George Barrada above and below his father Jose Barrada. The first "cat people" I met after Lou Regan.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
For Dion--One of the best male lion acts I have seen in the United States
Posted by
Wade G. Burck
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10 comments:
I think I only saw George's male act once and had forgotten he put this group together. Tuffy was only one left from his father's act.
Darryl,
I believe that is Tuffy on the top off Jose's pyramid, and in the photo above that is Tuffy sitting on the left.
Wade
I was lucky enough to see this very good act at Circus World Museum a few times. Under the dark blue tent, with a nice crowd and even sawdust on the arena floor, it was 100% pure circus. Great stuff.
Dion
Dion,
Sometimes in back slapping or hanging paper for friends, or agreeing, to be with it and for it, weak talent is elevated and something great is forgotten. We shouldn't forget Barry Sanders because he retired early, or Bo Jackson because he blew a knew, or the gelding John Henry because he didn't sire a dynasty of Derby runners.
I can remember in 76-77-78 agreeing with every fan/animal person who told me, "yeah if I had what Gunther had I could do the same thing. Yeah, your right I'm doing the same thing. Yeah, Baumann is twice as good as Gebel, etc. etc."
The I quit being jealous, because I got more experience. In 78 Baumanns act was perfect with lights, music, everything. Louis Knie made a beautiful act around the same time with as many props and lights, but it wasn't as complete as Baumanns. Lights and props aren't my deal, and a bottle walk is just a flashy plank. But I have to be honest with what I was seeing. I have to also be honest and say I saw the same thing year after year. When I saw Gebel there was a different excitement because his acts were always changing, and you could bet on different behaviors each time you saw it. Look at 10 tapes of GGW, and you won't see the same tiger act. Then I had the chance to be around both of them, in their environment and looked at doing one act or 7. I quit being jealous of both of them as they had it harder then most, regardless of what people thought or assumed from the outside. Back about the same time when I was driving semis all over the US with a big tiger act, big elephant act, and a riding act,(how harmless and easy were those tigers, and elephants Darryl) there were people with one show act and a half dozen animals critiquing myself.
When I suggest to young Cainan that it was an easy gig for control of the animals to stay in the same tent year after year, as opposed to different building each week, he didn't agree with me. Then he did it, and he found out how much more skilled you had to become real quick. It is an industry with no standard or record books. It is built on "speculation and self serving paper." I would never profess to know who has the best flying act, juggling act, etc. as I have never done them, and don't know what is difficult and what is not. But I can make a pretty fair assumption of what is difficult and what is not in an animal act.
Regards,
Wade
Wade
I never played indoors and only once without a tent but I don't see how showing (a cat act) under a tent would be any easier or harder than in differing buildings.
The tent (Carson and Barnes) was moved almost everyday of the season - providing new and delicious smells in the grass for the cats. I did have mostly docile cats and it never got too dicey thank God.
Please explain why you think showing in buildings may be so different. I bow to your experience in that venue. Dion
Dion,
The environment stay's the same, it never changes. What does everyone say, "well, once they get used to it." Imagine if that environment and where the stable was changed weekly. Imagine training your horse in your riding arena/barn and then moving that same arena/barn from city to city. Imagine training your horse in your arena/barn, and then it is inside, or outside, big or small, fairgrounds with rides, or fairgrounds with nothing. I promise there are a lot more smells on rubber this week, cellotex, this week, and a plastic ring mat this week, etc. etc. After two weeks at Marineland the animals ignored the Sea Mammals, but 3 months later in the Will Rogers coliseum we afraid of the clown car. The same consistency of Circus Vargas went out the window, in a small hockey arena in Canada, with wood on the floor, as moisture seeps through from the frozen ice below, to the sawdust filled arena of an outdoor grandstand date, as it had rained all morning. A tent has the same every thing day in and day out with very, very few exceptions.
Wade
Until you turn cats who have looked at the same Blue & White (or whatever) tent, loose in a building with echoes, fancy moving lights, an extra 10,000 people, celetex under carpet, under a canvas mat, where the door to get outside is no where they can see, it is just not explainable. LOL,,,,I thought I was so e'fn smart,,,,LOL,,, when the first tiger started dragging the mat and half the arena around I thought "That asshole Wade was rite",,,,LOL
I now know approx. 32 of the 64 things that can go wrong in a building.
Casey,
Wrong. When you have done it 34 years you will find there are 349 things that can do wrong, and I may have forgotten some. But save your time counting. GGW said he quit counting in 1975 at 500, and Charley said he quit counting at 1000, five years before Gunther arrived in America and his first building.
Wade
I can only imagine with the cats, but in the Garden set up on top of ice was very exciting with running 8 and 9 thousand pound animals sliding next to you! One time one of Charly's tigers grabbed the sawdust bucket out of the ringcurb and wore it on his face for several tricks including a beautiful sit-up. LOL I also got my whip caught under the ringcurb at the Garden, when it was freed it wrapped around my ankles making for a beautiful swan dive across the ring as Susun the elepahant came over India for the garden wall sit-up. I crawled out from under her just in time to see the openning night crowd laughing at me!
I used to think that buildings would be wonderful - no mud, no flapping walls, lights everywhere, toilets down the hall etc, etc!
Then I booked our show into a couple of buildings in Tasmania. Even with Eddie Ventura rigging for us it took three times as long to rig the show and the cats .........yep Casey, I wasn't such a clever bugger either!
I did a grand total of about 30 shows in buildings and I'm sure I got to Charly Baumann's tally no worries!
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