The last time Mandi went to
the circus was when she was a small child, and although I have always wanted
to, I have never been before at all. We decided to take advantage of those
discount tickets you always see in newsagents (usually put there as ‘payment’
for displaying a poster) and visit Uncle Sam’s Great American Circus this time
around. The two of us have seen the arrival of the tent every year and never
thought to go.
Because I was so excited I was
worried that I might have bigged it up in my mind far too much, and that I
would hate the fact that I had been so badly let down by a form of
entertainment that I have always been fascinated in. The nearest that I have
ever come to a circus is the Christmas Day afternoon showings that used to be
on television when I was a child (and still should be to be honest). The
tickets were only ten pounds each with the discount vouchers so this afternoon
we popped along to buy ours.
The circus life isn’t too far
removed from fairground life (in my imagination at least), which is a lifestyle
I have often envied. I can’t imagine anything better than travelling from town
to town bringing joy to everyone, performing twice a day to different people,
every day being a little bit the same and a little bit different, and judging
by the fact that the box office didn’t accept credit cards, I imagine you can
get away with paying very little tax. Paperwork can’t be very high on the
agenda with this life, so I can only assume (without alleging) that they do go
by the traditional self-employed method of keeping two separate sets of
accounts.
I spent the whole show in a
state of childlike wonderment at the bravery/stupidity of the acts; I’ve always
thought that people overdid the ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ until now. The first
performance was a couple of people spinning round on two cylinders on a pole,
as high as the tent itself. As I don’t know the name of the act I have
improvised by drawing a picture.
Okay so I’m not an artist and
as such I doubt that this picture really does it justice, but the people in
there seemingly had no concept of danger. After doing a bit of skipping and
juggling, they got out and on climbed on top of the cylinders and jumped around
as if it was the most normal thing in the world. There was also a trapeze, a
cowboy style act with whips and lassos, a balancing act dressed as Spiderman
and Captain America (something for the kids), two women climbing up curtains
and suspending themselves (none of the acts were using nets), and for a grand
finale two motor bikers rode around a domed wall of death with someone standing
in the middle.
My only criticism was that
there was only one clown and he didn’t really do a lot besides act as filler
while different apparatus was being moved around the stage. He was popular
enough but I wanted a troop of clowns running around chucking pies, driving a
car and the doors falling off, someone’s trousers falling down, and perhaps
that traditional bit of comedy business with the plank of wood that has been
done a million times and more since the invention of slapstick comedy.
Clowns have always fascinated me,
and I have always wanted to learn more about them as performers (and I guess
the earliest examples of comedians) but they seem to live in such an enclosed
world that isn’t open to outsiders, again a lot like the travelling fairground
operators. I know a lot of people suffer from coulrophobia (fear of clowns) but
not me; I want to be one and live with a travelling circus.
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