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taz_39**Disclaimer** The views and opinions expressed in this post are my own, and do not reflect the views or opinions of my employer. DO NOT RESHARE ANY PART OF THIS POST WITHOUT PERMISSION. Thank you.
This post covers Monday and Tuesday.
--- --- --- --- --- ---
MONDAY
Woke up wishing to spend the entire day in bed. But no, I've made promises.
At least I'll get to spend PART of the day in bed?
Breakfast and prepping the room for housekeeping, though at time of typing they haven't come by and I think they may not come until Tuesday. That's ok.
Yesterday I had tried to check out the SEPTA subway system here, knowing it's the easiest way to get to Xfinity Arena, but could not for the life of me find an open subway entrance within two blocks of the hotel. Today
ringsandcoffee kindly spoonfed me the info that the Walnut/Locust station was definitely open (which I could have discovered had I downloaded the SEPTA app. Which I did posthaste because I felt guilty that ringsandcoffee had had to take time out of their day to hold my tourist hand.)
The circus show started at noon. The train ride was about 30 minutes plus of course walking to the arena and getting in, finding a seat, etc. Before that, I walked over to a bagel shop for some lovely fluffy bagels for the week. Then to Reading Terminal Market for an early lunch: cheesesteak stuffed pretzel from Miller's Twist!
Being from PA I've had cheesesteak many times, but never in this form. The chewy, savory, shaved steak, coupled with silky American cheese and wrapped in fluffy buttery addictive pretzel....oh MAN it was good! If I lived here now I'd be in trouble, wanting to eat this all the time!!
Anyway, got to the arena and had not trouble getting in and finding my seat.
Nearly a decade later, I am still surprised at how much it hurts me to be here...to see this. Those who have followed this blog since my circus days might understand. The five years I spent with Ringling Bros--when it was still actually The Greatest Show On Earth, and there were animals and clowns, and we traveled the country by train--are a huge part of who I am today. It was more than a job. It was a lifestyle. It was a family. And as any OG circus person will tell you, the way it all came to an end broke our hearts. I am not exaggerating when I say that the closing of Ringling Bros., after 146 years, felt as though a loved one had died.
Even nine years later, apparently there is still grieving to be done. Being here today and seeing this scene made my chest tight, made my eyes sting. To be in this arena and seeing the "three rings," which are now just floor projections and mats. And the portal, which is no longer elephant-sized, and is missing the bandstands to the left and right.
How can I describe it...seeing it this way hurts in the same way as watching an old home movie of someone you love, who's passed away. You want to watch, but it also makes your heart ache.
Well, it's a new show now. Honestly the best part for me was watching and listening to the families and children around me as they took it all in! I loved to see the kids dancing, their excitement if they were picked to be on the big screen, and they way they interacted with the clowns--I mean, er, I guess we're not supposed to use the "C" word now? Whatever we're calling these guys:
This circus is a lot more "kiddie" than Past Ringling, but that's not a bad thing. There's a Boston Robotics dog(?) named Bailey who helps out with the clown gags, and a dragon mascot named P.T. (get it? P.T. Barnum) who breakdances and interacts with a DJ. Yes, a DJ instead of a band. That was the one other thing I'll be negative about, is to say that the athletes performing have no one to "catch tricks" for them.
"Catching tricks" describes when the band goes into a vamp (repeating loop of music) until the performer does their trick, and then "catches the trick" by playing super-exciting music to complement the trick in real time. Another thing related to this is sound effects, which were especially needed in the clown gags. They keyboardists mostly handled the playing of sound effects to complement what the clowns were doing, and the drummer was prominent with "catching tricks" also, but all of us had a hand in the end effect, which was to tailor the music EXACTLY to what was happening in real time. That doesn't happen any longer.
Here's a clown gag, where you can hear the keyboardists playing sound effects and the drummer "catching tricks." You can see that the drummer has a little monitor that allows him to see what's happening better, so he can do symbol crashes and stuff when people fall down, etc. At 00:47 the band is in a vamp, and at 00:56 we move out of the vamp according to what the clowns are doing. You can tell by how the music changes.
Anyway, otherwise, my overall impression today was that it's a good show for kids. There were lots of impressive acts including Wheel of Death, Trapeze, a bicycle act where people made human pyramids while riding in a circle, several clown gags, and several dance numbers and call-and-response portions to get the audience hyped up. The female Ringmaster had great stage presence and a good voice, and she could rap really fast which was impressive.
Unfortunately I must be bad luck, because during a 4-man high act the base-man of one of their pyramids wrenched his shoulder and it looked like he barely made it through the rest of the act. Followed by one of the Wheel of Death dudes tripping on his jump rope, on top of the moving wheel, and falling to the ground. Thankfully he wasn't very high up when it happened, but he twisted his ankle and had to be helped off.
(Fun fact: the man helping him off is Alex Vargas, who has been with Ringling/Feld for essentially his entire life. He was a trapeze artist.)
No one seemed BADLY hurt, which is good. These people are athletes, and injuries are common, just like with sports.
I saw a few "recycled" costumes throughout the show, too. These pink cheerleader dresses are originally from a show I was on (see a clip of them in use HERE) and are now being used in a contortionist act.
The finale was the Human Cannon. I was amused to see that the cannon they're using is also recycled from a 2012 show.
The Human Cannon is always impressive! (Though when I was in the circus, they additionally lit the person on FIRE...)
Photo of the pre-takeoff pose.
After the show, Rob (friend and manager who got me the ticket) came out to say hello and share some tea about who's-dating-who, who's still around from the previous Ringling show, stuff like that. But it was load out day for them, so I thanked him and hugged him and wished him "See you down the road" as circus people do. Grateful that I got to see this show. A lot has changed, but it's good that the circus is still a source of fun and entertainment for so many.
Back at the hotel it took a long time to type up this post. By the time I was finished it was dinnertime! Since Tuesday would be non-stop, I decided to give myself a chill evening in and go to bed early.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This post was split into two parts because it's long. The next post will cover Tuesday.
This post covers Monday and Tuesday.
--- --- --- --- --- ---
MONDAY
Woke up wishing to spend the entire day in bed. But no, I've made promises.
At least I'll get to spend PART of the day in bed?
Breakfast and prepping the room for housekeeping, though at time of typing they haven't come by and I think they may not come until Tuesday. That's ok.
Yesterday I had tried to check out the SEPTA subway system here, knowing it's the easiest way to get to Xfinity Arena, but could not for the life of me find an open subway entrance within two blocks of the hotel. Today
ringsandcoffee kindly spoonfed me the info that the Walnut/Locust station was definitely open (which I could have discovered had I downloaded the SEPTA app. Which I did posthaste because I felt guilty that ringsandcoffee had had to take time out of their day to hold my tourist hand.)The circus show started at noon. The train ride was about 30 minutes plus of course walking to the arena and getting in, finding a seat, etc. Before that, I walked over to a bagel shop for some lovely fluffy bagels for the week. Then to Reading Terminal Market for an early lunch: cheesesteak stuffed pretzel from Miller's Twist!
Being from PA I've had cheesesteak many times, but never in this form. The chewy, savory, shaved steak, coupled with silky American cheese and wrapped in fluffy buttery addictive pretzel....oh MAN it was good! If I lived here now I'd be in trouble, wanting to eat this all the time!!
Anyway, got to the arena and had not trouble getting in and finding my seat.
Nearly a decade later, I am still surprised at how much it hurts me to be here...to see this. Those who have followed this blog since my circus days might understand. The five years I spent with Ringling Bros--when it was still actually The Greatest Show On Earth, and there were animals and clowns, and we traveled the country by train--are a huge part of who I am today. It was more than a job. It was a lifestyle. It was a family. And as any OG circus person will tell you, the way it all came to an end broke our hearts. I am not exaggerating when I say that the closing of Ringling Bros., after 146 years, felt as though a loved one had died.
Even nine years later, apparently there is still grieving to be done. Being here today and seeing this scene made my chest tight, made my eyes sting. To be in this arena and seeing the "three rings," which are now just floor projections and mats. And the portal, which is no longer elephant-sized, and is missing the bandstands to the left and right.
How can I describe it...seeing it this way hurts in the same way as watching an old home movie of someone you love, who's passed away. You want to watch, but it also makes your heart ache.
Well, it's a new show now. Honestly the best part for me was watching and listening to the families and children around me as they took it all in! I loved to see the kids dancing, their excitement if they were picked to be on the big screen, and they way they interacted with the clowns--I mean, er, I guess we're not supposed to use the "C" word now? Whatever we're calling these guys:
This circus is a lot more "kiddie" than Past Ringling, but that's not a bad thing. There's a Boston Robotics dog(?) named Bailey who helps out with the clown gags, and a dragon mascot named P.T. (get it? P.T. Barnum) who breakdances and interacts with a DJ. Yes, a DJ instead of a band. That was the one other thing I'll be negative about, is to say that the athletes performing have no one to "catch tricks" for them.
"Catching tricks" describes when the band goes into a vamp (repeating loop of music) until the performer does their trick, and then "catches the trick" by playing super-exciting music to complement the trick in real time. Another thing related to this is sound effects, which were especially needed in the clown gags. They keyboardists mostly handled the playing of sound effects to complement what the clowns were doing, and the drummer was prominent with "catching tricks" also, but all of us had a hand in the end effect, which was to tailor the music EXACTLY to what was happening in real time. That doesn't happen any longer.
Here's a clown gag, where you can hear the keyboardists playing sound effects and the drummer "catching tricks." You can see that the drummer has a little monitor that allows him to see what's happening better, so he can do symbol crashes and stuff when people fall down, etc. At 00:47 the band is in a vamp, and at 00:56 we move out of the vamp according to what the clowns are doing. You can tell by how the music changes.
Anyway, otherwise, my overall impression today was that it's a good show for kids. There were lots of impressive acts including Wheel of Death, Trapeze, a bicycle act where people made human pyramids while riding in a circle, several clown gags, and several dance numbers and call-and-response portions to get the audience hyped up. The female Ringmaster had great stage presence and a good voice, and she could rap really fast which was impressive.
Unfortunately I must be bad luck, because during a 4-man high act the base-man of one of their pyramids wrenched his shoulder and it looked like he barely made it through the rest of the act. Followed by one of the Wheel of Death dudes tripping on his jump rope, on top of the moving wheel, and falling to the ground. Thankfully he wasn't very high up when it happened, but he twisted his ankle and had to be helped off.
(Fun fact: the man helping him off is Alex Vargas, who has been with Ringling/Feld for essentially his entire life. He was a trapeze artist.)
No one seemed BADLY hurt, which is good. These people are athletes, and injuries are common, just like with sports.
I saw a few "recycled" costumes throughout the show, too. These pink cheerleader dresses are originally from a show I was on (see a clip of them in use HERE) and are now being used in a contortionist act.
The finale was the Human Cannon. I was amused to see that the cannon they're using is also recycled from a 2012 show.
The Human Cannon is always impressive! (Though when I was in the circus, they additionally lit the person on FIRE...)
Photo of the pre-takeoff pose.
After the show, Rob (friend and manager who got me the ticket) came out to say hello and share some tea about who's-dating-who, who's still around from the previous Ringling show, stuff like that. But it was load out day for them, so I thanked him and hugged him and wished him "See you down the road" as circus people do. Grateful that I got to see this show. A lot has changed, but it's good that the circus is still a source of fun and entertainment for so many.
Back at the hotel it took a long time to type up this post. By the time I was finished it was dinnertime! Since Tuesday would be non-stop, I decided to give myself a chill evening in and go to bed early.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This post was split into two parts because it's long. The next post will cover Tuesday.
no subject
Date: 2026-02-18 03:38 pm (UTC)I understand these things happen, but always unfortunate when they do.
I’m glad the show is back in some way. I remember seeing it many times growing up and was sad when it closed.
I can only image how much stronger than must be for you who lived it.