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The Bakersfield Californian Thursday, August 25, 2011
Eye Street Editor Jennifer Self | Phone 395-7434 | e-mail jself@bakersfield.com
Index BHS Water Balloon Fight .......................... 19 League of Women Voters tea .................. 20 BCSD music and entertainment .............. 21 Arts Alive .................................................. 22 Isaiah Morfin ............................................ 23 The Lowdown with Matt Munoz ............ 24 Vegas Night ............................................ 25 Calendar .............................................. 28-31
“My personal favorite, however, is a gentleman we call the ‘Human Fuse.’ He lights himself on fire, loads himself into a giant crossbow, and launches himself across the stadium every night.” — Ringmaster Brian Crawford Scott
Still the greatest show? The enthusiastic young ringmaster sure thinks so BY ASHLEY FISCHER Contributing writer
F
or many people, turning 25 may consist of a night on the town with some friends followed by a round of “Happy Birthday” and a slice of cake. For Brian Crawford Scott, ringmaster of “The Greatest Show on Earth,” his 25th birthday ended, very appropriately, with a pie in the face. Pies, clowns, elephants and acrobats are just an everyday fact of life when you’re a part of Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey’s Fully Charged. And Scott, along with the rest of this circus, will all be performing in town today through Sunday at Rabobank Arena. Playing off the high-powered exchange of energy and excitement between the audience and the performers, this newest incarnation of the Ringling Brothers circus is full of firepower and will feature plenty of the spectacular performances worthy of only the big top. “We have a couple of new things that people can only see with Fully Charged,” Scott said. “For example, we have our Ukrainian strong men. This pair of strongmen are very unique. They do an act where they swing full-sized telephone poles around their heads, which is definitely something worth seeing. My personal favorite, however, is a gentleman we call the ‘Human Fuse.’ He lights himself on fire, loads himself into a giant crossbow, and launches himself across the stadium every night.” Other acts include the Tianyicheng Troupe, a group from Henan, China, that flips and spins to heights of up to 13 feet in the air as they perform a game of basketball on springy bounce stilts. There’s also equine presenter Luciner Viera de Souza, married to Tabayara Maluenda, the returning Ringling exotic animal trainer, who shares the arena with Bengal tigers and Asian elephants.
PHOTO COURTESY OF AMY GLINES
Brian Crawford Scott commands from the center ring as ringmaster of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey’s Fully Charged.
It helps to be over the top under the big top There to guide you through this … well, circus, is Scott, who at 25 years old, is only the 36th person to ever receive the coveted position of ringmaster in the 141-year history of the Ringling Bros. circus. “My job is to be there pretty much every step of the way, and to introduce the acts and sort of guide the audience along, and to make sure they get the most out of their experience they have with us at Fully Charged.” In addition to narrating the captivating performances happening down in the ring, Scott does his part to ensure that the show lives up to its longstanding claim of being “The Greatest Show on Earth” by providing his
own musical performances — a relatively new addition to the ringmaster’s job description. “I’m also a performer myself, and I get to rub shoulders and perform alongside our other circus performers. Ringling Bros., really, is one of the only circuses that has a singing ringmaster, and I think that it adds a really fun dimension to the show. Now you have the opportunity to hear live songs and music being played alongside all of your favorite traditional and new circus acts.” Not bad for someone who, until being deemed the only ringworthy performer out of hundreds of hopefuls auditioning, had never once seen the circus. While growing up in San Jose, Scott said the opportunity to go to the circus “just never came Please see 18
Tabayara Maluenda, the circus’s exotic-animal trainer, works closely with Bengal tigers and Asian elephants.