"Circus life under the big top, whoa"

(Yes, I did just quote Journey's 1983 soft-rock classic, "Faithfully." But this entry isn't about music...)

While it might not be on the same level of "pop culture" as Paris Hilton and Bo Bice, for example, this was just as fun:

We went to the circus last week!

The Cole Brothers Circus, to be precise.

Now, the last time I saw the Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey Circus was at Madison Square Garden when I was in college, like a dozen years ago.

Admittedly, this wasn't Ringling Bros., but this wasn't MSG, either. Still, it was a fun night out; it was something you don't always get to go to; and it was one way to kill time before we see Taylor Hicks play the Mid-Hudson Civic Center in August.

For a smaller show under an actual big-top (even Ringling Bros. doesn't use a tent!), it was a really cool show, giving us a chance to get up-close with the acts ... although a little too close to the elephants, which were really cute from afar, but stunk really bad when they walked by!

You also get to see how everything is contained under that small tent — from the rigs for the Chinese gymnasts to the trapeze apparatus — and how the different acts each work together to make the show a success.

Enduring a schedule of two shows a day, you also realize how amazing the performers are to be able to do their death-defying acts twice a day, although not always to perfection.

For example, we got to see the trapeze-flying family miss a triple somersault (though they had a net underneath, which totally killed the excitement for me) before once again climbing the rope ladder and pulling it off flawlessly.

The "main event" of the show was also the night's shortest (but loudest) act: The human cannonball enters the "world's largest cannon" and BOOM ... flies more than 100 feet across the tent to the net waiting below.

Go ahead! Click the video below and watch her fly! (Never mind that "Image Coming Soon" thing ... the video works)


(Yeah, I actually didn't mind the fact that she used a net ... it would've been messy if she didn't!)