Sarah and I gathered together a big group of friends to go see the show. Some of our friends had never seen Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus before, so it was exciting to introduce them to the show. I am friends with the current Boss Clown, and he set up terrific seats for us that night. We had a wonderful view of the whole three-ring extravaganza.

The Circus was... ok. I am undoubtedly biased as a result of my many, many years with the show, but it just wasn't as spectacular as it once was. We enjoyed it and had a good time, but it no longer feels like "The Greatest Show on Earth" but merely "The Pretty Good Show On Earth."

The title and theme of this year's show was "Bellobration" in honor of their featured star, the acrobatic clown Bello Nock. With his outlandishly tall red hair, Bello has been Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey's headliner for many years now. Perhaps too many years. I'd always enjoyed Bello in the past, but this year he seemed to be repeating routines he had done before, and he just seemed tired and to be performing mechanically. I wasn't impressed.

The Circus began impressively enough. Bello appears on a giant television screen (actually, a nice modern addition to the Circus that allows the audience to see the performers up close) playing with a mechanical device with which he inadvertently sucks all of the color out of the Circus. The cast, both human and animal, makes its entrance in black and white. I was delighted with the concept because what else but the Circus could bring dazzling color back into your life! Unfortunately, that never happened.

The duration of the show remained stark and colorless. There were no Circus parade floats. No colorful banners. The size of the cast has dwindled over the years, so the three rings did not seem to be a whirlwind of activity (after all, that's where the phrase "a three-ring Circus" came from). I kept hoping that by finale, everything would once again explode with color, but instead, the three rings remained pale and lifeless.

That's not to say that we weren't entertained. There were highlights. The tiger act was very, very good and exciting. There were three rings of madcap performing dogs that were wonderfully delightful and amusing.

And the clowns...

Ah, the clowns. The clowns were very good... the few opportunities they were given to perform. They performed a parody of "Dancing with the Stars" which had some fun moments. And it was a real treat to see some classic walk-arounds (a classic type of traveling, visual gag that has been long absent from Ringling Bros). Other than that, the clowns were relegated to baby-sitting the audience and filling a space in the production numbers. It reminded me of the reasons that I left the Circus three years ago.

All in all, we did have a fun evening at the Circus. I had moments of melancholy when I missed my days as a clown. It was nice to see some old friends. But, mostly, it made me look back fondly on my Circus experiences and feel glad that I chose to move on when I did.