I took advantage of my every-other-Friday off last week to redeem the free Circus ticket coupons the girls earned though a reading program in the Houston Public Library system. I got the free tickets and bought two others (so that Donna and I could go with them, at $28 a piece).
We went to the Sunday afternoon (1:00 PM) show at Reliant Stadium. It was the girls (and possibly my) first visit to a circus, but they had been to Reliant Stadium once before to watch a Rice football game. We parked ($8), walked to the stadium, found our seats, and waited for the show.
The Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus show ran about 2 hours, with a 15 minute intermission. They both enjoyed it and the two cotton candies ($10 each) I got, although Amanda ran out of steam midway through the show. Elena liked the motorcycles and the acrobat walking upside down the best, whereas Amanda preferred the clown food fight. All in all, we had a good time. They comfortably slept in the car ride to Sweet Tomatoes afterwards.
I couldn't help, though, applying a scientifically skeptical eye to the show. It was quite well done, and I really liked the way they integrated a big, circular video screen into the show, but some of the demonstrations were fakes. Actually, the only one that comes to mind is the "strong man" feats. He supposedly caught a 70-lb cannonball shot at 70 mph from a cannon (it was obviously a lighter version and a slower speed) and had a jeep run over him. Those fakes put a bad taste in my mouth, which is a shame, since there was a lot of amazing stunts that were done: trained dogs, cats, elephants, tigers, hat jugglers, acrobats (my favorite), motorcycle tricks (in a ball), cossacks, and clowns.
I would go again and enjoy it, I think. I'll just keep in mind that Barnum's name is in the title and that I should expect a certain amount of showmanship.