Life is a Circus

Took my wife and kids to the circus Saturday. It was a very small, three-ring setup, sponsored by the Shriners. We saw the Wild Animal trainer, there was a single clown, one elephant, an acrobatic troupe (no trapeze , though), a high-wire act, a hula hoop “juggler”, a family of trained dog handlers, and a husband and wife crossbow act (replacing the classic knife-throwing acts?). One of the interesting things to watch was how the action would move from ring to ring and while your attention was drawn to one, what you wouldn’t see were the “roadies” (or whatever they’re called in circuses) setting up the next act in one of the other rings.

And then of course, was the whole act of making things out to be more difficult than they really were. Sure, if you think about one man alone in a cage with 6-7 tigers, that might seem a bit dangerous. But when you consider that this is the man who has probably raised them since they were kittens, the man responsible for feeding them, all of a sudden it loses its mystique and sense of impending danger. Now, of course, my children didn’t notice at all. They are more intrigued with the more mundane aspects of, “How does he get those tigers to do what he wants.” And perhaps somewhere in their little heads, the gears are whirring away to figure out just exactly how they can get Mom and Dad to get a tiger cub for a pet.

My new job as a safety professional also gave me some interesting perspective on the circus. Each act DOES have some risk inherent with it. But the acts are constructed, planned, and rehearsed to the point where the risk is controlled extremely well, all the while presenting to the audience that there is every possibility that an accident could happen this very day. The tightrope troupe, for instance. I’m pretty sure, although the acting was very good, that several “missteps” were actually planned in order to draw the crowd’s attention more fully.