http://www.greatamerican-circus.com/

RINGLING GOLD--JACKSON, MS--09.2010

FROM SOUTH AFRICA---

Dancing poodles means the circus is back in town

2010/12/01

POODLES dancing to the late Afro- pop diva Brenda Fassie’s music and a goat walking on its hind legs will leave you in stitches – the McLaren Circus hits East London today.
The circus is here for a month, kicking off at Gonubie Sports Field and later moving to two other sites across Buffalo City.
The travelling circus is an initiative by brothers David and Duncan McLaren from Cape Town, who decided to start their own circus to keep the spirit alive in South Africa.
“We started this four years ago in the parking lots of Cape Town shopping malls and now it has become what we dreamed of,” said Duncan, who performs as a clown.
He said poodles, ponies, camels and pythons all compete for attention with clowns, fire-eaters, sword swallowers and other colourful characters.
Spectators can look forward to seeing Billy the goat, who has been with the team for four years . He jumps the hula-hoop and walks on his hind legs. “Billy loves to show off,” he said.Other characters are two poodles, Sonny and Cher. Cher is the show’s dancing diva, who wears her little dress when she takes to the stage. She dances to the sounds of the late singer Brenda Fassie while Sonny is a caring boy who pushes a pram and jumps through a hula-hoop.
“P eople are guaranteed to have fun,” said Duncan, adding that he was looking forward to performing for the people of East London and surrounding areas.
The circus will be at the Gonubie field until December5, then in Beacon Bay from December8 and finally it moves to Cambridge Police Park on December14. Tickets are between R40 and R80 and bookings can be made on 0827475726.
In the spirit of love , the McLaren Circus invites needy local charities to a free show on December14, at 3pm. Charities need to send a list of children to 0217020434, and there are about 500 seats available. — By XOLISA MGWATYU

.Student juggling group brings circus to campus

Dana Burke / Alligator Staff
Ian Elsner, president of the UF juggling club, Objects in Motion, practices juggling on the Plaza of the Americas on Tuesday afternoon.
Wed Dec 1, 2010.

Chelsea Hull, Alligator Contributing Writer
Ian Elsner puts safety first: No fire indoors, and new members are not allowed to play with knives.
Elsner is the president of Objects in Motion, the official UF juggling club. The club will hold its first solo performance, “Objects in Motion Live! and in 3D” Saturday at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. in the Reitz Union Grand Ballroom.
“As a club we’ve wanted to do a showcase for a long time,” Elsner said. “Seniors will be able to do solos, and it will let new members get a taste of performance.”
Objects in Motion has more than 50 active members, with an average of 30 participants at each activity, he said.
The club meets every Wednesday at 9 p.m. and represents all types of juggling.
Contact jugglers balance an acrylic ball on their bodies and allow it to roll across their arms, shoulders and hands.
Poi spinners twirl sticks with small weights tied to them with colorful string or ribbon. Jugglers toss clubs and balls alone or in groups.
Outside of practice, members often get together to juggle on the Plaza of the Americas.
The jugglers try to draw in bystanders with what they call “the free juggling lesson” — guaranteed success or your money back.
read more at:http://www.alligator.org/news/campus/article_9577eb12-fd0c-11df-857c-001cc4c03286.html

Janet Morales/MMI Performing elephants, clowns and acrobats were just some of the acts of the George Carden Circus at the MACC Activity Center Monday night. Two performances, one at 4:30 p.m. and the other at 7:30 p.m., provided entertainment for area children and their families on a cold fall day.
Moberly, MO 10/28/2008

CARDEN CIRCUS COWGIRLS--2008

CLYDE BEATTY CIRCUS--NORTH PORT, FL--NOV. 14, 2010 #1

By: Kharli Rose

Standing back to back, Amanda Brady, center, and Natasha Smith hold their hands high while Ignacio and Jonathan Ybarra ride motorcycles around them in the “Globe of Death” during the Clyde Beatty Circus.
By: Kharli Rose
Jeanne Ybarra balances a sword on her head during the Clyde Beatty Circus at the Charlotte County Fairgrounds.

By: Kharli Rose

Marisa Asmega, 7, laughs at Elmo the Clown during his act in the Clyde Beatty Circus at the Charlotte County Fairgrounds.

By: Kharli Rose

Lauren Murray performs her aerial silk act during the Clyde Beatty Circus at the Charlotte County Fairgrounds.

By: Kharli Rose

Seirra Lynn, 8, from left, Marisa Asmega, 7, and Devin Keith, 6, marvel at the aerial performances during the Clyde Beatty Circus at the Charlotte County Fairgroun

By: Kharli Rose

Natasha Smith performs her aerial lyra act during the Clyde Beatty Circus at the Charlotte County Fairgrounds.

CLYDE BEATTY CIRCUS--NORTH PORT, FL--NOV. 14, 2010 #2

By: Kharli Rose

Tumbling brothers Ignacio and Jonathan Ybarro complete a double somersault on the trampoline during the Clyde Beatty Circu at the Charlotte County Fairgrounds.

Circus Says Goodbye to Roberts Stadium

The Hadi Shrine Circus has performed its last show at Evansville's Roberts Stadium, the facility it has called home for more than 50 years.

Next year, the circus will move to Evansville's new downtown arena.

Circus officials tell FOX 7, they are still working out some of the issues with the new arena, including whether the Shriners can continue with a three-ring circus.

They say they may be forced to down-size as a result of the move.
from tristatehomepage.com

J. W. JOHNSON'S VIRGINIA MINSTRELS

1921

DATE UNKNOWN

From the University of Southern Mississippi

Digital Collection

BARNUM & BAILEY ROUTE CARD (CIRCA 1910)

click on to enlarge

from the University of Southern Mississippi Digital Collection

FROM THE PHILADELPHIA THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE

Fat Cat "Prince Chunk" dies

Prince Chunk, South Jersey's most famous fat cat has died.

"Prince Chunk's" owner said that he died in his sleep on Sunday.
He was about 10 years old and suffered from heart disease.
The white tabby gained fame when he was found wandering the streets, after his owner lost her home to foreclosure.
When the animal shelter took in Prince Chunk in august of 2008, he weighed 44 pounds, just shy of a world record.
He appeared on good morning america, and was featured in people magazine.
(Copyright ©2010 WPVI-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)

SUNDAY FUNNIES

CIRCUS LIFE From a show at the Bruce Museum, in Greenwich, Conn., Matisse’s “Le Cirque.”

A lithograph from Chagall's "Le Cirque" series; and Matisse's "Le Cirque."
By SYLVIANE GOLD
Published: November 26, 2010
Marc Chagall once wrote that the circus seemed to him “like the most tragic show on earth.”
The quote turns up in the Bruce Museum’s “Circus! Art and Science Under the Big Top,” beneath four of Chagall’s swirling, brilliantly colored, manifestly untragic circus scenes from a 1967 series of lithographs, “Le Cirque.” And there’s no lack of exuberance in the show’s vintage posters, with their scantily clad artistes displaying their tricks and their charms. But after taking in some of the other items in this grab bag of circus-related paintings, prints, photographs, advertising and paraphernalia, you understand why Chagall saw tragedy in the sawdust.
A toy from the show.
His own aerialists and bareback riders float serenely enough in the vibrant, gravity-free universe we know from other Chagalls. The photographer Paul Outerbridge Jr., making a rare museum appearance as a printmaker, conveys the circus’s whimsy in four spare, elegantly drawn images from 1934. And the circus’s blaring energy comes through in three 1947 pochoir prints by Henri Matisse, deploying his late-career paper cutouts in primary colors

Thrills and Chills (Except for the Guy Behind the Elephant)
read more at:http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/nyregion/28artct.html

Shrine Circus a Thanksgiving tradition

Tim Hunt The Times
George Carden talks about his many years in the circus business as the Orak Shrine Circus arrives and unloads Tuesday at the Hammond Civic Center. The George Carden International Circus stages the Orak Shrine Circus, which begins today.

By Jeff Burton Wednesday, November 24, 2010
www.nwtimes.com
HAMMOND, INDIANA, One by one, trailers full of tigers, ponies, acrobats and jugglers from the George Carden International Circus pulled into the Hammond Civic Center parking lot Tuesday afternoon, ready for what has become a Thanksgiving tradition.
"I've been here every Thanksgiving since 1980," Carden said. "We always end our season in Hammond."
Carden and his crew of more than 80 will kick off five days of performances today in the annual Orak Shrine Circus.
A "circus man" since age 6, when his mother married into the business, Carden has been performing for 52 years. He said the Hammond Civic Center is one of the smallest venues for his circus, but also one of his favorites.

Lights and wires sit on the floor as the Orak Shrine Circus is set up Tuesday at the Hammond Civic Center.

"It's like a big top, the way it's shaped. It's so unique," Carden said. "Every seat's a ringside seat in the Hammond Civic Center. They don't build new buildings like the Hammond Civic Center."
Carden said the circus will feature three rings of continual entertainment on the Civic Center floor.
A portion of the circus proceeds benefit the Shriners' various philanthropic activities, such as the Shriners Hospitals for Children.

Tim Hunt The Times
A tiger waits in its cage Tuesday as workers unload and set up the Orak Shrine Circus in the Hammond Civic Center.
Fresh off a stop in Belton, Texas, Carden's wife Alexandra said the crew works almost year-round. After 11 shows in Hammond, they troupe will take three weeks off before beginning a string of performances at the Orleans Hotel in Las Vegas.

While circuses have been performing in Hammond for decades, first at the demolished Masonic Temple in the city's downtown district and now at the Civic Center, Alexandra Carden said this year's event will feature a never-before-seen balancing act performed by a Chinese acrobat.
Daniel Rodriguez unloads a couple of ponies Tuesday for the George Carden International Circus, which puts on the annual Orak Shrine Circus at the Hammond Civic Center.

FROM NEW ORLEANS

Shrine Circus! -- Good Morning New Orleans -- 11/24/10

Fairgoers display appetite for fried
Food tops list of favorites at 2010 fair, survey shows
Saturday, November 27, 2010 09:08 PM
By Kathy Lynn Gray
The Columbus Dispatch

All things fried and fattening topped the popularity chart at the Ohio State Fair this year.
A close second: mooing cows, squealing pigs and whinnying horses.
With food No. 1 and livestock No. 2, amusement rides came in a distant third when fairgoers ranked their favorites for survey takers as they exited the fairgrounds this past summer.
That's no surprise to fair spokeswoman Christina Leeds. "Coming to the fair always goes back to food," Leeds said. "It's a unique selling point for us."

The survey, the first since 2003, involved interviews with more than 300 visitors exiting the main gate on eight days of the 12-day fair. Twenty-five percent were younger than 35; 31percent were 55 or older. Fifty-fivepercent had a household income of $60,000 or more, and three out of five lived in central Ohio.
Slightly more than half - 52 percent - said food was their favorite part of the fair, closely followed by livestock, which 43 percent chose. Just 21 percent chose rides, followed by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources park at 13 percent and commercial exhibits and shopping at 11 percent. Participants were allowed to choose as many as three favorites.
And what foods were fairgoers looking for?
Fried mostly, according to the "food finder" application they could use on their mobile phones for the first time this year.
Of the 9,022 searches to find food on the grounds during the fair, 1,290 used the keyword fried, a review found. Bacon was a distant second with 456 searches, followed by deep, corn and cheese.
Fair favorites of fries and funnel (for funnel cake) had fewer searches, perhaps because they're so common at fair stands.

Jim Tucker, president and chief executive officer of the International Association of Fairs and Expositions, said animals, food and rides are usually the top favorites among fairgoers everywhere.

"Probably animals are the most popular thing now, I think, because in urban areas young children are so far removed from farm life," he said. "They see more zoo animals than they do farm animals."

As for food, Tucker said fairgoers want something fun and novel. This year, they stood in long lines at the Kentucky State Fair for a calorie bomb: A hamburger patty encased in Krispy Kreme doughnuts and then fried.
"It was a hit," Tucker said.
Andy Klotz, public relations manager for the Indiana State Fair, said the "doughnut burger" also was a huge success at that fair in August.
Klotz said the Indiana fair surveys fairgoers each year as they leave, and the top reasons people say they've come are the food, exhibits and animals.

What don't fairgoers like? Nothing, said 43 percent of those questioned after the Ohio State Fair. Attractions came under fire by 15 percent of those questioned, while 11 percent mentioned cost, 10 percent said weather, and 8 percent said the amount of walking involved.
Weather is always a complaint, whether it's blazing hot or sloshy and rainy, Tucker said. "The three most important things to remember about a fair are weather, weather and weather."

kgray@dispatch.com