THE BALLOON MAN

Tim Grobaty: Catch a circus with that Old World Italian charm

Circus Zoppé founded in Italy in 1842 and still owned by the same family, comes to the Queen Mary for shows tonight, Saturday and Sunday.
By Tim Grobaty, Columnist
From:  presstelegram.com
09/27/2012
Long Beach, CA--ONE-RING CIRCUS: We were all excited about sending you to see the great Lily Tomlin Saturday night at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center, but then we found out - and this is no big surprise - that the show is sold out, so you've either already scored a ticket and don't need us telling you what to do, or we've just given you some great news (Lily Tomlin is in town!) followed by cripplingly bad news (show's sold out).

We feel horrible now. Here, have a circus:

Circus Zoppe is not only an old-school circus, it's an old-school, Old World circus thrown in the grand Italian tradition in just one, easy-to-watch ring instead of the unwieldy three that greedy short-attention-span- having modern man has come to expect from a circus.

With Circus Zoppe you get the ham and eggs of circus acts: clowns, acrobats, canine capers and audience participation.

The circus comes to town tonight at 8 at the Queen Mary, with additional performances at 1, 4 and 7 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m., 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $25 and $30.