THE BALLOON MAN

A circus full of heroic feats

Ivan Vargas, left, and other clowns are waiting to share the circus experience with their guests.Ivan Vargas, left, and other clowns are waiting to share the circus experience with their guests.

from: timesleader.com

By Mary Therese Biebel 

April 10. 2014

When Ivan Vargas was growing up, he didn’t have to look far to find his heroes.

He wanted to be like his parents, Alejandro and Lolis Vargas, who were both acrobats.

“They did flying trapeze, literally flying through the air,” he said. “They were superheroes to me.”

Trained as an acrobat, gymnast and tumbler himself, today 23-year-old Ivan Vargas is one of the personable clowns you’ll meet if you attend the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus from Thursday through April 19 at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Wilkes-Barre Township.

This show is billed as “Super Circus Heroes,” Vargas said, and audiences will find four-legged as well as two-legged heroes to admire.

“There’s a dog in the show that we call Buster,” he said, offering an example. “In the story, Buster actually becomes a super dog. Every time a circus performer becomes a superhero, we bring a cape to them.”

“There’s a dog in the show that we call Buster,” he said, offering an example. “In the story, Buster actually becomes a super dog. Every time a circus performer becomes a superhero, we bring a cape to them.”

So Buster will get a cape. Does he get to fly?

“We haven’t mastered that,” Vargas said with a laugh.

But the circus performers have mastered other remarkable feats. Look for the Shaolin Warriors to “shatter solid steel bars with their foreheads,” one of the Cuban Comets to launch from a teeterboard into “a quadruple back flip, caught by a chair held in mid-air,” and for the Lopez family to conduct “a daring high-wire swordfight packed with accelerated footwork and inconceivable balance upon a pencil-thin wire high above the arena floor.”

In addition to Buster, various other dogs, ponies, Asian elephants and camels are part ofthe circus, and ticket-holders can watch some of them get ready for the performance if they come to the pre-show.

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http://timesleader.com/news/guide/1304669/A-circus-full-of-heroic-feats