Another Satisified Customer

Letter to the editor printed in the Times Tribune Scranton, PA June 6, 2006 Dullest show on Earth Editor: I looked forward to taking my family to the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus last week at the Wachovia Arena, but we were all disappointed and bored with the event. How can this be called a “circus” with no lions, no tigers, no bears, oh my? No high-wire acts, no slack-rope acts, no incline wire, no aerial gymnasts, no bikes on aerial wires, no sword-swallowers, fire-eaters, or human cannonball. No sway pole, no great balancing acts, no trampoline, no knife throwers, no sharpshooters. No thrills, no chills, no death-defying acts, no excitement. No juggling acts — OK, there was one guy with three pins. No gangs of trapeze artists. No contortionists, no classic clown acts, just some amateurish attempts at slapstick. No sideshow, no freaks, no geeks, no menagerie, just a few penned-up livestock. A few trained dogs and household kitties in the center ring were not too thrilling. There were only seven elephants, far short of what a “circus” needs, and their performance was honestly not jumbo. Oh, there was also one family of tumblers, a couple of horses and go-karts racing around the stage, and a troop of nimble videographers feeding their images to a Jumbotron. If I wanted to watch a show on TV, I would have stayed home. This production is the antithesis of a circus and RB&B&B should be embarrassed at this offering. This show has sunk to the level of a small-town carnival. It is not the circus of the 1950s, ’60s, ’70s or ’80s. I miss “The Greatest Show on Earth!” This show is themed the “Circus of your dreams,” but in reality it should have been labeled “The Circus . . . in your dreams.” JOE STRAUCH CLINTON TOWNSHIP WYOMING COUNTY