The random thoughts of a genius...er...gene nash.
will a stuffed tiger do?
Published on May 6, 2004 By Gene Nash In Entertainment

    The "Carson & Barnes Circus" was supposed to be in town today over at the Avi Casino. I've known about it for a couple of weeks. There were several articles and lots of advertising. My mother -- a.k.a. Pudgy -- wanted to go for her birthday. We usually go somewhere for her birthday. One year we spent an entire month driving around the southern U.S. from the Pacific to the Atlantic. This year we held off a week to wait for the circus. It felt weird not doing anything on the actual day, but the delay seemed worth it. We'd have a buffet, hit the penny slots, terrorize the circus folk-- make an entire day of it.
    Yesterday I called the casino before heading out to buy the discount advance tickets. "The circus has been canceled." No explanations. Nothing on either the Casino or the Circus's web sites. Just, "The circus has been canceled." Life sucks. I guess I could pull out my press credentials and start grilling people for an explanation. It wouldn't serve much purpose except giving me an outlet for my agitation. (Beware cranks with press credentials.)
    It also leaves me hanging for a blog. I'd planned to write about my (hopefully) great time at the circus. I had my digital camera all ready to take numerous goofy snapshots. So, instead I'll write about my lousy almost-trip to the circus and use up the material anyway. No pictures though, unless you'd like a nice shot of me and Pudge frowning. For the really sadistic, I could dig up some glycerin and add some nice tears too.

    This would have been a first circus for both of us. We almost went to Ringling Brothers/Barnum and Bailey more than a decade ago. I wanted to do the wandering around with the animals before the show thing. We inquired about it. They said they didn't allow people to wander around with the animals anymore. That blew it for me. They could keep their circus. It wasn't about seeing animals up-close. As a former contributor to several zoos I've seen plenty of animals up close. Not seeing the animals beforehand took away what I saw as an essential part of the circus experience. In every movie and TV show I'd ever seen people got to wander around and look at the animals before the show. I felt it would give you a connection with the animals and make it even cooler when you saw them in the performance. Without that experience it just didn't seem like a circus to me.
    (Okay, even then I had press credentials, different credentials, but credentials none-the-less. I could probably have gotten us back there with the animals under the pretense of doing a story. It wouldn't have been the same, though. For one thing we'd have had a handler. I hate handler's. They keep you from having the real experience. It's like some clerk who won't get off your shoulder so you can just discuss, enjoy, and shop in peace,. No, it wouldn't have been worth the trouble.)
    We're both getting older, though (Pudgy is well into her 60s). If we're going to get some of these cultural events out of the way we'd better do them soon. Pre-show animal tête-à-tête or not it's time to hit a circus. This one sounded like a good one to see.

  • The Amazing Cardenas performing the most dangerous act in circus, the 7-man pyramid on the high wire
  • America's only 5-ring circus
  • World's largest BIG TOP
  • World's largest traveling Zoo (100 exotic animals including tons of elephants)
  • Performers from around the World
  • 2-hour nonstop performance
  • A $5 million self contained nomadic city on wheels

    Wait a second! Why am I giving them publicity? The bums punked out on me!

    So, I'm still a circus virgin and I need to come up with something else for Pudgy's birthday. Not too many circuses come through here. I may have to throw everything into the car and track one down. Till then I guess I'll just put on some circus music, kick back with a Pepsi and some Mother's Frosted Circus Animal Cookies and watch my cat pouncing on the VCR. It's not quite a tiger through a flaming hoop, but it'll have to do.

    Yours,
    Gene Nash


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