Circus rolls into Greenville
Published: Sunday, January 25, 2004 at 4:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Sunday, January 25, 2004 at 12:00 a.m.
The all new 134th edition of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey" will come to the Bi-Lo Center Wednesday through Sunday, Feb. 1.
This edition is a place where "Tempting Fate Daily" isn't a tagline, it's a mandate.
"Each performer in this year's show is going one step beyond," says producer Kenneth Feld in a press release. "There's a new, contemporary feeling to the 134th Edition, and it starts with the influence of the new talents that happen to be women on the creative team: Nicole Feld, the first female co-producer in Ringling Bros. history, and Sylvia Hase, the first female director in the history of the Greatest Show On Earth"."
The show is one of extreme styles: Never-before-seen thrills appear alongside iconic circus moments; pastoral barnyard numbers give way to entrancing sway pole displays; clown gags are buffeted against dangerous daredevil acts; a far-reaching original score fills the arena with everything from country-and-western to hard rock numbers.
Underscoring the notion of a circus turned entirely on its head is an Act One parade finale with dancing on the ceiling.
"I've always been fascinated by magic, I've always wanted to do it," says international award-winning "Prince of Laughter" David Larible of the historic introduction of magical mayhem to the 134th Edition. "Traditionally, when comedy has been combined with magic, the performer misses or reveals the trick and makes it transparent, and that's where the joke is," Larible explains. "My idea is to do real magic and find the comedy in it before and after. But I still want the audience to say, `How did he do that? How did he make that disappear? How did he escape?'"
In Act One, Larible unveils three rings of illusions, including a disappearing act, a sawing-in-half routine and an escape-from-shackles.
Crazy Wilson will wrangle with the wire, wrestle the whirling wheel of wonder, and master Motorcycle Mania.
How does a man earn "crazy" as a professional moniker? Is it by tempting fate daily attempting never-before-seen feats of demented daredevilry?
"You need to make something nobody has ever made before," explains Wilson. "You need to create it and do it." Not content merely to walk across a quarter-inch silver thread hoisted 25 feet above arena floors, Wilson secures a trampoline to the center of the high wire. He then balances himself upon the shoulders of a cohort, jumps, bounces off the trampoline and lands on the other side of the wire.
Topping himself, Wilson performs running somersaults atop the 42-foot-long, two-feet-wide, gyroscopic pendulum of pandemonium. He also mans a motorbike during "Motorcycle Mania," in which man and machine are placed mere inches from mortal mayhem. While wife Margarita stands in the center of a 16-foot-tall steel sphere, Wilson leads a troupe of motorcyclists around the globe as its riding surface is slowly stripped away.
For the first time in over 20 years, the center ring is rife with all-male lions as Clyde, Rummel, Winston, Sasha, Chico, Edward, Prince, Pasha, Simba, Kenya, Tarzan and Ghana tango with animal presenter Jason Peters.
"It's like being a schoolteacher," says Peters of his relationship with these kings of the jungle.
Meanwhile, pachyderm professor Troy Metzler presents a panoply of prodigious performers playing together in perfect partnership. "
They're so smart, and each has her own distinct personality," Metzler says of his elephant friends.
Sylvia Zerbini dares to master alternating realms of land and air. Combining the physical strength of her aerial act with the special interspecies connection of her liberty act, Zerbini casts a spell -- soaring 40 feet above arena skies without a net as she orchestrates a stable of Arabian and Andalusian equines.
On the arena floor, one hour before show-time, guests are invited to become part of the Three Ring Adventure". Hosted by hip New York City clown Elliot Zimit, the adventure gives children of all ages the chance to meet artists, acrobats, aerialists and animals, try on circus costumes, dance in a three-ring conga line, join in a sing-along, learn circus skills like juggling and balancing and participate in clown gags.
Then Ringmaster Kevin Venardos will take to the arena floor, filling the arena with his powerful tenor voice as circus diva Danette Sheppard -- the first featured female vocalist in Ringling Bros. history -- performs with her soulful sound.
With more than 100 human and animal performers from every corner of the globe, a live band and an original score, full-blown production numbers, completely reimagined sets, costumes, props, and lighting design, the circus will draw in children of all ages.
Performances will be held at 7:30 p.m. Thursday; 10 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. Friday; 11:30 a.m., 3:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 1.
Tickets range from $15 to $22 and are available by calling TicketMaster at 251-5505 or the box office at (864) 233-2525.
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