Tuesday May 19th. Mill City, OR. 40 miles. Cold, rain. Grass lot.
Why write a blog if the information is the lot, location, and weatherm somebody asked? It’s a legitimate question. There have been a lot of those posts this season, though I’ve assumed that come summer I would get long-winded again. Mostly I’d say it’s better to write something than nothing at all – and ultimately through the years what I’ve tried to create is a route book through the seasons. The where’s and whens. The two most common comments or emails I get about the blog ask a couple simple questions – what’s the best act on the show? Or when wil;l CM buy a new tent? This season the first question is easy. Jessi Wonderfool’s clown routine “How To Get A Man” may be the most consistently funny clown routine I’ve seen in years. And I’m not a big fan of clowns. Jessi makes it work every day in every show and her physical comedy is outstanding. The second question is harder to answer. Circus fans in particular have been asking show owner Trey Key about a new tent for at least a half a dozen years. I suspect Trey’s sentiment is that so long as the tent serves its purpose, there are other needs. When does an asset become a liability? When does a liability become an asset again? Recently it occurred to me that the A-1 tent we call our bigtop, now in its 15th season has seen more than six thousand circus performances. If it was circus building, no matter how much it needed paint fans would declare it historic. Millions of people have watched a circus beneath this tent. AQs much as all of us may think that its ugly or worn, or a tough place to work in when it rains – it has earned its scars and patches honestly and entertained a generation of families since it was first pulled from the bag smelling of fresh vinyl in the mid 1990’s.
Three more days in Oregon, then Washington, then we turn east.
