Circus, Schmircus!

Celebrations of my mom's birthday featured a trip to the circus and to an M.C. Escher exhibit (not to be confused with M.C. Hammer). 

We got to the circus a bit early for the pre-game show... or is that the pre-show show? It's all pretty confusing. Anyway, they led a little participatory dance program for the kids, had one of those "see how strong you are" sideshow type things, and gave out a few goodies - most significantly, a clown nose!

Nah, we don't need two clown noses for two girls - we'll just use the bag it came in for the second nose!

Soon, they shooed everyone out of the main stage, and the program began.

An elephant

I loved the expressiveness of the stilt-walker in the background.  He was really into it,
kind of goose-stepping around and generally showing off.  It was so much fun!

Just as with the Big Apple Circus last year, the theme was "Construction".

This stilt-walker wasn't as tall, but quite a cool costume of construction cones!

At the core moment, the woman on top was standing on a chair, which was balanced on a pole resting on the shoulders of the cyclists on the tightrope:

This was the act that the performers seemed most nervous about.  

This was a fun one, though very hard to capture on my phone.  Several guys were jumping on a trampoline, and sitting or standing on top of the clear plexiglass structure, or in one of its cubbyholes.  And they were doing this from both sides at the same time.