On Wednesday night at uptown’s Spectrum Center, I saw something I can absolutely guarantee you that I will never, ever see again, for as long as I live: figure skaters, daredevil motorcyclists, wire-walkers, horses, aerialists, contortionists, unicyclists, shirtless Segway riders, clowns, a tiger, a circus ringmaster and a dwarf – all performing under one roof at the same time.
This bonkers mash-up of sensory overload comes less than 15 minutes into Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey’s “Out Of This World” tour, playing now through Sunday in Charlotte and representing the circus’s final run of performances here before Feld Entertainment shuts it down forever in May.
That’s right; this is it. You basically have just four more days/nights to decide whether you’re curious enough to step away from the Facebook, or the e-book, or the Xbox, or the Netflix, and see how much greatness “The Greatest Show on Earth” has left to offer.
In my opinion? I say go. Here’s why – and I think this speaks to the brilliance of the essence of the idea behind the circus’s danger acts: You never know if this might be the night.
As in, you never know if this might be the night that the lion attacks his trainer. You never know if this might be the night that the high-wire-walker loses his balance and fails to recover. You never know if this might be the night that the eight motorcycles that are flooring it inside a 16-foot-wide spherical cage might suddenly find themselves in a massive wreck.
I’m not saying I go in hoping bad things will happen. But there’s no question that part of the thrill of sitting in the crowd for a Ringling Bros. show is simply not knowing. It’s watching the performers make progressively riskier and riskier moves and thinking to yourself, Holy cow, there is no net underneath this guy.
Although, maybe that’s a poor example, because the flying trapeze artists, for instance, do in fact have a net underneath them. And for all their grace and skill and strength and dexterity, we look at them sailing through the air with the greatest of ease and go, If they fall, eh – because they’ll just bounce to their feet, smile, wave and climb back up to the platform.
Better example: Big Cat Trainer Alexander Lacey? He’s not wearing a suit of armor. He’s not wielding a taser or a samurai sword. He’s trapped inside an enclosure with eight tigers and four lions, each about twice his size. They’re well-trained, sure; but so was Tilikum, the orca who killed two of her trainers.
That’s why, when one of the Bengal tigers bares its three-inch teeth or swipes at the air with its four-inch claws, a visceral uneasiness quickly creeps over me.
Then there are the best examples: Midway through the second half of Wednesday’s 133-minute show, the crowd gasped as members of the Chinese ice acrobatic performing troupe who were skating on stilts got crossed up and crashed to the ice, drawing gasps from the crowd.
During the very next act – involving Cossack riders performing stunts while whipping around a banked ring on the backs of galloping horses – one fell off and nearly got trampled, the whole team narrowly avoiding an equine pile-up. It was scary and magnificent at once, and proof that these are people pushing themselves to the limit to provide thrills.
These are the kinds of things that I’ll miss about the circus.
The filler, meanwhile, I can do without. For instance, there’s a new storyline pitting ringmaster Johnathan Lee Iverson and “Intergalactic Queen Tatiana” against each other in a battle for circus stars and some sort of magic telescope, but while they play their parts with relish, I just couldn’t get excited about it and I saw lots of kids fidgeting during plot-heavy sections that served as breaks in the action.
What I came for was the performers who work without wires or nets. And the lions. And the tigers. I would have come for the elephants, too – although, of course, they were retired last May.
But I’ll tell you, there’s one other unexpected thing I’ll miss about the circus, one other thing I noticed as I waited in line to get in, as I settled into my seat, and again as I headed to the exits after the lights came up at the end: Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey is a remarkably unifying spectacle.
Yes, on Wednesday night at uptown’s Spectrum Center, I saw something that I don’t see nearly as often as I’d like to in Charlotte: a rich mix of races, colors, religions, creeds, sexes, sexual orientations and ages – all being entertained under one roof at the same time.
In what’s become a shockingly divisive time in our country’s history, losing a piece of popular culture that promotes so much wonder and awe among such a diverse crowd is a loss for America indeed.
Janes: 704-358-5897;
Twitter: @theodenjanes
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Presents ‘Out Of This World’
The final tour is being described as “a cosmic voyage that takes families to space to witness incredible acrobatic performances on various planets introduced through lead characters and a good versus evil storyline.”
When: 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday; 11 a.m., 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday; and 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Sunday.
Where: Spectrum Center, 333 E. Trade St.
Tickets: $20 and up. VIP and front-row seating is limited.
Details: 800-745-3000; www.ticketmaster.com.
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
