Biggs' Zone

The circus seems like such a nostalgic pastime. It always makes me think of carnies, tents, clowns, Dumbo. I had never really considered going to the circus, despite the huge popularity of Ringling Brother’s and Barnum and Bailey Circus and its near century as “The Greatest Show on Earth”. It’s fascinating how your proclivities change once you have a child. You realize that not only do you want to expose them to the things that you did as a child, but also the things you didn’t do. I’ll be honest, when we were considering buying tickets to the show I wasn’t really interested but they are going to retire the elephants and we found front row seats so it seemed serendipitous. Now, in retrospect, I’m glad we went.

It’s like going to the zoo as an adult for the first time in years, you never realized how much fun it is to be so close to the animals. The literal death-defying acts of the performers is so visceral you can’t help but feel amazed and alive. I would never have the cajones to try any of those stunts, and I’m sure most of us don’t, which is why we are all holding our breath when we watch other human’s walking the tightrope or surrounded by a dozen tigers, cracking a whip so they perform. (Admit it though, there is some infinitesimal part of you hoping to see one of those tigers decide they’ve had enough whipping and go “Siegfried & Roy” on the trainer, just to say you were there when it happened; however that would have traumatized my daughter for life so I’m glad everything went according to plan). By the way, I didn’t find a single clown creepy. In fact they were quite entertaining. So all you coulrophobics shouldn’t avoid the circus just because of the clowns, just don’t sit too close to the ring.

I’d say what I disliked the most about the experience were concession options and prices. The only diet soda option available was Diet Rite. Diet Rite!!! I didn’t even know Diet Rite still existed. I haven’t had a Diet Rite since I was like 12 years old. Then we decided to get Bee a souvenir and since she was distracted by all the kids with the light-up wands, we bought her one hoping she would watch the show instead of the other kids. $24!! So not only do they give you the bottom of the barrel options for pop but they price gouge you on the souvenirs. It was totally worth it regardless, just watch out at the concession stands. You have all of these images in your mind of what a circus should be; huge tents, the crowds sitting on bleachers, trapeze artists (which we didn’t see) but the only feature about the circus that is still true, they still travel by train! If you have the means and the opportunity, you should definitely check it out!