Editor's Notes: ‘Greatest Show on Earth’ finds ‘wow’ factor again

When I finished college in 1984, my wife bought two tickets to the Ringling Brothers & Barnum and Bailey Circus as one of my graduation presents.

It was my introduction to the Greatest Show On Earth. Before seeing Ringling Brothers, the closest I ever came to a circus was watching Elvis Presley in “Roustabout” on television.

The spectacle turned me into the Greatest Circus Fan on Earth. I have been to the circus at least one a year since that cold afternoon in Knoxville, Tenn. I’ve seen all the great modern stars of the big top — from clown/acrobat Bello Nock to the animal trainer Mark Oliver Gabel — in the last 25 years.

I got to know the performers and ringmasters so well, I could predict where they would be before the show in order to take pictures or help my children fill their autograph book.

Singer Jonathan Lee Iverson, the first African-American ringmaster in Ringling Brothers history, and Bello rarely participated in the circus pre-show, but they liked to stroll into the audience seconds before the performance. We were waiting for Iverson in Tucson one year and were the only fans to get his autograph. During a show in Phoenix, we were in the right spot, and my son wound up with his picture next to Bello, one of the funniest clowns in the world.

Somewhere in the 1990s, though, the circus lost its magic touch with me, even though I kept getting tickets. Maybe it was the upsurge of extreme sports and bizarre show on cable TV. Maybe it was the proliferation of outrageous video games that made the circus seem tame by comparison. Maybe I was turned off by “Circus of the Stars.” Maybe the circus was no longer unique.

The non-stop criticism from animal-rights groups took air out of the laughter, glamour and glitz. Ringling Brothers’ owners were making poor decisions on which talent to hire. I remember sitting through a circus in Seattle and not laughing once. I remember watching them in Mobile, Ala., late one night after a business meeting and thinking it was the corniest thing I had seen since “Hee Haw.”

Seeing Ringling Brothers experience its worst slump since the Great Depression, Feld Entertainment, producers of the circus, finally made drastic changes in 2006. Tigers, tight-rope artists and three rings were out. A faster pace and more audience participation were in.

The three rings of entertainment were replaced by a single oval, a controversial but good decision in my opinion. The single ring allows the top circus acts in the world to perform in one spotlight, not on a divided stage that diluted the quality and the magic. Too many of the acts were mediocre with three rings to fill during a two-hour show.

Fortunately, the decision to phase out the tigers was reversed this year for the 138th edition. “Over The Top,” which is playing at the Tucson Convention Center this weekend, mixes the circus traditions of decades ago with modern twists and turns.

Two of the acts are among the best I’ve seen in 25 years, and management has resisted the pressure and politically correct temptation to take animals out of the show. Ringling Brothers would go from the Greatest Show on Earth to the Greatest Snow Job on Earth without the elephants, tigers and other animal acts.

If you go for the final performance this afternoon, watch for the Torres Family, five brothers and three cousins from Paraguay who ride motorcycles inside a 16-foot steel sphere. I’ve never seen six riders in the globe at the same time.

A high-wire act features a daredevil named Wellington “Super” Silva. Hundreds of these guys have come and gone through the years, but I have never seen one who walked upside down, 40 feet above the arena floor, in an act called “foot looping.” You have to see it to believe it. No joke.

Speaking of jokes, the lead clown in this troupe, Tom Dougherty, is not Bello or even David Larible, a well-known, frequent Ringling Brothers star known as the Price of Laughter. Dougherty is about as funny as an IRS agent during an audit. Luckily, there 14 lesser-known, and much-funnier, clowns in the show.

Occasional stale humor aside, the circus is back. It has rediscovered pure entertainment and combined it with modern sensibilities. The laughter and “wow” factor have returned.

Contact Editor James Bennett at jbennett@gvnews.com or 547-9770. Watch him at 6:30 Monday night on KUAZ-TV, Channel 6’s “Arizona Illustrated” with host Bill Buckmaster. Respond to this column with a Letter to the Editor by e-mailing letters@gvnews.com, Comment online at www.gvnews.com.