I met my sister-in-law and nephews at Calsonic Arena tonight for the single-ring Gold tour of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. It’s been a rough week for the boys; my youngest brother is in Texas getting ready to leave for a tour as a civilian contractor in Iraq. And then the youngest boy broke a tooth today and had to get it capped.

It was a fantastic production, polished and thrilling and fun. We had paid for the floor seating, and got there early enough to get a front row seat, so we were really close to the action. Instead of a traditional ringmaster, the nominal host was magician David DaVinci, and some of his illusions were absolutely breathtaking. There were terrific acrobats, funny clowns, and a pair of martial artists/acrobats who did an astonishing act of jumping through several spinning hoops full of swords.

Unfortunately, the crowd was a little sparse tonight, and the layout of Calsonic Arena meant that the arena seating was a good ways back from the ring. So there wasn’t much in the way of crowd response. I know, just from what little I do in community theatre, [how important crowd response is] (omitted by mistake from original post). In Tullahoma, there’s usually a Sunday matinee performance, which tends to attract an elderly crowd, and for a comedy that means a lot less raucous laughter, which really leaves you as a performer feeling like something is missing.

There were points in the performance tonight when the performers were obviously used to pausing for applause, and while there was applause, it wasn’t exactly the kind of ovation for which you need to pause. That’s a shame, because they gave one heck of a great show.

The contrast between the Shrine Circus, which visits Calsonic Arena every year, and the Ringling circus, which comes every two or three years, is really sharp. The Shrine Circus has more animal acts and in some ways is more chock-full-of-thrills. But the Ringling production, even this scaled-down single-ring version, has more showmanship and flash, including a live band. (The Shrine Circus that comes here uses a slapped-together soundtrack of recorded music.) I prefer the Ringling circus, although I know some who feel otherwise.

I also like the all-access “pre-show” which Ringling does, allowing everyone to come onto the arena floor an hour before showtime for an up-close mini-show including lots of participation activities for the kids.

You may notice I’ve skirted around the animal issue to some extent. I get annoyed at some of the protestors, some of whom seem kind of self-serving and publicity-seeking, but at the same time whenever I see elephants in captivity, even well-cared-for, I recall seeing them in their natural habitat at Masai Mara and Tsavo West. That makes me just a little sad.

(Actually, the circus uses Asian elephants, not African elephants. But you get the idea.)

My favorite parts of the show tonight were the human performers anyway. It was a terrific show, and I think my nephews and my sister-in-law enjoyed it thoroughly. I know I did.