# "Circus" on PBS \[open spoilers\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 7, 2010, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circus-on-pbs-open-spoilers/559827 "2010-11-07T22:48:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2010, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circus-on-pbs-open-spoilers/559827/1 "2010-11-07T22:48:52Z")
I was out Wednesday evening, so missed the premiere of this – yay for PBS, they reran it this afternoon. Fascinating behind the scenes look at the Big Apple Circus, a one-ring circus (which, unlike Cirque de Soleil, does use animal acts). It looks at a series of individuals from the beginning of rehearsals through … well, through the dress rehearsal, in the first two episodes, don’t know how many episodes there are total. Really enjoyed it, and am looking forward to the rest of the series. Is anyone else watching? ---
**Author:** ![elelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@elelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elelle)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circus-on-pbs-open-spoilers/559827/2 "2010-11-08T00:47:41Z")
I saw it this afternoon, too, first two episodes, and really enjoyed it. Loved the interviews with the Grunts who do the hard labor, and the trapeze artists trying to work together as a troupe.Those gals have amazing shoulder muscles! I really loved the high wire artist, [Sarah Schwartz](http://www.pbs.org/opb/circus/circus-life/profile/sarah-schwarz/). She’s incredible, and loved her use of Blues music in her act. I’m definitely gonna watch the rest of the series, and, next time a circus comes around here, go to it, if not run off and join. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circus-on-pbs-open-spoilers/559827/3 "2010-11-08T00:51:26Z")
We watched it and thought it was very good. I thought that 2 hour show was all there was - and then saw another new two hour part is coming next week. Don’t know how many there are in total, but will continue to watch. Interesting to see how the show came together, and interested in seeing how they progress. Reminds me of a documentary awhile back about people who travel with carnivals. It takes a special kind of person to live that life (with a carnival or circus) and I find it fascinating to learn about them. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circus-on-pbs-open-spoilers/559827/4 "2010-11-08T01:12:00Z")
> [@elelle](#): > > I really loved the high wire artist, [Sarah Schwartz](http://www.pbs.org/opb/circus/circus-life/profile/sarah-schwarz/). She’s incredible, and loved her use of Blues music in her act. Yeah, she’s amazing. I also loved the stuff in the first episode about Yuri, who they’re interviewing as just another working guy, and who turns out to be a serious whack job. Bizarre! ---
**Author:** ![RachelChristine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7ab992/32.png) [@RachelChristine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RachelChristine)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circus-on-pbs-open-spoilers/559827/5 "2010-11-08T01:21:43Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > Interesting to see how the show came together, and interested in seeing how they progress. Reminds me of a documentary awhile back about people who travel with carnivals. It takes a special kind of person to live that life (with a carnival or circus) and I find it fascinating to learn about them. I have family members who travel with a carnival for most of the year. They have four kids, although 2 of them lived with their mom during the school months, so only traveled in the summer. They are all grown now but the youngest, who is in high school. We always went to visit if they were within a few hours of us, and it really was fascinating to see how they worked things out, how they did schooling, what they did in off months, etc. The husband had grown up in a carnival family, so that is what he knew. They did get out of it last year, and are now trying to adjust to living in one place. I haven’t seen this show yet, but I’d love to! And I just checked – the first two episodes are online! ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circus-on-pbs-open-spoilers/559827/6 "2010-11-08T03:23:21Z")
Linky? ---
**Author:** ![RachelChristine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7ab992/32.png) [@RachelChristine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RachelChristine)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circus-on-pbs-open-spoilers/559827/7 "2010-11-08T03:32:59Z")
> **[Retired Site | PBS](https://www.pbs.org/retired-site/)** > > This Content is No Longer Available 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circus-on-pbs-open-spoilers/559827/8 "2010-11-08T18:21:09Z")
thanks! (who, me, lazy? :D) ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circus-on-pbs-open-spoilers/559827/9 "2010-11-09T03:08:00Z")
Watched the first ep a little while ago; probably going to watch the next here in a minute. Fascinating stuff. Kinda makes me wanna run off… heh. Any idea what the title music is, or is it something done up for the show? I tried using Shazam on it, but no luck. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2010, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circus-on-pbs-open-spoilers/559827/10 "2010-11-10T17:37:58Z")
Reminder that tonight is “Circus” night. Apparently there are six episodes in all, which they’re showing over three weeks. ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2010, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circus-on-pbs-open-spoilers/559827/11 "2010-11-10T17:49:33Z")
I interviewed the producer of this series, Jeff Dupre, for our magazine (I work at a PBS affliliate). He’s from our state, so we had the local angle. He also produced _Carrier_, about the lives of the people onboard a military aircraft carrier, for PBS, and to him they have similarities. Here’s an excerpt from the story I wrote: > [@KET Magazine article by Ellen](#): > > Kentuckian Dupre invites viewers into another world > > When you go under the big top, and onto the back lots of a traveling circus, says Jeff Dupre, you enter another world. > > After spending a year with the cast and crew of the Big Apple Circus, he’s as qualified to speak on life in the circus as he was for life aboard a naval vessel — he produced not only Circus but the Emmy Award winning 10-part PBS series Carrier as well. > > “They both go on a deployment and they have a mission and they have to work together in order for that mission to succeed,” said Dupre, a native of Louisville who currently resides in New York, home of his production company, Show of Force. > > “It’s like the military in a number of ways. For young kids who run away and join the circus, they’re trying to figure out who they are and they have a yearning for a strong sense of identity. One of the best ways to [do that] paradoxically is to join a tribe and to become something larger than yourself.” > > After Carrier, Dupre says, he and partner Maro Chermayeff looked for another closed world they could enter, one with a high-stakes environment, he said, which would contain a lot of inherent drama. > > “When you join a circus you become part of a tribe with its own ethos and its own culture, and that’s interesting to us,” he said. “There’s always these great characters when you have these worlds unto themselves.” > > In the circus, performers do two show a day, where fantasies come to life. The rest of the time, they live in a moving trailer park, occupied by both the “upstairs” performers and the “downstairs” crew which make the fantasy possible. > > “The circus has shaped our history and our language,” he said, “it’s really part of the collective unconscious of American culture. It’s been part of the American experience for a very long time. We wanted to see whether the circus can still speak to us today. And we found that it really does. It’s still powerful. It never fails to amaze. And the reason why is that it’s totally real.” > > A circus performer, can’t fake a triple somersault, Dupre continues. He can either do it or he can’t. > > “So much of our entertainment today is virtual— movies, video games, etc … but the circus is live and it’s right there in front of you. And it’s still a revelation for people today to witness that.” ---
**Author:** ![Oy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bc8723/32.png) [@Oy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oy)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2010, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circus-on-pbs-open-spoilers/559827/12 "2010-11-10T18:21:41Z")
I found the middle-aged first-time clown, on whom they focused much of the second hour, to be, um, over-sharing. But I love the way the company bends over backwards to keep everyone on that it can. It looks like a company that’s really trying to live up to Google’s “Don’t be evil” slogan. [QUOTE=twickster] I also loved the stuff in the first episode about Yuri [/QUOTE] I assume that’s the guy whose wife was one of the horse grooms? I felt bad for her, because she seemed quite together. And ultimately, the whole business seemed to have been some kind of misunderstanding, I thought, but it really never was clear. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2010, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circus-on-pbs-open-spoilers/559827/13 "2010-11-10T18:29:00Z")
> [@Oy](#): > > I assume that’s the guy whose wife was one of the horse grooms? I felt bad for her, because she seemed quite together. And ultimately, the whole business seemed to have been some kind of misunderstanding, I thought, but it really never was clear. Yeah. And you know that the filmmakers were totally “oh shit” that they hadn’t been around for the conversation(s) that led to the guy getting arrested. ---
**Author:** ![Oy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bc8723/32.png) [@Oy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oy)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2010, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circus-on-pbs-open-spoilers/559827/14 "2010-11-10T18:34:53Z")
So was I (going “oh shit”). And usually I think these shows are too intrusive. But in this case, it was more a matter of “what the heck is going on???” ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circus-on-pbs-open-spoilers/559827/15 "2010-11-11T07:28:39Z")
> [@LawMonkey](#): > > Watched the first ep a little while ago; probably going to watch the next here in a minute. Fascinating stuff. Kinda makes me wanna run off… heh. > > Any idea what the title music is, or is it something done up for the show? I tried using Shazam on it, but no luck. It’s called “[Whatever Gets You By](http://www.amazon.com/Some-Kind-Salvation-Eco-Features/dp/B002CW4LY0/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1289441654&sr=1-1)”, by a band called The Features. I wish they listed all the music they’re using. There’s a song in the 3rd episode with the line “I’m high above the patchwork of Ohio”, and I’d love to know who sings it and what the song’s name is, but it’s not in the [list of credited music](http://www.pbs.org/opb/circus/about/music-circus/). ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circus-on-pbs-open-spoilers/559827/16 "2010-11-11T12:40:34Z")
Weird to worry about spoilers in a documentary series – but since there’s an unfolding story, I really don’t want to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet! Wow, what a shock that they just fired the flying troupe – seriously, why didn’t they do it before they all drove to Virginia? And then a second surprise when Harmony came back; and a third when she left again. That wasn’t at all explained – I gather she wanted to see what happened with her boyfriend? Speaking of boyfriends, there’s Tara and Tom, which apparently isn’t going to end well, and Yuri’s wife and the black guy … WTF. And the whole clown subplot – all rather unclear. Is midlife crisis guy’s act working out? Is he bothered by the exclusionary tightness of the other two? Plus the change of command at the top – is ringmaster guy just retiring, or what? His reasons for stepping down are not at all clear to me. So much drama! ---
**Author:** ![Oy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bc8723/32.png) [@Oy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oy)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circus-on-pbs-open-spoilers/559827/17 "2010-11-11T13:59:01Z")
So much drama, and so little clarity! I wish they’d spend a little less time being arty, and a little more time explaining what’s happening. The pony died. That was my biggest shock. I’m not usually a fan of miniature things: I prefer St. Bernards and Mastiffs to Yorkies and Pekes. But that pony was cool (feisty little bugger, though!). Broke my heart. Then, of the three candidate ringmasters, they want to choose the one who sang “Candy Man” excruciatingly off-key? If he was doing comedy, it sure wasn’t clear! I preferred either of the other two candidates! I think Mark, the younger of the two real clowns, to be rather hot. He really nailed “Singin’ in the Rain!” However, I think there was a guy there waiting for a date with him. sigh. It figures. As to the budding relationships, WTF indeed! Yuri’s wife seems like an otherwise really together girl whose judgment in men is less than stellar, but maybe the Colorado thing will work out. The black guy seemed to think Yuri was some kind of neo-Nazi? Maybe Yuri’s wife is just a drama junkie. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circus-on-pbs-open-spoilers/559827/18 "2010-11-11T14:28:22Z")
God, I’d forgotten about the ringmaster auditions – yeah, I had the same reaction, when whatshisface said “one is clearly not in the running,” I thought “the guy who can’t sing on key, right?” Wrong. Sigh. Wonder if we’ll see more of what happens there next week, or whether that’s all for the next circus season. ---
**Author:** ![Oy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bc8723/32.png) [@Oy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oy)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circus-on-pbs-open-spoilers/559827/19 "2010-11-11T14:36:40Z")
But even to my untrained eyes, I can say that the Cortes fliers were better than the Neves. So even though the Circus people behaved badly in dragging the latter down to Virginia before cutting them, I think it was the right decision to cut them. I’m not clear as to whether there’ll be more shows or what. Fascinating as it has been, this series could have been much better. I think it might have benefited from a narrator telling us what was actually going on. The whole thing has been a tad incoherent. The twin jugglers were interesting. I wonder what the one who isn’t interested in med school is going to do. ---
**Author:** ![Ionizer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5daacb/32.png) [@Ionizer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ionizer)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circus-on-pbs-open-spoilers/559827/20 "2010-11-11T14:40:15Z")
**twickster** : just wanted to say thanks for mentioning this series as a thread. I’d never heard of it, and am really looking forward to watching the on-line stuff and rest of show. I’ve read enough just now to think its worthy of watching 🙂 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/circus-on-pbs-open-spoilers/559827.md?page=2)