Traveling fools (excluding Rome.)

May 24, Scotts Valley.

I can hear the crowd scream from the trailer.
The circus did good business tonight, if one is to trust the decibels. Business was down in the Monterey area, due to late booking and a consequent lack of proper advertising, but since San Jose a week ago things have picked up and gone back to where they have been since the beginning of the season, which is perched modestly but steadily half-way on the top part of the success ladder.
For small-size American circuses such as Circus Chimera profit is usually hard to come by. They live by the buck and have to play hard to make it. Hence the seven days a week, ten months a year deal, the doubling, tripling, quadrupling of duties, or in Fridman's case wearing so many hats the days seem to dissolve into an endless blur.
According to Roy, Circus Chimera's manager, there are fewer than 15 such circuses traveling in the U.S. today. Most if not all of them overwhelmingly employ Mexican labor, and some Mexican performers as well, and one at least is Mexican-owned, the Circo Hermanos Vazquez. Most are a one-ring operation, with the exception of Carson and Barnes.
The circus as we know it began not in Ancient Rome as is commonly thought but in England in the late eighteenth century with Philip Astley and the Astley's Amphiteatre. Clowns can trace their roots farther as since the Middle Ages jesters and fools played a big role in Western societies. They also acquired their brightly colored attire during that time (for a good, detailed history of the circus see History.uk.com.) The U.S. circus followed shortly after its British debut and was soon made famous by P.T. Barnum, who added two rings to create the three-ring circus in 1881. The circus had its heydays in the late nineteenth century, with tented shows reaching a peak in Europe during World War II. But according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica "today circuses usually perform in permanent buildings, though small troupes still travel with tents in some regions."
That would be us.

Sasha, Ekaterina, Vasily and Fridman (from left, in good newspaper fashion) on the boardwalk in Santa Cruz this morning.