Kelly Miller Circus:

I was sitting at my desk on Monday morning, muddling through permanent parcel numbers and postal codes with the Butler county Auditor when I got my Dad’s email.

“Want to go to the circus on Friday? Check with David and let me know. I am picking up tickets today.”

I called David and asked him if he wanted to go to the Circus in Loveland. The Kelly Miller Circus was visiting, which is a smaller, one ring circus. They were setting up at the Loveland high school.

David, ever the skeptic, ventured that it would be one guy with a few dogs jumping through hoops.

“C’mon.” I said. “It will be fun. I looked it up, they have elephant rides. Don’t you want to ride the elephant?”

I won out in the end, and told Dad to get us tickets. On Friday last week, we headed up to Loveland to see the circus, my second, and David’s first ever.

They led with their strongest act, in our opinion. Tigers!

"Hey Bob, should we eat Casey today?"


"Meh, maybe later. I saw him down two burritos for lunch. We should wait a day or two."

Four adults and one adolescent tiger were wheeled up to the ring and hopped out of their cages and onto their little platforms. Dad had upgraded our seats to ringside, so we were in the front row.






Tiger paws!

"Aw, why do I just have to sit here and watch?"

The Tiger Tamer, Casey McCoy, had two things, a bullwhip in one hand, and what looked like a large kitty toy in the other. When the tigers got cranky—which was often, they were pretty snarly—he would flick it in front of their faces to distract them.




OMG, they caught Shere Khan!


The Ringling Brothers circus is very polished and you’re usually sitting pretty far away when you attend. Sitting ringside next the single ring set up on the school parking lot, 6 feet away from 5 tigers was pretty exciting. The sense of peril was very real. You really can’t bribe tigers with peanuts. Maybe nachos, but they’d probably be more interested in your arm.



We noticed that the tigers, though snarly, postured themselves a lot like housecats. Big, grumpy housecats. That can roar. And eat you.






I will not roll over, I wont, I wont!

The next act was juggling. Hats, balls, and ping pong balls.




Juggler Brett Michael


After that, a balancing act on something called a Rola Bola, featuring Fridman Torales. I’m not sure how this guy did it. He must do a lot of yoga.

meh.

OK, I'm impressed.

Touche, Torales.

Sure enough, David was right, and there were dogs jumping through hoops. But he did not predict them pushing each other in the doggie bassinet.


da-da-dada-dada-da-da-dada...

Whee!



boing



superdog to the rescue!

Of course, there were clowns, along with a ringmaster, John Moss III, that I found to be a mix of Stephen Colbert and Bob Saget, mostly Saget, a little Colbert.









There was also the hula hoop master, Deyanira, who I respect because I can’t even hula one hoop.








she also looks like she's trapped in a giant slinky

I told Dad I wanted a lightsaber, and he complied during intermission, bringing me back a green one.



The elephants appeared which we did not ride because they were kind of smelly and kept farting. They held eachother’s tails, which I thought was very cute. One of them sneezed all over the people at the other side of the ring, which David caught and I sadly missed.









And then, what David said was the best act, a dog in a mini elephant suit.







There were some acrobatics, and then a motorcycle on a tightrope with a trapeze.




alright, who let Peter Pan's shadow in here? that guy's nothing but trouble.







As we left, I bought David a red lightsaber even though it was $12 just to take these pictures