The Circus
We took the kids to the circus recently, and I have been bothered by a few things.
PT Barnum, who was one of the founders of the circus, was known as a showman. His shows were purely entertainment and as such he had talented people from all walks of life portraying characters in their acts. It was not uncommon for one of his showmen to play more than one character, and have more than one act. It was also common, and part of the show, to make the parts that the showmen played as exotic as possible. Entire biographies of these exotic characters were often created, and the actors played the parts while on stage, only to appear later in a different act as another character.
Now, to what has been bothering me.
How much of that history continues in today’s circus? Not that it matters a lot, it is still a good show. But I want to know.
Are the ‘exotic Russian’ trick riding horsemen the same people as the ‘exotic Brazilian’ motorcycle riders? I think that they may have been. I don’t ever remember seeing them on stage at the same time. The skills required for both are not so very different that the same people couldn’t do both.
Are the ‘exotic Chineese’ hat jugglers the same people as the acrobats? I don’t remember seeing them on the stage together either.
I think that I saw the same woman that was the ‘exotic Italian’ aerialist as one of the dancing girls. And I’m almost positive that the ‘exotic Argentinian’ spider dude was in a different costume working with the other ‘exotic Italian’ aerialists.
Do the animal trainers double as the clowns? They weren’t on stage at the same time, but it could be that the animals feel the same way about clowns that I do, and it was for their own protection.
