Saturday, December 17, 2005

Santa Claus float


Lately a lot of that has changed and the Ken Show has decided to convince today's youth that his product can be a lot more fun than "drugs, sex and rock & roll". I personally think that one the reasons people take their kids to the circus in the first place is to get tham away from MTV.
Well, we'll see how it plays out.

Posted by Buckles at 12/17/2005 06:25:00 AM

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think the formula still works. There's still an age when you can catch kids and captivate them. There's still an age when it's probably better if they stay away. Circus is never going to be hip to most run-of-the-mill sixteen year olds anymore than a theatrical is. At eighteen, or nineteen, or twenty, in those college towns the same urges that once led to dust-ups and fights now fuels the righteous indignation encouraged by the animal rights groups. Half the activists in those towns will be reasonable people again at thirty. It isn't that they were insincere, but at twenty, when you feel the most independent, you're easily manipulated. That's why a nineteen year old makes such a good soldier.
Where the circus formula seems to stumble today is creating that "magical" experience for younger children and recreating the magic for their parents. Parade floats and classical fairy tale characters no longer connect with every audience. Spiderman sounds great. But if Spiderman is just posing for pictures and not flying across the tent top is he really Spiderman? There must be characters who aren't so damned earthbound.
As a parent with an eleven year old kid the last thing that I want is to pry a child away from the computer or TV and plop him down in front of another MTV-like production. Where's the imagination in that? Sometimes as grown-ups we forget that before the hormones kick in at puberty the best toy may be a stick or a piece of rope, a ball, or an empty box. How do you know if a circus is working? When your kid goes home and breaks an arm a couple days later trying to balance on a stack of kitchen chairs. (Happened here with the older kid now in college.) Childhood is always a little bit dangerous.

17 December, 2005 10:36
Anonymous said...

You sure get my vote. As mother nature saw fit not to endow me with the right parts, I forgot my lifes desire to be another Sally Rane. There were some beautiful stripper acts in the old days also. Real class. None of this crap like we have now. The circus made it possiable for me to have real wonderful times with beautiful wardrobe so I could strut my stuff. Now my stuff barely moves but I have the memories. The circus will always be magic to me.

17 December, 2005 11:26
Anonymous said...

You do know these deer are females don't you?

18 December, 2005 16:51

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