Trump is president. Circus closes. Coincidence?
My mother went to the Clown College. So did mike. I've been hearing the circuses were in trouble most of my adult life and it's still weird for Ringling Brothers to be closing down.
This is a big surprise. I have a lot of friends in Ringling who are heartbroken. I agree with thenewgreen's assessment that circuses are going the way of Cirque du Soleil. I myself like to see smaller circuses with artistic performances and a storyline. Yes, I went to RBBBCC (Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Clown College) in 1993 and toured part-time with Royal Hanneford circus as a clown the following year. Then I went back to school and was in the FSU Flying High circus for 3 years performing juggling, double-trapeze and slackwire. But alas that was 20 years ago and I have discovered that the muscle turns to fat. I still harbor a plan of putting together an artistic circus-style math show. We've recently applied for a cultural grant to put together such a show, and if approved we'll put together a 40-minute 3-person show where math will come alive with music, dance and visual deliciousness. We'd then perform 10-20 shows at schools or wherever.
I used to be on the business side of Circus Contraption, who toured frequently with the New Old Time Chataqua. And we did a lot of stuff with the Flying Karamazov's, the Pickle Family Circus, and - of course - the Moisture Festival (the world's largest comedie/varieté festival) in Seattle. I'm also affiliated - loosely, nowadays - with the School for the New Circus Arts (SANCA) and Emerald City Trapeze in Seattle, and the Vespertine Circus in SF. I'm pretty sure we have a few friends in common!
That is an awesome comic you point to! I learned to juggle in college and by the time I graduated with a BS in math I just wanted to perform. So I did street juggling, taught juggling classes, took up clowning, did some small gigs, then went to RBBBCC and toured with Royal Hanneford for a year. Then I really wanted to be a math teacher. Took the GRE and scored high enough to get free tuition and a TA position at FSU, which also has a student circus. Fell in love with math at grad school and stayed on for a doctorate. Circus is far in the taillights now, but I continue learning new things and making new things. Very much into math art now, of all kinds, and have made digital art, print, videos, sculpture, jewelry, music, drama, literature and poetry. Running my own math creativity center now. Don't know what the next career is, but there is still time...
A good friend of mine's sister is a trapeze artist. I think circuses will re-emerge and be less "disney" and more "art." I went to this circus recently and it was big business consumerism.
End of an era. I used to manage a dark, twisted circus (cirque noir... no animals) that toured the US several times; Circus Contraption. (The official site is - remarkably - still running, somehow.) The circus is an important part of theater, social commentary, and shyster freakshow. We need the twisted, living at the edges, fucking with our standards and our brains and our social contracts. The resiliency of our beliefs and views comes from having them challenged, and the circus is an important part of that. Even the glitzy, showboat style feel-good carnival of Ringling Brothers and Cirque du Soliel still serve this purpose... a bit ... at the edges ... When we lose the weirdness at the edges, we lose a bit of ourselves. Our definitions blur. Lines become unfocused, and more easily crossed. RIP RBBBC.
this is an interesting thought -it makes me wonder... what other lines are there to be crossed? Societally, our definitions aren't just blurred, I think they're gone in many ways. What beliefs are left to be challenged? I guess one never knows until one is confronted with this... but as I think about what was "CRAZY FRINGE" even ten years ago... walks down mainstreet with a $60k job in advertising. A person who engaged in what was once "Sexually Reprehensible" is now about to take office on Friday. Fringe is every day. Boundaries are gone. Just my observation... not judgement.The circus is an important part of theater, social commentary, and shyster freakshow. We need the twisted, living at the edges, fucking with our standards and our brains and our social contracts. The resiliency of our beliefs and views comes from having them challenged, and the circus is an important part of that.
When we lose the weirdness at the edges, we lose a bit of ourselves. Our definitions blur. Lines become unfocused, and more easily crossed.
The fringe is just further away, I think. And I as I get older, what is "fringe" to me, is "quaint" or "old fashioned" to people younger than me. Sex has always been the taboo in American culture... but the resurgence of burlesque, circus arts, and alternative sexual definitions and orientations, means the fringe is just further out there. And I won't be the one to define it. I'll be the one lamenting the "good ole days" when I could watch a "proper" burlesque act where the performer only took her top off...
Wasn't that point of the point of the fringe, and progression of social norms? To push the fringe into the face of the public so they are forced to confront it, either accepting it or destroying it? The acceptance of these kind of things, I would think, is largely a good thing. Same with the destruction of our definitions. What lines do you think still exist? Do you think the reduction of our boundaries is a positive?
clearly there are still many, many lines.... but none that I've seen that are agreed upon widely as a "culture norm" in the US. You could argue that sexism, racism, homophobia are alive and well.... because they are... but there is growing consensus that those things aren't ok. In fact - those things are becoming the fringe... maybe (hopefully). I don't think I can pass that judgement. We all construct our belief systems and try to live accordingly. The way we set our boundaries may be different, but we should only set the boundaries for ourselves.What lines do you think still exist?
Do you think the reduction of our boundaries is a positive?
As I implied, with Trump as president, we might not need circuses anymore. Is it a coincidence that Hubski has some circus connection? I don't think so.We need the twisted, living at the edges, fucking with our standards and our brains and our social contracts. The resiliency of our beliefs and views comes from having them challenged, and the circus is an important part of that.
When I was a kid, my parents would take us to this when it came to town. It was a big deal. A few years ago I took my daughter. As I was pulling in to the parking lot there were a couple of dozen protestors. Apparently, they treat the elephants like shit. I couldn't leave, though I actually wanted to. My daughter was way too excited, we had really built it up. But I wouldn't have taken her to it again after reading/seeing the videos I saw. Perhaps it's not a bad thing... Maybe in their void a more ethical circus will emerge. A "Circus of the sun," perhaps?
I think Cirque du Soleil is an ethical circus. Except the unfortunate death of an aerial performer. http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2015/05/life-and-death-at-cirque-du-soleil
My guess is that the aerial performer had more say in their involvement. Unless, it was an aerial elephant. -That I'd pay to see.
...yeah, and see, my entire state was too small for B&B to bother with so all I ever knew of it was the ads we'd see running during Bozo the Clown on WGN. On the other hand, the Shrine Circus would show up pretty much every year. And either they couldn't fit the tent onto the football field or they couldn't afford one so it didn't much matter that my parents steadfastly refused to let us go, my sister and I could just hang out by the fence and watch, and try to avoid the roving bands of Shriners that would see us, assume we were indigent and try to give us tickets thereby requiring us to sit in a seat and be late for dinner and get in lots of trouble. I think the Shrine Circus had a camel. They had elephants because we'd watch them poop. But whatever the magic you're supposed to get out of seeing the circus, it passed my town by. My wife is into cirque. I guess if that's your thing, yay. It isn't mine.