Circus Fun!

A few weeks ago, I saw that the circus was coming to town. Since Tony and I went back in 2006, I’ve wanted to go again, but have been waiting until William is old enough to enjoy it.

We got there early, they open the gates 90 minutes before show time so you can see all their animals. William was enthralled with the elephants. The big cats were behind two fences and netting, understandably given that they were like 5 feet away from us, but made it hard to really see them. They had 2 kangaroos, a pig and the usual assortment of goats and dogs.

When the show started, their ringmaster came out and, whoa!!, he is incredibly talented and his singing voice is astonishing. I was so very impressed by him that I actually took the time to look up who he is and find out a bit about the man. Andre McClain is his name, and here’s his bio according to the Ringling Bros. website (link). The internet yielded (among other things) that he’s a newlywed, he married his wife (also a circus performer) at a surprise circus wedding, and that he’s a multi-talented rancher and has been with the circus since 2003, only recently taking up the reins as ringmaster. So cool.

William enjoyed most of it, like the elephants, the big cats, the trapeze show and the gymnastics floor show. I guess the only part he really didn’t care for was the motorcycles in a cage. He said that was too loud and spent most of that time in Tony’s arms with his ears covered. Although, apparently it wasn’t so loud that he couldn’t fall asleep and take a surprise hour long nap. Thankfully, the bulk of his nap fell over the intermission and when he woke up, he was surprised to see the pig and dog show that was happening.

One of the funniest parts was a clown who came out and balanced on the wall in front of us, and then proceeded to walk on that wall all the way around the stadium in his big ass clown shoes. Of course, he did it during intermission when my arms were full of a sleeping William (so no pictures). The other funny part was when the motorcycle on a wire came out with a trapeze artist underneath him and he was right above us. Surprised, William jumped and then said, “What the heck are they doing up there?”

Of course, we did the souvenir picture… we had to. So we could do the comparison picture.