Circus's Nowadays
I've just been to the circus with "toute la famille" as they say down South.
Say what you want and scoff all you like, but there really is nothing quite like the excitement of the circus coming to town. I've seen a few over the last few years and many of them don't have much going for them in terms of quality of presentation, general hygene of the employees, lack of exciting and/or dangerous animals, etc. I'm happy to report that this circus was, however, just about the best one yet. Duffy's Circus is the nation's favourite and has survived the many problems that beset such a cost-heavy production in the modern Ireland. I suspect that many circus's find it just about impossible to keep the show on the road in these times, but Duffy's have adapted and rolled with the slow punches. They've teamed up with none other than the Chinese State Circus, so the quality of athleticism is fairly astounding, it has to be said. Last night, I witnessed a woman who put her arse on her head! - I am not exaggerating, and... ok, so it wasn't the most clever thing that she did in her performance (she balanced all sorts of stuff including a large quantity of lit candles) but it seemed the most anatomically impossible to me. In fact, I have no doubt, that if she wished, she could actually stick her own head up her arse. I imagine that sort of thing would go down well in the likes of Bangkok or certain establishments in Limerick, but not here. Anyway, although the arse-on-head trick represented the pinnacle of the show in terms of achieving the technically impossible, there was lots of other acrobatic amazements too. And, most important, they did have dangerous animals. Not one, not two, but in fact 4 tigers in the caged ring with a man and a woman. I didn't feel secure about the amount of snarling they did, particularly the more grizzled one on the far right. He always looked just one more poke of the stick away from turning the whole show into a bit of a bloodbath and although I looked around most carefully, I couldn't see any sign of a man on standby with a gun. Some youngfella who fancied himself as an Indiana Jones stuck his head in a crocodile's mouth.
So, the magic of circus-time is not gone yet. All the circuses need the cheap foreign labour to survive, it seems, but Duffy's has stolen a march on the rest by getting the very best there is in that market.
Roll up. Roll up.
Say what you want and scoff all you like, but there really is nothing quite like the excitement of the circus coming to town. I've seen a few over the last few years and many of them don't have much going for them in terms of quality of presentation, general hygene of the employees, lack of exciting and/or dangerous animals, etc. I'm happy to report that this circus was, however, just about the best one yet. Duffy's Circus is the nation's favourite and has survived the many problems that beset such a cost-heavy production in the modern Ireland. I suspect that many circus's find it just about impossible to keep the show on the road in these times, but Duffy's have adapted and rolled with the slow punches. They've teamed up with none other than the Chinese State Circus, so the quality of athleticism is fairly astounding, it has to be said. Last night, I witnessed a woman who put her arse on her head! - I am not exaggerating, and... ok, so it wasn't the most clever thing that she did in her performance (she balanced all sorts of stuff including a large quantity of lit candles) but it seemed the most anatomically impossible to me. In fact, I have no doubt, that if she wished, she could actually stick her own head up her arse. I imagine that sort of thing would go down well in the likes of Bangkok or certain establishments in Limerick, but not here. Anyway, although the arse-on-head trick represented the pinnacle of the show in terms of achieving the technically impossible, there was lots of other acrobatic amazements too. And, most important, they did have dangerous animals. Not one, not two, but in fact 4 tigers in the caged ring with a man and a woman. I didn't feel secure about the amount of snarling they did, particularly the more grizzled one on the far right. He always looked just one more poke of the stick away from turning the whole show into a bit of a bloodbath and although I looked around most carefully, I couldn't see any sign of a man on standby with a gun. Some youngfella who fancied himself as an Indiana Jones stuck his head in a crocodile's mouth.
So, the magic of circus-time is not gone yet. All the circuses need the cheap foreign labour to survive, it seems, but Duffy's has stolen a march on the rest by getting the very best there is in that market.
Roll up. Roll up.
posted by MunsterMad at 3:20 PM
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