CAMPUS AND AREA
University Daily Kansan, September 17, 1984
Page 10
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus proudly presents:
The Ringmaster
The spotlight blinds, and the center ring rings. Alone, standing in the middle of the ring, a blond statuesque figure, clad in a mail of colored sequins, utters the words that only one person may.
"Ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages. The Greatest Show on Earth are about to begin." says Dinny McGuire. He is ringmaster for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus and has been for three years.
"I say the same words every time, and in turn, that's the challenge of the job — doing the same thing about 1,200 times in a row and remembering that it is the first time the audience has seen it." McGure said in an interview with backstage. The 13th edition of The Greatest Show on Earth came last week to Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Mo.
McGuire, who is from Oakland, Calif., has been acting in front of live audiences since high school. He said that running out in the center ring during the blackout and having the
The Showgirl
spotlight flash on him was an unprecedented thrill.
"It's an amazing head rush that I get paid for," he said.
The ringmaster's job is to act as a conduit for the performers' energy, McGuire said.
"My job is not to be remembered by the audience. My jobs to funnel the energy of the act to the audience, he said. He insisted on each act and divided each act the energetic introduction that it deserves is the real challenge.
"To do it best," he said, "to be completely at the disposal of the
Her sparkling, plumed headaddress never tipples — it never even slips. She can belt out a song, dance or high-steped jig and still look as though she just stepped out of the dressing room.
Alice Lynn, a showgirl and the first female vocalist in the Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus 113-year history, never saw a live circus until 1980. Lynn's sister persuaded her to go while the show was in Oakland, Calif., Lynn's hometown.
The Clown
"From the very first whistle I was knocked out," she said. "It was so incredibly theatrical."
Just auditioning for the circus was a great privilege, Lynn said. "I could have walked home and lived happily the rest of my life just having that opportunity."
But in 1981, after Lynn tried out for the circus, she didn't have to walk home consolled just with the opportunity to audition. She was offered a role at the New York City break tradition and be the first female vocalist in circus history.
After three years of performing in The Greatest Show on Earth, the excitement of each show has begun to fade, she said.
Lynn said she would never grow tired of the circus as long as her job would vary. "I would like to just sing and sing more," she said. "I would like to be ringmaster, but they're not ready for that."
"I don't get butterflies anymore because it's so routine," she said. "Sometimes you have to kind of wake yourself and up tell yourself, 'That's the millionth person sitting out there, the millionth person of the season.'"
His image instantly brings the circus to mind. People of all ages are like children, laughing at his sometimes absurd and always comical antics. He is the glue that holds all elements of the circus together.
He is the clown.
Wayne Sidley, who has been a circus clown for eight years, said he wanted to be a clown from the moment he saw his first circus at age
"Everything in my life just seemed to evolve and turn around and point to the profession that I've chosen as a clown," said Sadley, who is in charge of the circus' 26-member unit of clowns.
Whether dousing his fellow clowns with whipped cream in the centerering or waving to a child from an obscure corner of the stage, the white-faced clown is doing what he was destined to do.
"Clowns are not made, but they are born," he said. "Everybody is funny, but not everybody is a circus clown. Everybody's got a funny bone, but the funny bone is not always for the circus."
Stories by Erika Blacksher
Sidley, who used to be a Western Auto salesman in his hometown of Orlando. Fla., said people needed to experience the sensation and thrill of
Daring acts, splendid costumes and nonsensical clowns give people the freedom to release themselves without violence or anger. Sidley
"If they never see the circus, then just a little part of their life is missing." he said.
The world needs the circus, and the circus needs the clown. Silly said "P T. Barnum once said that clowns are the pegs on which the circus is hung."
Photos by Joe Wilkins III
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