Does anybody know anymore about this presenter or this act. I think it is from France. I originally thought it was Australian given the "trick" they were doing. The props are sure interesting looking.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Pierre Thomas
Posted by
Wade G. Burck
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
4 comments:
The pedestals wouldn't be that flash in Australia! LOL
Wade, you perhaps better than anyone I know can answer the question of why bigcat acts seem to need elaborate "furniture" to display these great animals? Gunther's farewell tour tiger act was beautiful to watch but the props were, for me as propboss, a nightmare to store, handle, and get set. The act would have been just as good with simple seats and not those "Roman colums". They were heavy, difficult to clean, occupied way too much space when not in use, and required an army to get them set and struck since the tigers were in the middle of the first half of the show.
I also remember a cat act I worked with at some time that not only had complex seats but also these square plywood things that had to be set exactly per cat (not interchangeable) for a group ground sit up. Why this?
As an aerial performer, I always tried to keep my rigging as simple and straight forward as I could but today I see acts struggling with monumental contraptions yet doing little. Is this the same in the animal world? Do these people think that ornate furniture can hide a poor presentation? Because I have been on both sides of the fence, so to speak, I'mjust curious. I'm not trying to put down anyone or how they do their work.
Is it just a case of being at the Oklahoma State Fair while with RBBB and spending time in the adjacent horse show arena (something to do between shows without wandering the midway) and hearing "class #873 - buggy driving with fringe in costume on deck" and class #874 - buggy driving without fringe in costume up next" and thinking are these people nuts? Of course this was the same place I saw an exhibit from a llama ranch with a display which listed the advantages of llama ownership as jogging companions.
I have no idea why I'm writing this but here it is - why do you need elaborate props to present something beautiful in its own right?
Warren
Warren,
I know those props well, and used them briefly for publicity photos in 1992 while awaiting Hagenbeck-Wallace to arrive with my new ones. They could only have been used on Ringling as they would have been impossible to load and haul in a semi trailer. Because the were very heavy and tall, they were top heavy and had to have the X shaped feet put one them. The wheels were added just so GGW could move them. But together with the flowing royal purple cape standing atop Congo, he was indeed Julius Caesar, and they matched and in this case were very appropriate.
I have never liked pyramid's and in fact encouraged young Casey to take them out of his act last year. You do need them for jumping unless you can come up with something else. Other then that, it never made sense to haul them. I think that is what made all cage act look the same eventually. The tended to use the same equipment year after year over and over. The tricks became the same and the act's became the same, and I think folks just became tired of seeing the same thing. With exceptions who did do different behaviors, and different props like Jim Clubbs big wheel pyramid or even the hated Hawthorn pyramid.
The reason why they have those, "goofy" classes at a horse show is that they try to have something for every body to compete in to keep memberships up. In an effort at fairness as it is for awards, which is a foreign concept to Monte Carlo or any other circus "competition" they may offer "buggy with a fringe on top" and "open cart" as two different classes, so that there is not an unfair advantage for a just to have to decide which they like better a buggy with fringe on top or an open cart. Just because a horse pulls them, doesn't mean they are the same thing.
Wade
Pierre Thomas wrote a very good book about his life, but it is in French. The only thing I remember about him is that he had trained spectacled bear in his mixed group. As far as I know it is the only trained spectacled bear that I have heard of.
Post a Comment