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ringmaster Inner circle Memphis, Down in Dixie 1974 Posts |
Http://abcnews.go.com/US/ringling-bros-p......44806898
The" Animal Rights Ad vacates" are hooting, but they fail to mention the five million dollar judgement RBBB won against them last year for their widely distributed fake elephant abuse video.
One of the last living 10-in-one performers. I wanted to be in show business the worst way, and that was it.
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Harley Newman Inner circle 5117 Posts |
The AR people want credit, because it'll help their fundraising.
To sell tickets, a circus needs a guiding vision, good publicity, and a show to support it. Apparently, some of those elements were lacking. I've seen two major PR things from RBBB in the past year. One was about retiring their elephants. The other was about hiring the first female singing ringmaster. Most of their PR seems to be directed at the markets where their shows will play. That may have been a huge mistake.
“You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus” -Mark Twain
www.bladewalker.com |
rossmacrae Inner circle Arlington, Virginia 2475 Posts |
The foundational "huge mistake" was stretching the Ringling premise farther than it would go, doubling down (again and again) on glitter and glitz instead of offering a better show. This goes back to Barnum's premise that the customer can buy a ticket [to his museum] and decide for himself the truth or falsehood of what he has seen. The customers decided that they were troubled by cruelty allegations (and accusations are always bigger news than later proofs of innocence), but the customers also wouldn't buy tickets to a show without elephants.
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Harley Newman Inner circle 5117 Posts |
I think the customers just didn't care, because they didn't have a compelling reason to.
“You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus” -Mark Twain
www.bladewalker.com |
Mystic_master New user Baltimore Md 10 Posts |
As Magicians we are granted a special gift. To entertain, to bring joy, to make people WONDER, to make others smile, to bring a form of escape from the everyday. To show people a trick or “effect” live in the real world, not on a cold digital screen. We can make people laugh, surprise people with a quick vanish or make people wonder if that which they just witnessed was really possible.
Our skills, practice, dedication to learning, reading and secrecy has protected and helped the art of magic to grow, and given you the skills to call yourself one of the sacred few, a magician. One who creates MAGIC. Magic isn’t an app, or a youtube video. It’s a living breathing concept, an idea, a spark of imagination. That lives in each of us. Today a part of that magic, an allied art, the Ringling Brothers Circus has been taken away from us. Please remember, that every time you perform, whether it’s a packet trick for the 10,000th time, or your signature routine that only you perform; that YOU are creating real magic, in that moment for a real person. It may be on the ONLY magic that they ever see live in their life. Magic performed well, inspires, educates, and warms peoples hearts. Learn the core principals of what makes our art unique, talk highly of other performers, regardless of your feelings towards them. Support other forms of live performance, and theatre. The world lost an important gift, generations of Adults and children won’t be able to see clowns, tightrope acts, jugglers or many types of mimes, or slapstick comedy acts with Ringling Brothers. We must adapt, be well dressed, well spoken, considerate and work to earn our audiences trust. [The circus] was our brief season of imaginative life. In one day—in a part of one day—we gained a thousand new conceptions of the world and of human nature. It was an embodiment of all that was skillful and beautiful in manly action. It was a compendium of biologic research but more important still, it brought to our ears the latest band pieces and taught us the most popular songs. It furnished us with jokes. It relieved our dullness. It gave us something to talk about. . . . We always went home wearied with excitement, and dusty and fretful—but content. We had seen it. We had grasped as much of it as anybody and could remember it as well as the best. Next day as we resumed work in the field the memory of its splendors went with us like a golden cloud. Like vaudeville, the chain store, the "cheap nickel dump," and the amusement park, the circus helped consolidate a shared national leisure culture at the turn of the century. But in contrast to these mostly urban forms of entertainment, the circus was ubiquitous in all regions of the nation, small towns and urban centers alike: from New York City to Modesto, California, to Greenville, Texas, to New Orleans, to Butte, Montana, to Mazomanie, Wisconsin . . . and on and on. Circus Day disrupted daily life thoroughly, normalized abnormality, and destabilized the familiar right at home, day after day, town after town. No other amusement saturated consumers like the circus at the turn of the century. Neither vaudeville, movies, amusement parks, nor dance halls equaled the circus's immediate physical presence—that is to say, towns did not shut down in their midst. These popular forms were integrated into local economies and local systems of surveillance, while the railroad circus was an ephemeral community ritual invading from without. Contemporary international expositions capitalized on the public's fascination with distant cultures through ethnological village displays along the midway, but one had to travel to a large city such as Chicago, Atlanta, Omaha, Buffalo, or St. Louis in order to experience a world's fair. The traveling circus, in contrast, came to one's doorstep. As actors, public speakers, entertainers, comedians we must all work to make all of the performing arts STRONGER. Break the stereotypical “crappy” birthday party magician image. Elevate all the arts, and take yourself and your work seriously onstage, online and where your travels take you. Practice, prepare, and execute your magic at the highest level. |
ringmaster Inner circle Memphis, Down in Dixie 1974 Posts |
Big Apple has filed for bankruptcy today.
One of the last living 10-in-one performers. I wanted to be in show business the worst way, and that was it.
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Dick Oslund Inner circle 8357 Posts |
"WAIT BROS." is gone.
Does anyone remember the "Royal Lichtenstein Quarter Ring Sidewalk Circus"? I remember Parker & Watts, Bud E. Anderson, Arthur Bros, even Ben Davenport's Dailey Bros. --with a 6 center pole big top! As a 12 year old, I met the Arthur Bros. train before dawn. I got "hired" by the punk pusher ("Sweaters" McFarland) and, carried the layout pins for the big top. It was in 1945. It was the last railroad circus (except for "WAIT BROS") that I saw. And now, even WAIT BROS is gone.
SNEAKY, UNDERHANDED, DEVIOUS,& SURREPTITIOUS ITINERANT MOUNTEBANK
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Harley Newman Inner circle 5117 Posts |
RLQRSC was Nick Weber's show. As a Jesuit priest, he managed to get official diocese sponsorship from San Diego, or some such place. He retired it in the early 90s (I think), and transitioned to teaching high school English. He's still active in Milwaukee.
It was a brilliant show, where a lot of excellent performers learned the ropes. Here's the link to his book about it: https://www.amazon.com/Circus-That-Away-......3&sr=1-7
“You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus” -Mark Twain
www.bladewalker.com |
jakeg Inner circle 1741 Posts |
I remember Charley Blaze and Circur Kirk. They carried on the tradition of the tent circus. Most of the performers were students.
I always loved the circus. Brings back a lot of fond memories from the days I watched the RBBB side show at the old Madison Square Garden. I feel as if show business is loosing a great venue. It must have been like this when vaudeville folded. |
rossmacrae Inner circle Arlington, Virginia 2475 Posts |
Vaudeville did not fold overnight (farthest thing from it), neither did burlesque, neither did minstrel shows - time gradually moved past them. Now, it seems, time is gradually moving past circuses.
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