The Collegian

Issue date: 9/17/09 Section: Arts

A booming voice echoes through the expansive tent, "The faster you clap, the faster the Ring of Destiny will spin!" The ringmaster's encouragement energizes the audience as an acrobat skillfully maintains his balance on a spinning wheel as it plummets one second, rockets back into the air the next. The crowd looks on, entranced by the display before them. The suggestive scent of dung only adds to the sense of excitement and anticipation a circus brings, a sure sign the elephants are near.

A five-ring circus complete with all the trappings - elephants, acrobats, a full-bellied ringmaster and much more swept through the Hillsdale County Fairgrounds yesterday. The Carson and Barnes circus had performances at 4:30 and 7:30 p.m., the temporary grandstands filled with families and college students seeking the thrill and amusement contained in the massive circus tent.

The circus is currently touring until December and performed in Southfield, Mich. on Tuesday night. With the efficiency produced by innumerable repetition, circus workers arrived and set up at the fairgrounds on Wednesday morning and departed the same evening.

Ringmaster Brad Leaf, sporting a bright red, swallow-tailed sport coat complimented by a long ponytail, said the constant travel required by life in a circus is not for everyone, but it does have its perks.

"You get to see a lot of country," he said, adding with a small chuckle, "Sometimes a little too much."

Leaf has been in the circus business for 26 years, the last three with Carson and Barnes. For him, it's the people who come to see the circus rather than the acts that make the job worth it.

"[It's] the reaction from the people," he said as a 70 pound albino Burmese python, Morticia Adams, squeezed his arm.

"Different things surprise different people. It's new every time."

Young Ellie and Claire vanDyke, who came to the circus with their grandmother Jenny Hannibal, had trouble deciding which act was their favorite. Ellie finally decided her favorite was "when the girls climbed up the ropes." For Claire, the Ring of Destiny and Alex the Clown's trampoline stunts tied for her number one spot.

Kevin Bailey came to the circus with his wife and two children, whose eyes were wide with wonder at the acts.

"The kids are having fun," Bailey said. "We came two years ago, and this is a lot bigger."

While the city hosted two other circuses over the summer, neither was as big as Carson and Barnes. Secretary-Manager at the fairgrounds Scott Dow said he anticipated visitors from as far away as Jackson to attend the family-friendly evening of entertainment.

"I think the major benefit is we provide another activity, another entertainment venue," he said.

Dow described circus events as "spectacular," but none of the acts compare to the project of putting the show together so quickly.

"Seeing them put up a five-circus tent and the whole production - what I call a small city - is just very, very impressive," Dow said.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools