cheerfulCircus people, like any other cadre of co-workers, occasionally gather to swap yarns, which are sometimes embellished and elaborated in the re-telling, particularly if there are adult beverages being passed around. Long-time impresario Paul Binder of the Big Apple Circus committed some of his tales to print in Never Quote the Weather to a Sea Lion And Other Uncommon Tales, which I'll commend to you tonight in Book Review No. 14. (Half a year, half a year, half a year onward, and we'll see about the fifty ...)
By all means read the stories, there's that no s***, this really happened flavor that makes a good jackpot. Three brief takeaways to the aspiring circus owner. First, even well-trained animals will respect their instincts. Second, the one-ring circus has to put its best performance forward at each change of acts, there's no distracting the spectators with a lot of action to conceal a pedestrian part of the show. Third, without a good transportation department, even the most well-prepared of itinerant circus will come to grief.
And yes, I enjoyed the yarn about the troubles the circus had moving an antique wagon on a flatbed trailer. You put a thing with wheels on another thing with wheels and connect it to a third thing with wheels. Indeed. That also describes a circus train. But read the book to understand why the yarn is worth retelling.
(Cross-posted to Cold Spring Shops.)
