Ringling Bros: Dragons, a boy’s first trip to the circus

We took 3YO Mojo to see the Ringling Bros Barnum & Bailey Circus last week.  As with most 3YO little people he was excited, full of questions and wanted to eat everything in sight.  He was especially fond of the ‘tiger ice cream’, that’s what he called the icy freeze that was in his elephant souvenir cup. 

Dragon is the theme behind this year’s circus.  One thing that was new to us was the fact that they let people enter the ring if you arrive an hour prior to the start of the show.  We got there 45 minutes before the show started and it was in full swing.  There was a bounce house, clowns roaming around and an elephant entered as well.

That was pretty cool.  Seeing an elephant was one of the key reasons he wanted to go to the circus.  He was sad when the elephant went away, but we assured him that his big eared friend would be back.

10 minutes after they cleared the ring area the show began.  The announcer introduced a gathering of special people with exotic talents from around the world who had come together to summon the power of the DRAGON.

I hadn’t seen the circus since I was a little boy.  As an adult I was aware of the campy, wink-wink humor from the announcer used to segue between acts.  Our 3YO he was so transfixed watching everything in the ring in front of him.

I mean everything.  He was certainly most interested in the animals, but he was bug eyed, full of excitement for all of the performers.  Even when I turned to my left to look at him, instead of the performers he was looking straight ahead.  Dad and mom were nowhere in his world at that point, he was simply having fun at the circus.

That’s the point of it, isn’t it?  The Circus is not exclusively for kids, but they get so much out of it and that is the reason you go.  It’s a chance for you to be kind of a kid again and for your kid to really let their dreams and imagination go wild.

But what about the animals?  I’m an animal guy, love em and do anything I can for them.  Should I put on my petoile oil and go protest?  All of the critters used by Ringling were born in captivity and perform for only 2 hours a day.  They also encourage conservation towards these endangered animals and have an elephant sanctuary in Florida.  I understand why people might not like the circus because they use animals in the acts, but for us far more positive comes from it than negative.

Dragons will be at The Gwinnett Arena until March 3.

We received complimentary passes to the show, all thoughts are our own.