Friday, January 19, 2007

The reinvention of the wheel!

Just received a phone call from the Ken & Nicole Shrinking Show in Jacksonville and about thirty minutes ago they suffered yet another malfunction.
Having not seen the show, I'll have to pass it on as it was explained to me. They were in the process of raising the mesh arena from the ring curb when it became entangled with a cage spotted next to it. Before anyone realized what was happening, the cage (and tiger) were both lifted about three feet off the floor.
After a struggle they managed to lower the arena again but in the process the frame was seriously warped and the cat act was excused from the program.
I must say that when they fuck things up it is done so with a certain computerized flair.

Posted by Buckles at 1/19/2007 08:49:00 PM

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

the first thing that I noticed when the cat act was being assembled,in the dark and in a hurry,was that there was NO_ONE watching the overall operation to assure that all the components were happening in their required sequence.the entire operation,from the concept of putting a wild animal act's equipment together during the show,in the dark without even a single safety check by any one person, is at best poorly thought out and at worst criminally liable
One of the reasons cat acts have traditionally opened the show was to not rush the set up of safety equipment.I personally never cared for even opening the second half of the show as a 15 minute set-up barely gives the person responsible, the trainer,enough time to adequately check the equipment before bringing animals into a temporary facility.And let's face it folks,who is going to be found responsible,no matter what the lawyers say,the trainer,surely not some computer attendant manager.Besides the fact that it is going to be the trainer who is expected to recapture a loose animal,or risk his own life trying to rectify mechanical snafus involving animals. I believe the Clyde Beatty-Cole Brothers Circus had the right idea when they made Dave Hoover(a retired animal trainer) the safety officer. I believe that one of the most valuable jobs of experienced personnel is to watch that the techno-renovators do not set up dangerous situations.Accidents waiting to happen !

19 January, 2007 23:54
Bob Cline said...

Very Well said Larry.

20 January, 2007 06:10
GaryHill said...

I always did a walk though in Jewells and Charlies cages, first to make sure seats and props were where they were supposted to be. I brought in Jewells motorcycle and whips and checked all the snaps around the tunnel and made sure every cage was chained to each other. Not a door was opened until I checked and reported to the Trainers all was good and then they would make the call for the cats to come in.

20 January, 2007 07:40
Buckles said...

In short, the "Circus of Tomorrow" almost scientifically tipped over a tiger cage.

20 January, 2007 08:04
Anonymous said...

Larry nailed it. And it isn't just cage acts, or just the K&N Show. The whole notion of "Safety Officers" are either entirely foreign to some shows, or the assignment gets cut to save a few bucks on others. It's so easy to dump responsibilities onto the Prop Boss, or the acts themselves. Obviously a tariner should have the time (and the light) to do an inspection, or a wire act should have the time to check tensions. But there really needs to be somebody else checking everything looking at only saftey and liability issues. You need somebody who worries too much and says "You can't put that up in the dark." A new factory wouldn't start up an assembly line without safety officers, and larger carnival operators constantly look at risk management. I don't even want to think about how PETA would have played it if a tiger cage rose 15 feet off the ground then fell and either busted open or injured the cat in front of an audience. This is one of those things we're supposed to be smarter and better at.

20 January, 2007 08:23
Buckles said...

The worst thing tho, during the phone conversation, I had to suffer the Ken & Nicole "Syncopators" playing in the background.
An experience I had hoped to be spared during my few remaining golden years.

20 January, 2007 08:37
Anonymous said...

Thought the "flying tigers" were WWII aviators...cc

20 January, 2007 09:04
Anonymous said...

From Eric:

During the Red Unit's 117th Edition, the mesh cage for Gunther's tigers was erected during the opening. The tiger cages were in place but completely hidden from view by large painted panels. It must have gone up pretty fast since we went right from the opening into his act.

20 January, 2007 20:26
Anonymous said...

I remember when guarding the coffee can with the pins to hold the sections together was the most important part of the cage. Especially around a certain T. H. Second was a long enough rope to hold the center of the net to the gurders of a building we were playing.

21 January, 2007 08:07

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)