circus royale

The circus was, as I said to Mia immediately after, about ten times better than I could possibly have imagined. Everything was amazing, and there was nothing I didn't love. Interestingly, the animal acts are pretty short and sweet, which is probably as it should be. You should have seen the delight on the faces of the kids when the little horses came out. Perhaps surprisingly the animals with the most tricks were the fantale pigeons, who walked up and down little trapezesque things and ladders and in and out of a little house. They were marvellous. I loved the way some of the animals ran out like 'at last, how exciting' - the camels were like this, and they were practically the last thing on. The cows were also good (a shetland pony runs under their legs). Llamas jump over the camels' necks. You probably think, reading this, either 'damn those spoilers' or 'he was obviously on drugs'. Neither! Anyway, I haven't hardly put in any spoilers. There is an acrobat/ juggler/ other thingser whose name might be Arora Borealis (that was what they seemed to be calling him), who came on second and was unbelievably lithe. Another segment involving a pea-whistling clown who lets a big floppy clown out of a box could have gone all wrong but was unbelievably good - I know Mia thought I was naive for saying it but I couldn't believe there was an adult woman in that floppy clown suit.

I have never said 'no way' out loud so many times in two hours. It was genuine glamour! The primary clown, who probably had more stage time than anyone, was called Justin Sane and at one stage he got a five year old boy, Charlie from Glenroy, to do some juggling. Charlie was tremendous, running over to different parts of the audience to bow to them etc. It was very funny.

Everything was in fast-paced short segments, which is great for me, as I have a dreadful attention span. If there's a little bit of repetition - various permutations of ladies wrapping their legs round their head 10 metres in the air - well, I've never seen such a thing before and doubt I'll see it again much at all. Overall, I have to say, a genuine hit. I highly recommend it.