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Readying For Fun Under The Big Top

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By RICH SHOPES, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 12, 2007

Updated: 12/12/2007 12:13 am

TAMPA - It was only a rehearsal, but a smile broke across Jenny Vidbel's petite face as eight white ponies with blue ostrich plumes circled the ring Tuesday.

Vidbel, 32, a third-generation circus performer, sat atop a chestnut brown horse, directing the action as she has done hundreds of times since she toured the country with her parents as a member of Vidbel's Olde Tyme Circus.

Vidbel, who also trains several dogs, two llamas, a potbellied pig and a porcupine that she coaxes along with "a lot of grapes," has since moved on but hasn't left the business altogether.

In a few weeks, Vidbel and her menagerie will hop, run and gallop into the ring as members of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Her parents, Al and Joyce, once performed with "The Greatest Show on Earth" and now it's her turn.

"It's huge. It's what you hope for your whole life," said Vidbel, who came to Ringling's attention about a year ago while performing animal shows at the Southwick Zoo in Mendon, Mass.

Ringling Bros. is set to kick off a two-year North American tour with a two-week run at the St. Pete Times Forum, starting Jan. 2. Along with Vidbel's "Barnyard Review" will be a dozen new acts, including acrobats from China, Russian Cossack horse riders and BMX motorcycle riders who zip around inside a metal dome, missing each other by inches.

The circus, one of three Ringling Bros. circuses that tour the country, is rehearsing at the Florida State Fairgrounds, its winter home.

Every two years, the circus takes a break to regroup and rehearse new acts.

Owner Kenneth Feld, whose father bought the business in 1967, said scouts have a constantly roving eye, reviewing stacks of videotapes and DVDs submitted by hopefuls and scanning Web sites for talent.

Once an act piques their curiosity, they see it live, even if that means traveling to such far-flung places as Mongolia to check out a strongman who lifts a half-dozen women on a barbell.

The audience - families with children - hasn't changed much, but as technology and competition for entertainment dollars has evolved, Ringling has been forced to adapt. Nowadays, what's in are splashy video screens, thumping pop music piped in from huge speakers and acts that have an edgy, never-seen-before aspect.

One of those, mixed in with the traditional animal routines and acrobats, is the Bombastic Ballistic Bouncers.

From Kiev, Ukraine, these performers sit astride 5-foot-high rubber inner tubes, bouncing in unison to the beat of music. Once high enough, they perform flips with the inner tubes gripped between with their legs.

"That's something people will talk about," says Feld, whose goal is to generate buzz to fill the seats.

"There's a high you get from a live event you just don't get in front of a computer," he said. "Kids today are so plugged into the digital world they can't tell what's real and what's not. When you're at the circus you can tell it's real. I think it's a refuge from the digitally created world."

Reporter Rich Shopes can be reached at (813) 259-7633 or at rshopes@tampatrib.com.

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