Circus Memories- Winter Quarters 1995

The photos seen in the circus program are taken during Winter Quarters. The one you see above is from the 125th Edition of the RBBBC. It was shot early in the day by a photgrapher who stood atop a scaffold high enough to get us all in one shot. We had to lie down on a white cloth and try not to wrinkle it as we took our pose. Some of us had props like Chad Miller on the lower right next to Huel Speight. He chose a chair and a box of popcorn.We had a bit during "come-in" where Chad would enter the center ring as a lost spectator carrying his over-priced popcorn and over-sized ticket to interrupt the band as it played. That was the year we had the clown band and that's why some of the clowns pictured are posing with musical instruments.

Most of the clown alley had renewed their contracts for the new show including all the "First of Mays". We'd only had few rehearsals for our new gags and all was still hunky dory, that is, until we had to present our new material to the circus owner in a process commonly known as "Nuremburgs". I don't know who named it but it had been called that a good many years from what I'd been told. During this review a gag would either get a thumbs up or down. The latter meant a routine you'd worked hard to develop during the last tour would never be seen while the former meant that either the gag was fine as it was or the idea was fine but you need to rewrite it either a little or a lot.

We had so many routines, sight gags and running gags that year but by some miracle or a good bit of luck or both, most of the gags survived. Those that were cut included displays of skill not commonly seen in a circus such as a barbershop quartet and a tap dance routine which demonstrated the wide range of background, skill and experience contained in our alley that year.

Some of the material nixed in Winter Quarters would have been perfect for most any publicity event and I think was used for such occasions. I recall the tap routine being used once or twice. The remaining material still showcased an alley brimming with talent and imagination.

Chad and I worked on a two person routine that we never bothered to show the circus owner but did perform it on a talk/variety show while the circus was in Los Angeles. It was something we developed on our own for no other reason than we liked working with each other and we needed gags whether they were for that circus or another. I often wonder if any of those routines were put to good use elsewhere. I sure hope so.