."
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Some of them have cameras on their helmets, so we get to "see what they see" on a big screen above them. All I saw was a bunch of swirling colors. I don't know how they can possibly do what they do. It is amazing.

Proving once again, this is The Greatest Show on Earth.