Midweek Mixorama: Rings of Promise Come My Way ...

At the edge of every vacant ring, I wax hopeful. This may be the One. This may be a tentbuster. Indeed, in my program, the most intriguing thing about the American circus is how unpredictable it can be — and I am talking ALL shows — from the tinniest to the tallest. In any, a star may appear ... If chasing the red wagons has taught me anything I can count on, it is that any show can drastically change from one season to the next, for a changing lineup of acts and other variables (direction or lack of) spell the dramatic differences that can leave you bored or thrilled ...

Which is why the search for this nation’s or the world’s “best circus” eludes me, and makes no sense. (Yes, I'm waiting to hear from you, Wade.) Any circus company, no matter how established, will NOT deliver the same quality year after year ... That elusive quest to sanctify "best circus” misses the mark, overlooks the younger upstarts who can ring magic, too, and risks awarding sacred cow adulation to sacred cow duds. I refuse to kowtow to any name. They all must renew their credibility each new season ...

And here come three more, right in my own backyards:, all reachable on foot and bus without hassles. Ringling=Barnum rolls into the Oakland Arena tomorrow, Circus Vargas tenting up over in SF this very moment. Not to mention the invasion next month of Carson & Barnes, throwing forth banners and canvas, elephants and acrobats over the Cow Palace parking lot, which may mark a daring first ... How lucky I am for a change; In years past, I have walked many dedicated miles to take in a number of Carson & Barnes dates. Sometimes well worth it, for the intriguingly unpredictable C&B will now and then, by direction or wonderful accident, snap crackle and rock in the older bolder vein ...

Around the lots: E-mailing with a chirp, Kelly-Miller’s Jim Royal exudes implicit relief in the wake of weeks of rain rain and mud mud mud. “We are in Flushing, MI today. Beautiful small town, nice lot (a park downtown), fine weather and good business. Shouldn't it always be this way?" -- confirmed by the Ben Trumble rumble on his mud show blog, conceding how "delighted" he feels to have been "wrong” in his forecasting (or fearing) weak turnouts at the Michigan dates ... Nicole Feld, who before the big top seduced her wanted to be a photographer, nicely & politely profiled in a New York Times piece.. “I knew it was an irreversible decision. It was nothing my parents ever said. It was pressure I put on myself. There was an expectation I had to succeed and be brilliant to carry on the legacy of my father and grandfather.” ... So, let’s see what this 30-year-old can do — most critically, what sort of an influence she might wield over her control-freak dad. Perhaps traces of it will leak through at the Oakland Arena...

Come August 20 in select movie houses for a limited time, Cirque du Soleil offers yet another variation on its uniqueness titled DELIRIUM (the caps, theirs), touted by CDS to be a “ground breaking living dance and musical extravaganza.” which tells me they continue to move closer closer towards circus ballet ... I'm sticking to sawdust this weekened --I assume.

Best in the world? Best in the US, that year, that lot, that performance ... That mood.

May I Say this About Roller Skating and the Olympics...

As I behold the tremendously exciting bike races (over the finish line like Derby thoroughbreds), as was just evidenced with a Brit woman speeding victoriously into Gold, and when I think of what authentic athletic excitement a group of roller skaters could supply traversing the same breathtaking course across this most beautiful country (China), I think of how the IOC has relentlessly (likely bowing to payoffs from the ice lobby) kept the sport of my boyhood out of the games year after year, century after century. Most of all, I think of the Judas Iscariot of the IOC, former president Juan Antonio Samaranch, himself an avid roller hockey competitor in his youth who could have easily moved speed skating on roller skates into the games, but in the end turned on his own sport.

To all the roller skaters out there who have for years deserved better, I share your outrage. The Olympics to which you aspire? As political and phony as the entertainment world it so shamelessly serves and is driven by. Which is why I rarely watch these slick spectacles of sponsorship mania, rhetorical allusions to "international good will," drug-enhanced cheats and naked patriotic narcissism.

Am I, by chance, bitter? Yes -- and proud of it.

Rising and Falling: End of an Era for Quebec? ...

Latitude Laliberte: A deal made in hell? Okay, I’ve poured over articles about Guy Laliberte selling 20% of his Cirque du Soleil empire to the state of Dubai — it owns the two firms who have each acquired 10 per cent. This leaves G.L. with 70% — closer, closer to a John Ringling North-style family feud ... WHY did he do it? WHY? (Crashing Wagnerian symbols and weeping violins please — yeah, I know, I’m revealing my chronic fanship). Laliberte claims, when pressed by Canadian reporters, “I don’t know why you’re thinking I’m selling Cirque du Soleil to the world. I’m not selling Cirque du Soleil. I’m giving up 20 per cent of the company.”

Some of the more telling statements that I’ve raked up from press droppings:

“Some reporters question whether the Dubai deal would put Cirque in the same position as such companies as Alcan and Moison, which were taken over by foreign interests.”

The CDS website covers the deal as a “partnership” venture, excluding any mention of a sale.

They are talking up a CDS show in Dubai last year that pulled in “over” 100,000 people in a month. What is so remarkable about that? An average US tent show could do the same over a winning 30 days, I do believe.

Laliberte states, “We’re having better results than last year.” So, was last year not so hot; I mean, not all full houses???

“...as he [Laliberte] tries to douse speculation that the Dubai government’s purchase ... is the precursor to a takeover.”

“Truth is, Cirque Outgrew Quebec,” headlines a story in the Globe and Mail.

“These things are often the first step towards toward a complete sale,” said Robert David, a management professor at McGill University. “If we were to talk in five years, I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole thing had been sold.”

Here is what I think: Either Laliberte is hurting for money, having recklessly overextended his future projects, and has caved into a veiled foreign bail out in desperation to save himself — or he just can’t stop trying to conquer the entire world. What next, a “partnership” with NASA to land Cirque du Soleil on the moon? Oh heck, King Cirque, you just might have to settle for that two-bit space station up there — that is, unless you can create your own personal planet ...

I have a sinking feeling that we may soon be saying goodbye to Guy. I’ve been on both sides of the fence about his work — some of it brilliantly ground breaking.

Big and Little Top Bits: Dogs as literate listeners: They're listening with smiles as children in Chicago schools read to them. Those mutes, who might prefer comic strips about their own, are pretending to be attentive, and it’s helping inspire the kids to read better. Says a grateful young girl of her book partner, “She makes me smile. She’s a good listener when I read to her.” The program, Kids Reading to Dogs, is now in eight Windy City schools. I was touched... God bless you, Chicago children getting a little help from a man's best friend...

...Sad to report the passing of Lottie Brunn, about whose life in the states I knew virtually nothing. She was loved by some adoring friends, among them juggler and circus director Judy Finelli, who once presided over the Pickle Family Circus ... While surfing around for news on our lead off issue, I came across the most interesting website. Jean David is putting out a mini-history of Cirque du Soleil. There’s a link over there to your right. Some quite revealing information on how they shrewdly marketed from the outset. The late cutting edge showman who invented the three-ring revolution, William Coup, wrote that he spent up to half his money on the advance. CDS may have equaled Coup’s commitment to publicity and advertising. This website is worth a visit. [I can't seem to post the link. Google: "Jean David & Cirque du Soleil]

... When both Wade Burck and Henry Edgar show up at the same event, as they did to witness my first annual Ring of Shame Awards, now that’s a full house. Burck skipped opening night (too late), with scarf and popcorn in hand. Next season, gentlemen, VIP Ring of Shame seats for the both of you ... French high-wire extremist Philippe Petit profiled in a new movie, Man On Wire, landing four stars from the NYT... Marian Collins, having chanced upon my piece about Irvin Feld’s Florida Circus World, writes “...seems as though it was a pawn in the big game of real estate. I sure enjoyed working there though and many many of our patrons liked it better than Disney. I have to assume it was the live acts. No animatronics here, folks.”

...This ancient photo of me is placed here for the possible amusement of the folks who Pat Cashin sends my way. No other blog on the midway sends as many folks to my concession as does Pat’s popular Clown Alley. Thanks, Pat ... That’s me spoofing Nikita K, photo taken by Edward Dowling at a Sharon Hill, PA stand . They gave the show gag to me when the guy who was doing it got terminated for getting too friendly with a young girl under the seats. A three ring Johnny, he tried working his charm on me, too. No luck. Motel or nothing ...

About the lead item, even Canada is reeling from the odd ball news. And I can’t blame them. Cirque has given our neighbors to the north a tremendous source of international pride, and perhaps some tax money too. I’ll tell you this, World: The moment the impresario at the top exits is the moment the empire he built comes crumbling down.

Enough melodrama. I'm outta here. Pat, are you still open up there? I could use a good old fashioned laugh ... A walkaround, sunny side up, please!

Showbiz David’s Annual Ring of Shame Awards

The following five inaugural inductees are this evening dishonored for their unwelcome acts against the American circus

Ingrid Newkirk. She leads the parade of infidels. A shameless animal rights activist and founder of PETA, for hypocritically inflicting untold damage on the circus world through malicious innuendo and smear tactics (on her below-the-belt "circus criminals" website), distorted and often misleading inaccuracies, and a relentless campaign on selected circus lots to harass and intimidate the public away from attending circuses.

James C. Petrillo. Union tyrannizer who coerced musicians into expecting prohibitively expensive wages, in effect turning them into another world’s oldest profession. Petrillo’s money-hungry campaign was launched against Ringling Bros Circus in 1942, resulting in a mass walkout of windjmmaers and the trend-setting substation of canned music in the wake of their exit for the duration of the season. Most American circuses today, minus theirs bands, bear the infamous legacy of this man’s gargantuan greed.

Sid Kellner. Operator of James Bros. Circus, later, George Matthews Great London), for squandering away his great potential to be a major showman on his notorious phone room addictions. Kellner, perhaps by sheer accident, produced a classic, near perfect performance (scored by an exemplary live band) under a big top in 1968, then reverted thereafter to a slow downward slide chasing his insatiable appetite for maximum profit through fraudulent phone room tactics that placed a quick buck over a good show. The charismatic and talented Kellner, sadly, must stand with the giants of telephone room ripoffs of the seedy 1970s.

The Unknown First Hula Hoop Performer (possibly a Russian). Subjected the sawdust ring to a display of domestic recreation passing for circus art. So many third rate hula hoop acts have followed, it’s a wonder we are not now witnessing marbles and mops in motion or triple somersaulting blow dryers.

Dick Garden. Canadian huckster of haphazard mediocre lineups whose sterling credits include the collapsible portable seats he used on his since-shuttered Toby Tyler Circus and, in recent years, the mass saturation of free kids tickets to promote his paltry wares. For example, at a Cow Palace date in San Francisco operating as Sterling and Reid, Garden’s three ring set up looked more like a carnival midway, pre-show; and there, the “performance,” truly a circus from hell, contained sub-mediocre acts scored by pop CDs pumped through an atrociously loud, ear shattering sound system. Garden’s operation (and others like it) are an assault on Spangleland.

Indicted Inductees, take your proud places in the Ring of Shame!

MIDWAY FLASH ... MIDWAY FLASH ... Laliberte sells 20% of Cirque Du Soleil to Dubai Interests...

In what may be a harbinger of his eventual exit from the empire he built, owner Guy Laliberte is reported in Business Week (flashed to me by Don Covington) to have sold a 20 percent stake in his world-wide operations.

Property developer Nakheel and an investment company, Istithmar World Capital, who purchased the shares, declined to disclose how much they paid.

The agreement puts "to rest, for now speculation that the troupe would be sold outright."

For now -- two operative words. This only confirms earlier rumors of some sort of a sale, and it leads me to ponder Laliberte's ultimate motives.

Stay tuned for my paranoid speculations, to follow in the days to come...

Ring of Shame Awards to be Announced Tonight, 9 p.m. PST!

Sunday Morning Scramble: Phonies Unlimited

At the supermarket check out stand, I see that Dr. Phil’s wife is reportedly fed up with their marriage. Surprise! These so-called relationship experts are about as lucky in love (or lust), I suppose, as the head shrinks who make millions correcting the alleged (and very billable) psychic disorders of others. My late cousin once worked for a psychiatrist in Santa Rosa, who defined his job to her as “a paid friend.” Dr. Phil may be paying for “professional” advice for himself shortly. And did radio's reigning queen of morality, Dr. Laura, not also once suffer a set back or two in the boudoir of life?

It’s all about entertainment. Even PBS (Pledge Break Society) has turned itself into just another midway of life-advice expects, some of whom, who knows, may be only a few convictions short of malpractice. And on afternoon television, of which over the years I have watched a collective total of maybe an hour, you can witness, among other sordid modern-day spectacles, teenagers cheering on teenage infidelities. Adultery, once shunned, is now a spectator sport. It sells products, mind you.

San Francisco, of all places, gave birth to talk show lunatic Michael Savage, a theoretically brilliant Berkeley educated man who veers way off course too often in his irrational outbursts of hate and intolerance. His most recent attack was charging autistic kids with the crime of impersonating autistic kids. I’ve listened to many talk hosts from all ends of the polarized spectrum; Not even the best among them is intellectually honest all the time. The ratings war and job security drive them all now and then, I am sure, to the feigned advocacy of extreme positrons in order to jack up flat tire ratings.

We seek out the counsel of “experts” in hours of need — or for the chance to be seen by millions letting all of our problems hang out — between commercial breaks — on some silly and mindless TV program. And then some of us are genuinely in pain and close to the edge, and sadly vulnerable to another magic remedy offered by another self-proclaimed guru. No, the snake oil salesman never left town, did he? But America seems to have talked itself into one gigantic fit of collective depression. It’s hip to be manic! Hip to work out your differences with others on a television set before a fake audience.

Dr. Phil: go take a pill.

Due Next: Showbiz David’s Inaugural Ring of Shame Awards