THE BALLOON MAN

\Culpepper & Merriweather Circus wasn't what I expected, no exotic animals this year - great for kids




from: columbuzz.net
Edinburgh, IN 
28.Apr, 2012
The acts included: Miss Simone on the single trapeze, the Arlise Troup on their unicycles, juggler Angel Perez, Silverlake's sizzling whips, Karina and her hula hoops Miss Paulette & Her Feathered Pets and lastly The High-Flying Perez Troupe...
After reading about the circus coming to town I was excited to go, and even more excited to see the large animals they promote. I would assume they lost the licensing and can't have those animals in the show anylonger.
When I arrived at Irwin Park in Edinburgh April 28, 2012 at 1pm, I was surprised no one other than circus staff was in attendance. I admit this was my first circus and expected it to be like a carnival, but it was much, much less than that.
The circus opened 1 hour before show, selling food, tickets, and offering up their "side-shows" until the event started at 2pm. Once inside the circus, they promoted and sold things the whole time. 

Not knowing what to expect, I was hoping to see something out of the ordinary. That wasn't the case because everything I saw was nothing like you see in the movies. A trailer contained an organ that played the traditional theme music you would hear or have heard at the circus. Attached to this trailer was also a side attraction revealing the secrets of the Sea Witch for $1.00.

Pony rides were setup for a fee of $4; your child can ride 8 revolutions, this wasn't anything different than you would see at the 4H fair. However this pony ride the circus staff was breaking in a new pony (pictured below) who wasn't happy about people being around. 
Staff left the new pony chained to the ride and was escorted without a child on its back. The new pony did become irritated and jumped causing the other pony's to be upset while children were riding. I thought the children were going to fall off - staff did remove the new pony (in training) from the ride.





The final attraction was a giant box with windows, inside... a 17 foot snake and cost $1.00 to look at it.
I wasn't fortunate to win tickets to the circus and needed to buy them, I walked up to the food/ticket trailer and while waiting on staff was able to see great reading. How inappropriate  for the circus to have these visible from the window. Who wouldn't want to read about Lust in Translation?

I did speak to one of the crew who traveled from Texas and had been with this circus for 3 days... During the conversation I asked about the animals and how the show incorporates them into the act. He said "We have no Cats, Elephants this year... we only have horses and dogs in the show today." That isn't want I was expecting to hear, I can see a horse almost anywhere in the county here in Columbus and dogs, well they are dogs.
I asked why they didn't have the large cats and he said, I don't know they aren't with the circus this year.

The entrance into the tent opened around 1:50pm - show starts at 2 - by this time, there is about 50 people waiting to go inside. Once inside it looks just like it does on TV, but what is disappointing is this circus only has one clown or did at this event. ONE CLOWN!

TOMORROW THE PERFORMANCE!