Clowning around

The last time I visited the circus, I was in India and 7 years old. It was night and we were at a mela with a merry-go-round and ferris wheel, and the circus was inside a stripy tent with no roof and the stars shining through. Ushers were selling ice creams and jalebis. I was in the front row with my cousin brother and getting agitated with excitement as the drums began to roll. I laughed at the clown, and "oooohhed" and "aaaahhed" at the trapeze girls. But the circus also had sad-looking elephants, bears and monkeys being harassed into performing by nasty humans, and I was on the verge of tears.

I never attended a circus again.

Somehow I've never managed to catch a Cirque Du Soliel show - I've always thought they'd be too glossy, too grandiose, too "annual New Year fixture" for my taste. So it was a real treat to attend my first circus show since I was seven and for it to be the sexy, irreverent, ramshackle and vaudevillian Circus Oz at the Royal Festival Hall last night.

I loved "Happy the Clown" walking upside down on the Festival Hall ceiling and getting very drunk in the process, the "trashy disco diva" stuffing her face with popcorn between contortions, and everyone - acrobats, aerialists, jugglers (eight balls!), clowns, musicians, BMX'ers - fighting to show off their skills in a mad blur of fire.

I even tolerated (just about) the obligatory and oh-so-fashionable "political satire" segments: the teetering pyramid of suited politicians taking a tumble; the "humanitarian cannonball" hurtling across the "razor wire of aggression" onto the "crash-mat of human kindness".

But the bits that had me swooning were the sexy duel between the stunt cyclist and a violinist, the quickfire comedy of the double-jointed dislocationist, and the Strong Woman's dance across the stage inside a revolving wheel.

Anarchic and exquisite. And animal-friendly. As circuses should be.

Related links:
+ Wanna join the circus? You'll have to sit for a circus degree first
+ A history of clowns

Other links today:
+ Bushisms make their welcome return
+ Can a concept exist without words to describe it?