Tom Dieck Jr.--7th Circus Festival of Grenoble, France

What a wonderful time of the year for Circus in Europe. I do envy them the beauty of the Festival season. It is a pity that some feel they have to give awards to try to make it something it is not. It is a "holiday" of talented performers and beautiful shows during a festive time of year. Thats all, and that is enough. it says it all. We have nothing comparable in America since the disbanding of the Five Big Texas Dates, or the Winter tour in Chicago, Milwaukee, and Detroit etc. Imagine if they awarded gold and silver prizes at the Show Folks Circus or the Turkey Festival in Evansville for "Excellence" because you were available, and that was used for phony paper for the next ten years on each show in which you appeared. Flavio Togni and Alex Lacey on the same show together is going to be excitement and excellence enough, with out belittling the fact, with a statement like "4 silver clowns together on the same show" and with out pointing out that Flavio got robbed 3 of those 4 times. You don't hear much paper hanging for bronze, but for some reason 2nd place is a big deal to an otherwise beautiful show. I am confident it could stand on it's own merit, why is nobody else that confident and they need the accumulation of phony prizes to validate it. Is young Tommy Dieck's act better because it got "bronze?" Or is is worse, because it didn't get "silver?" I love the circus, why do folks have to keep pimping it like a wore out old hooker, for some kind of personal gain?
Courtesy of Vincent