The Circus

Yesterday, Sunday August 24, we took Alex to the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus – The Greatest Show on Earth!

Alex is smiling and happy even though I took away his beloved Green Bay Packers hat so there would not be a shadow on his face for the picture. He closed his eyes instead. Oh, well, I tried!

We paused for a picture in the parking lot in front of one of the trailers.

On our way in, Frank and Alex pose beside one of the circus trailers in the parking lot.
The show was held at the HP Pavilion in San Jose.

Our seats were in Row 2 of Section 207 right on the aisle near Section 208 so we had a midline view of all the activities. And since we were at a balcony level we had a great overall panorama of all that was going on. Even though we were not close, Alex stayed engaged and clapped for most of the show.

We sat in Section 207 off to the right in the photo. An added perk to our seat location was that at intermission I scooted right out and was first in line to get us hot dogs and chicken strips for lunch.

There was a pre-show where ticket holders could go down to the ring for a closeup look. This is the view we had of the pre-show.

One of the elephants was painting. There was also a mini-act with a juggler and of course some clown activity. The pre-show floor option was open to all ticket holders and not just VIPs. 

We did not think Alex would enjoy standing with his view blocked by other people so we stayed in our seats. Besides, Alex was diligently working on devouring his large tub of popcorn. When we asked him if he wanted to go down to the circus floor level he vehemently shook his head no. He was settled in waiting for the show to begin. He wanted to eat his popcorn and leaf through the big glossy program we bought him.

Alex is watching the pre-show.
For the moment he is letting Frank look at his program in the background.

The show itself had a wide variety of performing animals: elephants, galloping horses, tigers, lions, dogs, goats, huge hogs, llamas, even a "unicorn", "pegasus", and "wooly mammoth".  Of the animal acts, I think Alex liked the energetic dogs best although he did recognize and point to the elephants.

This year's circus theme was Legends.

There were clowns (of course), trapeze artists, acrobatic gymnasts, diabolo (spool) tossing jugglers, and amazing high-wire motorcycle and human pyramid bicycle riding daredevils. In one dramatic motorcycle act, eight at once rode at high speed inside a huge steel sphere and they made a LOT of NOISE – pretty much as loud as the fireworks that started the show off with a big bang. Alex liked the motorcycles a lot and squealed with glee at the cacophony.

Frank and I had not been to a circus in a while and really enjoyed it. We were a bit surprised at a subtly different approach. There seemed to be no one super star. The ringmaster, although very good, was not an extremely commanding presence. The acts seemed to engage the audience based on sheer number of performers, be they people or animals, doing the same identical action but in sync with each other. Quantity versus quality seems too harsh a way to put it since the feats performed were impressive and there was a wide variety in the acts. But there were not a lot of "Oh wow's!" Synchronicity dominated difficulty. It worked well for Alex and so it worked well for us. We are planning to go again next year. I would recommend going. You do not need the excuse of having a little kid to take. Indulge the inner child in yourself and stuff your face with some popcorn.

A parade of elephants marched out mid-way during the grand finale
during which just about all the performers appeared for a last bow.