BREAKING NEWS---

Circus daredevils plan record stunt in Sarasota

Circus performer will attempt record stunt above downtown tomorrow

STAFF PHOTO / E. SKYLAR LITHERLAND

The "Wheel of Destiny," used by Circus Sarasota ringmaster star, Joseph Bauer, Jr. in a blind-folded jump-rope performance Tuesday at 11 a.m.

The wheel was lifted to the top of One Watergate in downtown Sarasota on Monday in preparation for the event.
By Billy Cox,

From the Sarasota Herald Tribune

Monday, January 17, 2011

SARASOTA - For the second time in as many years, the dizzying heights of One Watergate Condominium in downtown Sarasota will provide the venue for another daredevil circus spectacle.
Related Links:Wallenda skywalk stirs a circus city Rope holders played vital role for Wallenda But instead of a high-wire act, tomorrow's public event will involve a blindfolded jump-rope performance atop a 50-foot-tall contraption called the Wheel of Destiny.
Bayfront Park should be the ideal spectator viewing area. The public is invited free of charge.

Joseph Bauer Jr., the ringmaster star of Circus Sarasota, will be gunning for a Guinness Book of World
Records spot in the height category when he climbs atop the Wheel at 11 a.m. Tuesday. Although the Sarasota native has successfully executed his high-altitude jump-rope tricks from Europe to Dubai, pulling it off at roughly 260 feet off the ground — without a net, to boot — would be unprecedented.
“Sarasota is a circus city so this is the perfect place to try for the record,” said Circus Sarasota marketing director Jennifer Mitchell. “It's probably going to last about 20 minutes, and he wants to do as many tricks as possible.”
Last February, Circus Sarasota's Nik Wallenda dazzled live audiences by walking 600 feet across a 200-foot high cable suspended from the Watergate to the Ritz-Carlton. Like Wallenda, the Bauer name is steeped in circus lore, and goes back nine generations.