Funundrum, Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey

Published Date: April 8th, 2010
Category: life

For our Easter celebration we went to see the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus this evening.  It was the 7:30 pm and the last show in Madison Square garden, a full house with lots of little girls in pretty spring dresses.  The rigging was hauled away to be packed onto the truck at the end of each act.

Funundrum–what a strange title.

I could tell by the poster that the publicity machine had gone into action before the show had a headline act.

And, the show didn’t have a headline act.

co·nun·drum  n.

1. A riddle in which a fanciful question is answered by a pun.
2. A paradoxical, insoluble, or difficult problem; a dilemma
The acts were good.
Johnathan Lee Iverson is my favorite Ringling ringmaster.
And yet,
The show was oddly boring.
The music and the pace, driving driving driving relentlessly towards the finish.
But,
it was all the same rushed tempo,
Every single act.
The entire show as though to the same song.
The waitress at our local diner agreed with me.
Something was off.
There were only 10 clowns.  (Only one girl.)
Tigers and elephants and farm animals.
All my favorite acts were there, tightrope, trapeze, teter-board.
But,
The show didn’t quite work
A Connundrum

Related posts:

  1. How to buy circus tickets
  2. Zing Zang Zoom
  3. In reference to the previous found text post–I found this advice in Education Chancellor Cathie Black’s Book:
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