Piccadilly Circus to visit Huntington

The Piccadilly Circus will stop at The Big Sandy Superstore Arena on Wednesday. It will feature a free petting zoo for children, as well as elephant rides.

By The Parthenon

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Piccadilly Circus is coming to Huntington for a night of family fun — complete with contortionists twisting their bodies, elephants balancing on one foot and vendors selling traditional circus treats.

 Piccadilly Circus will have two performances at 4:30 p.m. and 7:30  p.m. Wednesday in the Big Sandy Superstore Arena.

 Before the circus comes to town, the Circus Street Team will visit schools and local businesses to pass out free children’s tickets and place posters downtown.

 Cuinn Griffin, marketing director for Piccadilly Circus, said the circus has been around for 26 years.  

 The name Piccadilly Circus comes from a famous road in London, which connects Regent Street with Piccadilly.

“We have a lot of traditional elements of the circus,” Griffin said. “We have clowns, elephants and goodies such as cotton candy and popcorn.”

The circus will also have a free petting zoo for children, as well as elephant rides.

 Griffin said new performances include a pony act called “My Little Pony on Parade,” featuring six different colored ponies.

 Additional acts will include “Motorcycle Madness,” where motorcycle daredevils ride in the Globe of Doom. During the Elephant Extravaganza, an elephant will stand on one foot.

“Piccadilly Circus is an experience all wrapped up in a modern package,” Griffin said.

NEW SHOE AD

COLE BROS CIRCUS 

2012

 Could the State Fair return to RIR?
Updated: Mar 10, 2010
By Sarah Bloom 

Circus Vargas rolls into North County


 

Circus Vargas opens a 11-day run in Vista on March 15. Photo courtesy of Mike Rollerson
By PAM KRAGEN pkragen@nctimes.com
from: nctimes.com
Sunday, March 11, 2012
SAN DIEGO ---- While Ringling Bros. holds the title of America's biggest touring circus, it abandoned the old tradition of the circus tent long ago for indoor sports arenas.

But one traveling circus that still does things the old-fashioned way ---- with a 1,500-seat, Italian-made big top ---- returns to North County this week after a monthlong visit to San Diego.

The circus will open Thursday evening in a lot on the south side of Highway 78 at Vista Village Drive. The public's invited to watch the tent-raising from 1 to 3 p.m. Tuesday as crews wrestle 90,000 square feet of canvas fabric, 17 tons of rope and cable and 500 stakes into shape.

Circus Vargas was founded 40 years ago by Clifford Vargas, who wanted to create an old-fashioned, touring tent circus in the 19th-century tradition. When he died in 1989, Circus Vargas was taken over by two longtime friends (Roland Kaiser and Joseph Muscarello), who ran it until they retired. When the circus faced closure in 2005, it was purchased by Katya Arata Quiroga and Nelson Quiroga, the circus's longtime trapeze performers, who perform under the name The Flying Tabares.

Circus Vargas includes acrobats, jugglers, trapeze artists, a magician and a motorcycle act, as well as clowns. The ringmaster is Kevin Venardos, who sings his own original songs during each performance. There are also the traditional circus staples, such as the opening and closing parades, in which the entire circus company marches for the crowd. Circus Vargas is a bilingual circus with many acts from Mexico and South America, and always offers some performances in Spanish.

Before every performance, ticket-holders are encouraged to arrive early for a pre-show "behind the scenes" program led by clowns Jon and Laura Weiss. Children will be invited into the center ring to try out life as a circus clown (doing everything from juggling to Hula-Hooping).

Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays-Fridays; 1:30, 4:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays; 12:30, 3:30 and 6:30 p.m. Sundays, through March 26. Tickets are $25-$75 for ages 11 and up and $20-$60 for children ages 2 to 10. Visit circusvargas.com or call 877-468-3861.

 

Circus coming to Califon for 7th year running May 17
Posted: Sunday, March 11, 2012
From:  newjerseyhills.com
By DEB DAWSON, Contributing Writer
CALIFON - For the seventh year, the Califon School Parent Teacher Association (PTA) is bringing a circus to town at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Thursday, May 17.

The Zerbini Family Circus will present the two shows at Califon Island Park. Tickets are $10 and can be obtained by contacting Kim Nodoro at (908) 832-0660.

The Borough Council unanimously approved the application at its Monday, March 5 public meeting, provided Nodoro has appropriate insurance, police coverage, a parking plan, and the participation of the fire marshal.

Parent volunteers are expected to monitor the parking situation. Residents of Califon should plan to walk  or bicycle to the event to prevent parking problems, Nodoro said.

This is a fundraiser for the Class of 2013 class trip. The PTA will get half of the proceeds from each of the two shows.

Magic of Shrine Circus Brightens Up Day for Hundreds


 

By: KOLR10 Newsroom
March 11, 2012
(Springfield) -- Hundreds of people experienced the magic of the the Shrine Circus today at the Shrine Mosque.

It was vibrant and colorful compared to this gray day with dozens of acts including acrobatics, talented canine performers and Siberian tigers.

The circus travels more than 40,000 miles each year in the United States and Canada. The season lasts 42 weeks, during which part of the time the circus has two units on the road.

The show runs march 8 through march 18. Advance tickets for kids are $11. Adults are $15. You can get those tickets at price cutter grocery stores.

The cost will be a dollar more if you buy at the door. If you go on Shriner hospital nights, $2 of that ticket will benefit children's hospitals.

Life in the circus


 

By: Michael Knox | Independent Tribune
Published: March 07, 2012
Growing up, people often referred to me as a freak of human nature. So it sort of makes sense that I actually traveled with the Clyde Beatty Cole Bros. Circus as a child.

While most parents were sending their kids away to summer camp, I spent my summers traveling the east coast with my grandparents, who worked for the circus. I’m actually a third-generation circus traveler.

My grandparents, Charles and Alice Harris, started everything, joining the Clyde Beatty Cole Bros. Circus, with my grandmother selling souvenirs and my grandfather working as the circus welder. The second generation consisted of my aunts and uncles (my mother did not enjoy the traveling circus life at all), who included an elephant rider, a clown and a concession stand salesman who also helped put up the circus tent.

As a little boy I got to experience traveling from town to town, helping put up the circus tent — the old-fashioned way, with elephants pulling up the tent, not this newfangled hydraulic stuff you see today — and when my grandparents weren’t paying attention I’d often hitch a ride on my “pet” elephant, Pete.

Those days of nostalgia still stick with me as some of the best times of my life. I got to work with the clowns, sell cotton candy and be a part of the excitement.

That’s why I’m looking forward to the Piccadilly Circus coming to town at the Cabarrus Arena & Events Center. Oh sure, it’s not an old-fashioned tent circus, like the one I helped put up. But it’s keeping the tradition alive. It’s a culture I’m very fond of, and when I took a break from newspapers, I delved into that world again as a filmmaker.

Naturally, my first project was “Tearing Down the Tent,” a documentary that had my friend, Jamie Reel, run away and join the circus for a week. He got to do all the things I did as a child: riding the elephant, helping make cotton candy and working with the clowns. He also got to do some things I didn’t get to do until I was an adult, including working with the camels and standing in the Moto-Globe of Doom with a motorcycle racing around my head at 35 mph.

It makes me happy that these traditions are being kept alive with my own family circus, now called Cole Bros. Circus, still on the road putting up the tent and traveling from town to town. And even if Piccadilly Circus doesn’t put up a tent, choosing to operate in a coliseum instead, it still keeps that tradition alive.

This year’s performance of Piccadilly Circus looks to have clowns, elephants and even its own version of The Moto-Globe of Death.

And it’s funny: Something about the circus still makes me feel young. When we were filming the documentary, I remember feeling connected to the circus, making cotton candy and popcorn one of my main meals on a daily basis — and setting the stage for potential diabetes!

Those memories helped me make the “Tearing Down the Tent” documentary, which is a love letter to my childhood. And the best compliment I get from people when they watch it is, “Wow! Now I want to go see a real circus.”

Hopefully more people will feel that way, especially after seeing the Piccadilly Circus this week. It’s a grand tradition full of freaks and clowns and energy and fun.

I just wonder if they have a human cannonball.

Economy, weather doomed State Fair after move to Caroline 



 Food, cash and splash at the State Fair of Virginia (Added: October 04, 2011) Video of a day at the 2011 edition of the Virginia State Fair. Because of financial problems, there might not be a state fair in 2012. 
By: Louis Llovio Times-Dispatch
 Updated: March 11, 2012 - 12:00 AM
 If its officers had wanted to, the State Fair of Virginia could have stayed at its longtime home at the Richmond International Raceway Complex in Henrico County. Before the fair made the move to Caroline County in 2009, a multiyear agreement to stay at RIR was on the table. But, as Shakespeare wrote, "Timing is all." SFVA Inc. — the nonprofit that organized and operated the fair until filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and closing down Wednesday — had been eager to find a new home since selling the Henrico fairgrounds to RIR in 1999. In 2003 it purchased The Meadow Farm — a 360-acre property in Caroline County best known as the birthplace of Triple Crown winner Secretariat. SFVA began laying plans to transform the bucolic property into a modern multipurpose facility, eventually securing a $75 million loan package. But the economy began falling apart in 2008 and SVFA's financing was in jeopardy even before it opened its first fair at the renamed Meadow Event Park in the fall of 2009. The long market slump combined with bad weather and other problems at the new site proved to be too much to survive for a Virginia institution established before the Civil War.

R J REYNOLD'S VISITS:
COLE BROS CIRCUS
2000

Spring is on it's way and soon Cole Bros will begin it's 2012 tour. Here are some photo's of it's early 2000 edition.

 RJ Reynolds

 

 

 

 

BACK IN TIME---

AND A MUCH BETTER TIME IT WAS!

Catapulting circus careers


 

Performers from Big Star Circus at the last Catapult Festival. 
MARYANNE JAQUES, ARTS OUTWEST
from: westernadvocate.com.au
11 Mar, 2012 


When the biennial Catapult Festival begins on March 28, many of the country’s best circus and physical theatre performers will have made the pilgrimage to Bathurst to share their skills, knowledge and the spirit of circus with young troupes and emerging talents. 
The national festival, always held in Bathurst, has developed a reputation for spring-boarding connections between young circus artists and playing an important part in the early careers of trainers and performers. 


“Before I moved here from Adelaide, this festival is what I knew Bathurst for,” festival coordinator Peta Johnson said. 


“Catapult has a massive reputation in the Australian circus community and is now the official national youth circus festival supported by ACAPTA, who are the Australian Circus and Physical Theatre Association.”


Boosting this focus on professional development, a new element in the 2012 festival is the “Merging Emerging Artists” project. 


With the backing of Festivals Australia, the project will support twelve young emerging circus and physical theatre artists from regional, remote and metropolitan Australia while they spend ten days together in Bathurst, prior to and during the Festival. 


“They will work with Simone Obrien from Legs On The Wall. The other director will be Kirk Page who is an indigenous circus/ physical theatre/ dance performer,” Ms Johsnon said. 


Catapult has also joined forces with the Aboriginal Performing Arts Program at Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre. Catapult will host a program titled “Circus Mob”, a gathering of Indigenous circus trainers and those with expertise working with indigenous groups during the festival.


This program will then launch a local, long-term Aboriginal circus and physical theatre troupe in the region. 


While the festival focuses on skill development and networking for Australia’s youth circus troupes, there are plenty of public performances for locals to enjoy. 


“Other special guests include hot new contemporary circus group Casus, who have just rocked out Byron Bay. They are currently at the Adelaide Fringe and they will end March at Catapult showing their new work Knee Deep at the Opening Performance of the Festival,” Ms Johnson said. 
read more:
http://www.westernadvocate.com.au/news/local/news/genera

Cirque To Replace Elvis With Zarkana

Saturday 3/10/12




Radio City Music Hall trailer for “Zarkana.”Associated Press

Cirque du Soleil says it will replace its tribute to Elvis Presley on the Las Vegas Strip with a touring show that will have a summer run in New York.

The Montreal-based circus troupe announced Wednesday that “Zarkana” would replace “Viva Elvis” at the Aria Resort & Casino after the final show for “Viva Elvis” in August. An opening date hasn’t been announced for “Zarkana.”

“Zarkana” is a 12-act, 75-performer “acrobatic rock opera” that opened to mixed reviews in New York last year before moving on to Moscow and Madrid.

The show has a loose plot centered around a magician trying to find a lost love.

Cirque will have seven concurrent shows in Sin City after “Zarkana” and “Michael Jackson: Immortal” open resident shows here this year.

Circus Imagination brings smiles and creativity to the children of the Valley





By LAURA GONZALEZ
from: ivpressonline.com
March 10, 2012
Tina the tightrope walker started to climb the 100 feet in the air she needed to reach the rope. Once she got to the top, the music started and she hesitated to take the first step.


“Here she comes, one foot and now the next foot,” said the circus master, giving her the confidence she needed to walk across the rope.


Slowly she made it to the end. The crowd was cheering and clapping.


Tina is 3 years old. Her real name is Siuleth Torres and she was able to do the dangerous trick by using her imagination.


That’s what the California Mid-Winter Fair & Fiesta Circus Imagination act is all about.

In 1994 Caton Raintree-Hegwer’s father and a friend had an idea to create a circus where children from the audience were the performers of the show.


Raintree-Hegwer grew up traveling with the circus and helping his father put on the show.


“Because I was raised in the circus, I have been in every single act in the circus at one point or another,” Raintree-Hegwer said.


After his father retired, Raintree-Hegwer took on the family business and since then has been traveling with his wife, who helps make the costumes and dresses up the children just as his mother did before them.


For 25 years the family has seen multiple generations of families enjoy the show.


“It’s been really fascinating to watch families grow up throughout the years being in the circus and then bringing their kids eventually,” said Raintree-Hegwer.


They are based in Sacramento but travel along the West Coast to participate in fairs and private parties.


Their normal working season starts in March and ends in November. When they are not out on the road, they are creating new costumes and characters for the show.


“We try to fix them up and make new ones every few years,” he said.

 

The idea of the circus is to get children away from video games and have them play with their imagination to help them get more creative.


Raintree-Hegwer said that children are special because they have the resource of their imagination.


“I don’t know what happens, but as we get older, adults tend to lose that fascinating desire to go out, to create and to imagine,” he said.


To Raintree-Hegwer, there is no greater feeling than starting your day putting up a circus and making children happy.


“This is the best job that I’ve ever had and I don’t think I’ll ever quit it,” Raintree-Hegwer said. “It’s just too much fun.”

Zembo Shrine Circus offers magic under the Big Top



\ 

Bicycle group
By Matthew McLaughlin, Sentinel Reporter 
from: cunberlink.com
March 9, 2012 
Over the past 65 years, the amount of entertainment at our fingertips has increased by leaps and bounds, but there's nothing that can take the place of the magic found under the Big Top.

So put away your smart phones, tablets and laptops for the March 14 return of the annual Zembo Shrine Circus.

Held in Zembo Shrine Center Auditorium, 2801 N. Third St., Harrisburg, the circus is celebrating its 65th year with 10 shows March 14 through 18.

Parking for all shows is free, and general admission is $12. Group discounts are available, and certain shows are offering $5 tickets for students and scouts.

For ticket information call 236-7241 or visit www.zembo.org.

Proceeds from the event go towards the upkeep of the Shrine Center, which was built in the 1920s and was inspired by Moroccan architecture.

Showtime

In addition to the Zembo Clown Unit, which has been entertaining audiences since 1965, this year’s circus features a number of exciting acts.

Among them are Ricky and Chance, the only performing chimpanzees in the circus world today, according to the circus.

Also in the show will be the death-defying crossbow act, a quick change artist, acrobatics, sword balancing and the Globe of Death, where the Dominguez Thrill Riders defy gravity and sanity riding their motorcycles in a steel cage.

“It’s a good circus and it’s priced right for the people,” said Zembo Circus Media Chairman Larry Mummert. “They’re getting a real decent deal for a family event.”




Read more: http://cumberlink.com/entertainment/local-scene/zembo-shrine-circus-offers-magic-under-the-big-top/article_96bb3e1e-6987-11e1-b0f7-001871e3ce6c.html#ixzz1ooCxOo8A

ZEMBO SHRINE CIRCUS (CONT'D)

 

 

 

 

Pinal county fair: Godfrey bringing his magic, humor back


 

Godfrey the Magician
By SUSAN RANDALL,Staff Writer
from: trivalleycentral.com
March 9, 2012
ELEVEN MILE CORNER — One of Pinal County’s favorite tricksters will be back at the fair again this year.


Godfrey the Magician will climb something never seen before in Pinal County — a ladder made with six sharpened machetes for rungs.


Godfrey said the machete ladder walk is “dangerous, exciting and still very funny.”


“I do it barefoot,” he said during a telephone interview from his home near San Diego.


“I’m lucky I don’t cut my foot. It’s an old side-show stunt that I learned when I traveled on the circus.”


That was the “Circus of the Fantastic,” which Godfrey joined after graduating from East High School in Phoenix. He learned the stunt from Amanda Vanteen, the “Indestructible Child” of circus owner C. Vanteen. Godfrey said he did 12 to 18 shows a day as the circus’ magician, fire eater and announcer for the alligator boy.


The last time he climbed the machete ladder was two years ago at a theater in Reno, Nev.


“It played pretty well,” he said. “It’s pretty wild.”


Godfrey also will perform many of his favorite tricks and stunts from previous years, including Stinky, the mind-reading skunk.
read more at:
http://www.trivalleycentral.com/articles/2012/03/09/maricopa_monitor/news/doc4f5a46abeeeaa918556218.txt

KYLE FRANKO: Refereeing the Globetrotters is tougher than it looks 
By KYLE FRANKO
from: trentonian.com
March 10, 2012
TRENTON, NJ--

Yes, I should go back to Foot Locker.

At least that’s what Hi-Lite of the Harlem Globetrotters told me after I finished my short stint as a special guest referee during the first of their two games Saturday at the Sun National Bank Center.

Let me say, Hi-Lite’s right: I’m no good as a referee.

It’s a tough job officiating the Harlem Globetrotters. Hi-Lite spent most of his time picking on the slightly-robust lead official. Then again, that’s all part of the show.

When the Harlem Globetrotters roll into town, people show up. They are two-hour comedy routine of high-flying dunks, dancing, signing and all-around shenanigans.

The Trotters are on their 86th consecutive World Tour. The U.S. portion lasts until mid-April before they head abroad.

They play for the “World Championship,” against whomever their hapless opponent is on that particular day. Saturday it was General Select. Predictably, the Globetrotters won — I think the final score was 110-107 — with their array of alley-oop slams and 4-point shots.

By the way, how cool is the 4-point shot — a 35-foot heave the Trotters seem to be adept at swishing? Firefly Fisher, who played his college ball at Siena, made five in a row.

Read that again: five in a row from 35-feet. Simply amazing.

read more at:

http://www.trentonian.com/articles/2012/03/10/sports/doc4f5c1c1eaa470769742348.txt