| Ben's grandson Mike yesterday at Busch Gardens. |
Saturday, January 05, 2008
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26 comments:
Ringling wouldn't book it because the bird seed would be too expensive.
Someone get that kid a pirate ship
Didn't work out so well for Shimsheeva, try something a little larger....although it'd be a good act for the Woodcock Dog & Pony Show coming soon to a town near you complete with real antique circus ring!
AC
This sounds like the K&N staffer I talked with last Wednesday who explained that once the show gets out of Florida and away from the old retired circus people and the chronically complaining circus fans, the show will be well received.
Weren't we the ones that RBBB came to when they were in a jam?
The front track was on the left and the back track on the left as we entered the floor. Now it is the WIDE OPEN SPACE ON THE LEFT and THE WIDE OPEN SPACE ON THE RIGHT.
It wasn't a retired circus person or a circus fan that wrote in the paper that the NEW RBBB had "...all the ambience of a warehouse." It was a professional reviewer.
Glad to be retired, I'm sun-wrinkled but breathing.
I'll bet that the bird seed didn't cost tu'pence a bag.
Sure. Like the New York critics received the show two years ago... I guess this particular staffer missed the infamous -- what was it -- "Lamest Show On Earth?" A job is a job, and no staffer should ever say anything too critical about the place where they hang their hat. (Not to the best known blogger in circus, at least.) But all that Feld media training is for naught when you haven't learned to bite you tongue and say something neutral like "We think our general audiences will really like it," ... instead of taking a swipe at fans and retired show people. Credit where credit is due, K&N did improve the show two years ago after all that critical press. Maybe nobody in Vienna listens much to fans, but they listen to somebody.
What do you mean tu'pence, a bag that show would have gum ball macchines all over the floor selling bird seed for $5 a teaspoon full to the public & letting them feed the birds.
Correction...I meant to type: back track on the right.
Still so pissed.
Vienna & Palmetto tend to listen to their wallets...lets face it ticket sales cover the nut, if good folks don't stick around to be raped over floss, frosties, and blinkers K&N don't get a warm and fuzzy feeling all over! Lets face it the 136th before the revamp most people left before intermission! I'm more curious about what they've done with the new gold show to make it feel more spectacular and live up to it's Brand name...THe Greatest Show on Earth!
AC
"Recovering RBBB Employee"
On the subject of honesty in advertising, the Tampa Tribune states that the next stop on the K&N route will be Lakeland with a very small disclaimer that it is actually the Gold Unit.
The citizens of Lakeland are in for a surprise.
I couldn't make it to the club last night but I did chat on the phone with Jim Clubb who is visiting the country.
He had seen K&N and had an interesting take on the Dog Show number, he thinks that by first showing things that people do at home with their pets, then graduating to ponies, horses, tigers and elephants, everyone will get a warm fuzzy feeling.
My comedy dog catches frisbees, however it only gives me a "warm fuzzy" feeling, if I am having a cocktail while we are playing catch.
There is a TV ad that comes on daily here in our local ch.40. It is one of those prepared GSOE ads and appears to be advertising the new show in Tampa, that it is the GSOE in all its glory and then the tailor at the end says it will be appearing at Roberts A rena here in Sarasota. No mention of a "home town unit", but implies it is the real thing. What alot of pompous ass nerve to suggest such a thing. However I hear that the new Blue Show is even worse than its predecessor. So long For Ringling and the GSOE. I have lost all interest in the crap they are subjecting the public to. Demographics and all thar BS be damned. Bring back the GSOE in all its glory and the public and media will recognize it. It isn't that they are broke and struggling as we understand their net worth is approching the Billion mark. Since Irvin Feld is gone it has been getting less and less. Irvin loved being the boss and head of the GSOE. Even creating two units of equal size [twenty some elephants, multiple cat acts, great wardrobe [superceeding JRN] and big spec, lots of animal, acrobats and clowns. I don't believe he would have backed off. In fact he always wanted it to be bigger as each manager would find out when they had to accomadate for more and more. Too bad.
I'll stand up in defense of demographics, focus groups, and market research. Sometimes you can look at all the numbers and get things brilliantly wrong. The notion that just because children like to play video games, they're going to want to watch the circus on a big screen hanging from the ceiling of an auditorium may be a case in point. Sometimes the worst assumption any marketer can make looking at focus groups is that just because people like one thing, they want more of the same. Every large stadium has a Jumbotron, but but I have yet to meet anybody who goes to a ball game to watch what's going on on the big screen. The drama in sports is the human drama on the field as it happens. The same is very much true for circus. It's the live performance, exactly the kind of thing video games don't offer. I would argue that sometimes you can look at your demographics and make a false assumption -- and if you focus group solely based on that assumption, too often you get the results you're looking for. I would bet for example that when Feld Inc pumped 15 million dollars into reinventing the "ringless" show two years ago, they never staged an alternative three ring show circa the editions from the 1980's and let their focus groups compare that with the newer edition. Expensive experiment, yes. But that's your "control," the circus as it's generally remembered. If the focus groups genuinely like the newer shows better, so be it, they're right, the rest of us are wrong, and it'll all work out. On the other hand if the focus groups prefer the style and production values of the older edition, then this is "New Coke" all over again. Full disclosure, my wife Patrizia was an editor at People Magazine when Lanny Jones was Publisher, and folks she knows who worked with Ms Feld describe her as a very bright woman. And Mr. Feld deserves all of the kudos in the world for the successes at the C.E.C., which weren't achiaved on the cheap. Any "failure to thrive" associated with the last two outing of the Blue Unit aren't about a lack of intelligence or a lack of desire. But it might be about just who reads the numbers and what they think they see.
I didn't have a problem with the Gold Unit when they still called it "Hometown," clearly differentiating it from the other shows. But selling it as the equal of the larger shows is just plain odd since the scary part is that the Red and Blue are more likely to shrink to Gold size rather than the Gold growing.
I haven't seen the GSOE for years
because I lost interest. And after
viewing the latest abortion they
call a show it will be a long time
before I see it again. The Greatest Crap on Earth is the new
moniker according to an usher at
the Ice Palace. She and I agreed
that Universoul put on a better show and this year with the Hanneford (George) Elephants it will be even better. JRN, the Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey and Irvin must all be up there somewhere throwiing up in disgust over the crap that is out now.
Mr. Trumble always has good comments even if he uses big words somtimes. Also, Mr. Woodcock told us about the telephone conversation he had with Mr. Clubb and that is another view point about the dog act. I am tired of the blogger who continually dices the ken and nicole shows by assuming this or that and makes it personal. While the words are funny at times, I think he writes using many different descriptive names but is one person who had a bad run in with Feld years ago. Get over it.
They haven't called it the HOMETOWN EDITION the last couple of years.
It should be called the "GO HOME UNIT".
Your focus group is sitting in the seats; look at their reaction and watch their faces.
You don't need to look at reports to know that the audience is bored.
Mr Trumble had the misfortune of making a living for several years getting paid by the word for whatever drivel he concocted, thus he densely packs each sentence as if he was trying to make a buck. (A handful of phrases that nobody understands, a necktie, a blank stare, a satchel full of plausible excuses, and anybody can be a Patch.) As for the big words, just testing the spellcheck, since I imagine it was programmed in India by somebody who is likely paid by the syllable.
I saw the Blue Unit two years ago in New York and was disappointed like everyone else. Were changes made after showing in the New York area? What were the changes?
Anonymous, i don't think George Hanneford is going to Universoul, Armando Loyal is expected with 3 Carson and Barnes Elephants
Someone wrote: "but is one person who had a bad run in with Feld years ago. Get over it."
All the less-than-generous comments regarding K&N's offerings are less about disgruntled ex-performers and fans than they are about Ringling being, at one time, America's pride. Not a show in the world, including Broadway could come close to it's lavishness and brilliance. Polar bears from East Germany, multiple teeterboard acts, 3 rings of bareback acts, 10,000 dollar elephant blankets, dozens of dancers - and every other year a completely new and even better presentation.
The Felds are the only producers that have the dough to bring back that type of excellence to American Circus.
But they don't. THAT'S why K&N leave everyone with such a bad taste in their mouths. Nothing to do with "a bad run in with Feld"
Perhaps the fictitious Barney McDermott has risen from the grave. I think the above anonymous writer is perceptive for I, too, have wondered about the stylistic similarities of some posted comments. For all his supposed professional fame as a lawyer and life-long NYC resident of great character, "Barney's" death notice never made it into the New York papers nor has his departure been reported in the proper public records where it would be accessible online by now.
Dick Flint
Baltimore
For the comment that was made regarding George Hanneford's Elephants going to Universoul,
I booked the act there, the show
entertainment director came to the
Showfolks Circus and brought George
the contract and I am in constant
communique with them and the show
opens Feb. 1 in Savannah with George's Elephants.
It used to be a matter of "profit or loss", now it is, "profit & more profit", when is enough,,,,enough????
Weren't there rumors a year or so ago that K&N bailed UniverSoul out of Chapter 11 and now are silent partners in the show??? At least that was the talk around the pie car...?
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