More Wet Bits--Groot Kerstcircus Den Haag, Holland.

The translation is "The Great Den Haag Christmas Circus", Den Haag being the Dutch name for the city known in English as The Hague.

This was the 10th winter production from Willem Smitt's Groot Russich Staatcircus (I won't insult you by offering a translation) which tends to tour in both Holland and Germany from October to April, bringing in guest artistes for the Christmas season.

This festive season, there were 3 animal acts, two of them being guests. One of these was the African lions of Jason Peters, billed as being from Spain, which is where he's based. In effect he's British, although I'm not certain that he was born in Britain. All 5 lions were maned males, and their pedestals were in a pyramid formation at the back of the cage, although there were no "formal" pyramids displayed.

Much of the initial part of the act involved jumps from pedestal to pedestal, often over other lions. Each run concluded with a swift climb up and down perches attached to sections at the front of the cage.

With the central pedestals shifted, there was space for a lie down, after which the 4 lions involved left, leaving their leonine colleague to perform the feature of the act. Quite simply, he rode on the back of a motor-tricycle which Jason drove, although our four-footed friend did need some persuasion to depart. As we've seen on this blog before, Jason's costume is black leather jacket and trousers, worn over a black tee-shirt, perhaps supporting the biker image of the act's finale. It's possible to give pseudo street clothes a bit of showbiz flash, but that was missing here.
Much more flash came from Jochen Krenzola Jr, who was Wolfgang Krenzola's groom rather than his son. Not quite a Noah's Ark, but mainly doves and parrots, combined with a couple of domestic cats and 2 Jack Russells, plus a far larger dog (Irish Wolfhound?) who ambled in, walked around - and left. But I must not forget the vulture, who did precious little other than sit there, providing novelty value. Otherwise, what we saw was basically a small bird act. Clearly all the animals are well cared for, as are the props.

Opening the show (after the Circus Ballet) was Iuri Volodchenkov riding high school. hands free. No reins. A confident attitude, bordering on the arrogant. One of the dancing girls worked beside the horse, movements being much the same. Good without being outstanding.

It would be remiss of me not to mention the presence of Russian clown, Oleg Popov who is still effective after over 50 years in the ring, although maybe he has lost some of his former sparkle.

And Austrian pickpocket Charly Borra (working in Dutch) is always a joy to watch, especially when he is in the audience as an usher pre-show.

Not the strongest of shows I've seen from this management, but no complaints. Not that I found my hot dog particularly succulent.

Courtesy of John Cooper