Velociworld

SMALL TOPS

Have you ever been to a small circus? Most of us have been to the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey extravanganza, but I mean a little one. Like Allen C Hill's. One ring in a sawdust parking lot.

I love these things. The talent is generally questionable; trained dogs and albino pythons are the norm. But where else in America can you find such unadulterated entertainment? A troupe of 20 or so people, living on the fringes of society, carnies, really, with all the baggage that carries with it, doing 60 or 80 shows a year to please your kids. One bounced Rotarian check away from insolvency. No Sarasota winter digs where you at least find a family within your own tawdry inner circle. Just a loose-knit band of fellow travelers with an aversion to the 9 to 5, and a talent of some sort bordering on the freakish.

Imagine running the refreshments concession for one of these circuses. A rusted out soda pop machine, some weevilly candy, a popcorn machine that hasn't had the old lard scrubbed out of it in two years. Clearing, what? 20 grand a year? Who knows? I doubt these folks are tight with the Treasury Department.

Yea, verily, I think these people are the real urban cowboys. Not truckers or bikers. Driven by the urge to entertain that is as old, and as crass, as civilization itself. No safety net. No insurance. You and an audience that has a thousand better things to do with their money than spend it on your crapshoot.