NYC: Big Apple Circus

I arrived back to New York City not too long ago and I made it my mission to see as many shows as my budget and schedule can permit.

The director of the Big Apple Circus invited me to their new production, Play On!, now playing under the big top at Lincoln Center.

My buddies, Mark and Glen, were some of the clowns on the show as well as one of my instructors from Clown College, Barry "Grandma" Lubin. He taught me how you can elicit laughs from your audience by doing nothing. I'm still working on that to this day!

Grandma, dressing in drag since '74

I still get all kinds of goosebumps every time I step into a circus tent

Peanuts, popcorn, cotton candy, oh my...

In circus terms, the concessionaire who sells his or her wares is called a Butcher due to the fact that they would "butcher" the circus act by walking through the audience and trying to get people to buy their sodas, cotton candy, toys, etc.

I loved the layout of the band this year.

My buddy, Mark, whom I've had the pleasure to work with during my stints with Ringling Bros.

Not a great photo but I love watching the shadows that aerial acts produce inside the tent.

If we ever see an aerialist fall from their rig, we were trained to run and tackle them to break their fall despite sustaining any injuries yourself. Hey, at least we save a life, right?

When I was on the road, the trapeze artists always had the best groupies.

Clowns, on the other hand, had the pretty unstable stalker or two...

I had one woman from Rhode Island send me a hand written fifteen page letter filled with gibberish and confession of how my act changed her life and that we should be together

I later found out she wrote the same fifteen page letter to twenty other of my colleagues

Wrapping up...