Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls...

...Children of All Ages! Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey proudly bring to you The Greatest Show on Earth!

I had the great pleasure of going to the Verizon Center yesterday and see the circus that had come to town. My recurring impression of it every time I think about it is that is was just so...pleasant. I mean, I really, really enjoyed myself. I know that a lot of it was corny and a sort of scripted sentimentality, but I have to admit I fell for it. It may have had something to do with the fact that I hadn't been to a circus in a long, long time. A quick rundown of what they had to offer:

Chinese Acrobats

I learned a long time ago that there's no point in clapping for Chinese Acrobats. They came to perform at NSU several years ago and put on a show. Here's how I remember it:

They do something incredible, so you clap. Then they do something even more incredible, so you clap harder. Then they do something that beats that by a mile and a half so you clap as hard as you can. They they do something better than that and you stand up and clap and cheer. Next time you go absolutely nuts. Then they do ten more things, each one more amazing than the next. So where do you from there as an audience member? It's a dilemma, I tell you. They got on each other's backs and flung hats around. They jumped from swings onto ropes and through cages and went all over the place. They flipped each other and tumbled and built human ladders. All the stuff you'd expect. "Don't they fall?" No. Of course not. They never, ever fall.

Herkules

The Strongest Man in the World! Sure. He stretches springs that two normal men can't budge. He pulls an elephant about 15 feet. And he lets a jeep drive over his stomach very quickly. Kind of boring, but it's nice to see they still use one of the old standards.

Horses

And not just horses, but horses being ridden by "Cossack Warriors". One or two of the "warriors" looked like they were from South America, but that's okay. They ran in formation and one of the really pretty white horses did some high-stepping and "waving" to the crowd. Later on some of the riders did acrobatics on the horses' backs. When the last one came out, I though for a moment that it was a riderless horse. It was actually a case of the rider being underneath the horse and crawling his way back on top. Pretty impressive.

Elephants

Stand up. Sit down. Roll over. Lean on each other's backs. Spin around on the turning stools. Carry the clown in your mouth. They're big, they're fun to watch, and the bit where they grab each other's tails gets me every time. Not terribly exciting, but I think it's probably against the law to have a circus without elephants.

Food Fight

One big pie-in-the-face gag. I'm a fan. Not actually that exciting, but I'll never say no to cream pies being thrown in people's faces. And if somebody ducks at one thrown at them and it hits someone else, even better.

Dogs

Dogs jumping through hoops. Dogs jumping over hurdles. Dogs knocking over hurdles. Dogs poking clowns on the butt. And dogs jumping through a rolling barrel being pushed by another dog. Short and sweet.

Super Silva

The only high-wire type act I saw that didn't use any sort of safety wire or net. There was a mat below him, but it was still a long way down. It wouldn't have helped that much if he'd fallen head-first. He did some trapeze work and then "walked upside down", putting his feet through straps and going back and forth across the scaffolding. Pretty neat.

Smashcar

Clowns in little go karts racing around the place. Breakdowns, zany equipment, clown mechanics getting into the act. Pretty fun.

QUICK NOTE: My sister asked if they had a bunch of clowns exiting a tiny car. And you know what? They didn't. I wasn't disappointed in anything about the show until I realized that. No clown car. Hmph.

Motorcycles in Cages

Craziest thing of the show to me. There may be some trick to it that I don't know about that makes it less dangerous than it looks, but I doubt it. It's great timing and execution. Around and around they go, following each other, intersecting each other, coming this close to annihilating each other, but it never happens. They start with four and make their way up to seven. Great stuff, easily the most exciting thing in the show.

I'll say again how pleasant I thought the whole thing was and how good it made me feel. A good time was had by all.

If you'd like to read a much less favorable review, click here.