*

This Week July 25, 1990. Page M5

Continued from Page 3
Certainly, the circus has its
fair share of children. They
wheel Tonka trucks beside tiger
cages and skid bikes to gravel-
spraying stops. Sometimes,
they're still playing non-circus
games as they cram clown hats
onto their heads or attach red
plumes to dancing white ponies.
Toys are dropped just before

® kids go through the door leading

KE

onto the stage and are retrieved
after chores — participatingin a
skit or delivering animals and
props — are completed.

Older children, who try to keep
younger siblings away from mis-
chief; usher little ones into seats
so they can watch performances
by family members.

For the Smith children, that
means watching Daddy and his
“very good friend” Marie flip
from the arena rafters as part of
The Smith Duo’s trapeze act. At
the show's end it means watch-
ing Dad, the orange-suited

two eldest off-spring (16 and 22)
have their own acts and their
own agents. His other children

(aged four to 13) know the basics
of trapeze acrobatics, pester him
about learning to be human can-
nonballs and will, he says firmly,
get good educations.

Too many circus children, he
says, lack schooling and so lack
the ability to choose anything
but a circus career.

“With my first two children, I
was so busy playing at the cir-
cus, I didn’t stop to think about
whether they'd want to play,” he
recalls,

Education is important even if
kids pursue circus careers, says
Dave, because circuses are
changing. His income is a circus
oddity — concession manager
Frenchy Dubec has days when
his employees earn more than
he and his two partners — but
circus life requires more busi-
ness brains than it once did.

GLAMOROUS GLITTER is part of the life of trapeze artist Lala
Polo, shown posing with her husband, Enrique.

TOP STORY.

hairsprayed body and satisfied
that such preparations will
protect them from slipping off
the trapeze bar this evening, the
Smith duo goes to do its act.

Dave prays that, for the show's
finale, the cannon will work and
— as casually as any other man
with a masters degree in educa-
tion, as casually as one of the
fathers watching the show
might leave for the office on a
Wednesday morning — ad-
monishes his daughter, Kimber-
ly, to “be good.”

“We PREsent,” says the ring-
master, “the DAZZLING, the
astounDING, SENSATIONAL.”

The rock music mixes with a
primitive drum throb and spec-
tators, safely seated on bone-
hard bleachers, wonder what
it'd be like to escape a world of
responsibility, to become part of
the carefree circus clan.

~

' You Can't

CIRCUSES ARE SPECIAL — so special that four-year
old Iris Black travelled from Inuvikto see herfirst one.
lris’s mom bought her a special circus toy to com-

memorate the show.

human cannon ball, Captain
Circus, explode from a cannon at
speeds of 70 MILES AN HOUR
while his body experiences A
SPECTACULAR FORCE OF 8
Gs.

“In the circus, kids get a head
start,’ says Dave Smith, a
former school teacher who gave
up his career ata friend's urging,
to join the circus 20 years ago.

“My kids play in Victoria today
and Timbucktu tomorrow, and
they learn an honest job.”

“This is honest. Carnivals
might draw a rough group, but
circuses get the people who have
enough talent to make it from
town to town. You go as far as
your energies and talents take
you, hesays.

His abilities (including build-
ing five cannons which he sold to
other acts; each act pays him
royalties from each show in
which the cannon is used) give
him an annual income of
$100,000.

Nevertheless, Dave spends
many circus days pondering the
futures of his six children. His —

Circuses were once ragple-tag-
gle hodge podges of a family’s
talent. Now, performers seldom
stay with one show. More fre-
quently, they hire agents and
managers to arrange contracts
with various shows. They hand-
le their money so there's always
enough to bankroll an unex-
pected injury or lull in work.

And they must be prepared, in
case injury takes away their
talent or looks (assets crucial to
circus work), or in case animal
rights groups manage to outlaw
circuses featuring live animals,
to find other work.

Dave Smith worries about
such things, says no to four-year
old Russell’s request for a dinner
of red-shellacked candy apple
and then stands, arms stretched
like airplane wings, while Marie
sprays hairspray over his skin.
The sprays sharp odour joins
the urine-and-fur scents of
animals which have worked in
the arena.

Stephanie, six, and David
Junior, 13, help Marie dust
chalk resin across her

Touch This!

Nautilus introduces
Have A Heart Membership

O O

down per month
OAC. Based on 24 month membership

DUAL CLUB MEMBERSHIP
Unlimited Aerobics and Weights

A SAVINGS OF 60%

*with every new membership — Nautilus Club will make a donation
to the Heart & Stroke Foundation.

381-0202 1821 Cook Street
727-2277 3950 Quadra Street

: KO The special membership rates available during the Heart Fund Campaign.

a