circus

the circus came to town last week and we caught it over the weekend. we drove past the circus site on our way home a few times prior, which is just around the corner of where we lived. so, on sunday, we decided it will be a nice change from our `stay-at-home' sunday routine. we walked there; with a haversack of snacks.

the frank gasser's circus olympia that we saw was a slightly watered down version (i think) from what i read about circus olympia. this one is basically a group of travelling circus performers from siberia that is leveraging on the name to draw in the crowd. that said, they are clearly a talented and hardworking bunch. hardworking because most performers also double up as ushers, popcorn sellers, etc. before the show and during intermission. clearly the sign of the times. unlike the good ol' days where the circus is a family treat that most will look forward to and will pack in the crowd; today there are just too many other distractions to draw the crowd into the big tent. there were only about a 150 circus goers in the show we were in.

we enjoyed the 2hr show thoroughly. for weiqimun, this is their first circus; so they had a jolly good time as well. the performers were consumate professionals; they gave their best despite the (small) crowd. mingwei enjoy the fire-eating segment and i personally like the finale, where the `elder' of the circus troop (who's at least 50yrs old and also doubles up as a clown in the earlier segments) entralled the audience by climbing up a 30m high straight pole with a 45kg girl standing balanced on his head. it is hard to imagine, you have to see it to believe it. what strength!

we are unlikely to see another circus in the foreseeable future; that said, we hope the good old traditional circus will be around for a long, long time. they can still elicit smiles from the young and old as they did on sunday, and that can only be a good thing.