"The Roar Of The Greasepaint - The Smell Of The Crowd"

With sincerest apologies to Anthony Newly's Broadway show by the same title, that metaphorical image always comes to my mind when "The Greatest Show On Earth!" rolls into town. This evening daughter Megan and I make our annual pilgrimage to Tampa for opening night of the three-ring extravaganza that has been our father and daughter's special date night since she was two years of age twenty years ago.

Megan has in her recent college years had to bear the teasing she has received from her fellow sorority sisters who proclaim that such an outing with their own father's would be so very uncool. Megan has staunchly defended this cherished ritual by declaring unabashedly that she will always be her "Daddy's little girl" when it comes to circus night.

Mom, on the other hand, has never been a circus fan. She proclaims an aversion to the many confusing smells that proliferate around the arena, declaring, "they give my allergies a royal fit!" She also believes that all of the elephants should be made to wear diapers. Fearing that she might expound this belief at a most inopportune time in the midst of other circus attenders, Megan and I had years ago determined that Mom was best left with her opinions...at home.

"The Greatest Show On Earth!" hasn't changed very much over the two plus decades we have been in attendance. One might expect the usual performance staples; the clowns, the lions, the elephants, dancing horses, and a variety of trick-performing dog acts. There is usually a mixture of high-wire acts involving perilously perched acrobats on chairs stacked three, sometimes four high. If one is lucky, the entertainment fare will include a "death-defying" trapeze act where "'The Flying Lunatics' will attempt to perform the never before accomplished feat of a triple loop-de-loop with an inverted trapezoid!" A hush falls upon the crowd, the spotlights peers in upon the favorite son of the Lunatic Family as he swings higher and higher above the catch net below, and then he hurls himself head over suspended teacup...to land squarely in the middle of the tuba section of the circus band! The crowd goes wild!! Now that's entertainment!

No...there's not much chance of that occuring. But, daughter Megan and I shall be thoroughly entertained once again, nevertheless. We always are. We will critique the many acts and compare this year's circus with the many circuses past, and we will hold hands as we depart for the parking lot...looking forward already to our Daddy-Daughter circus night date next year. I wouldn't miss it for all diapered elephants in the world!