The circus comes to town

A traveling circus came through the area last Saturday. An advance member of the group came through town the preceding Wednesday to put up posters and give out free tickets to business owners.

Unfortunately, the Black Rock Road fire blew up and threatened the town the same day as the performance. Those who were not fighting the fire were likely off to area lakes to beat the heat and relax following the completion of harvest. Whatever the reasons, attendance at the circus was very poor, as only about 20 spectators showed up.

Perhaps the show would have been a bit more elaborate or professional, had the audience been larger. As it was, the acts were awe-inspiring probably only to the toddler-aged members of the audience.

One act, for example, consisted of a man with a whistle, which he used instead of speaking. After a few minutes of listening to the piercing whistle, some audience members may have felt ready to choke him with it. He juggled three medium-sized potatoes for a matter of seconds, then tossed a potato to a member of the audience who tossed it back to him to be caught on a large, two-pronged fork. This was the entire act, and it went on for way too long.

Then there was the man (a different man) who balanced all manner of objects on his face (chin or forehead, mostly), from a sword to a large bicycle. The objects kept getting bigger, but the basic principles remained the same. He balanced each object for a few seconds to tepid applause. Later in the show, a woman also balanced various objects on her chin and then climbed over a "free-standing ladder" consisting of two metal rungs supported on a metal framework. Again, the objects being balanced kept getting larger but the basic premise remained the same. She was able to crawl up the two steps and back down them on the other side without dropping the balanced item. In between each item, there was also much posing as she showed each item to the audience.

We did find that another troupe member, the woman who did face painting, was quite talented. She decorated the face of the youngest member of the troupe with a very striking design. None of the youngsters in the audience appeared that impressed, however, and no one came forward to have their face painted, for an additional charge, of course. We had to assume that she also had done the makeup for JoJo the clown, the same gentleman who balanced all those objects on his face.

The group also had a concession stand where cotton candy, popcorn, snow cones, nachos with cheese sauce and Coca Cola products were sold. Another area held toys for sale.

Although the advance man had told us that there were no animals in the show, that was not quite accurate. At about the mid-way point, one of the troupe members brought out a relatively small boa constrictor and placed it on the floor. The audience members were invited to come forward and have their pictures taken with the animal. No one went anywhere near the snake, and it was soon returned to its home backstage.

The performers and the audience both had to deal with the extreme heat that day. The Old Town Hall was very warm indeed. Thank goodness for the snow cones being sold.

Although the setup of backdrops and staging items were rather worn and tatty, the costumes were very colorful and well made. The sound system appeared to be state of the art, with good quality and plenty of volume, as the announcer used his remote microphone to good effect.

It's too bad there was not much of an audience. But then, it's also too bad that there was not much of a circus.