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As if to give Americans a new shove towards an all-work-no-play lifestyle and to teach Americans to live to work, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus, titled the Greatest Show on Earth, has just hosted it's last show in the world on Sunday, May 21st, 2017 at 7 pm Eastern time at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, New York. For Americans, this means no more cool stunts on high wires and the trapeze, no more human cannonballs, no more bikes with giant wheels, America is really bent on becoming a country where it is illegal to have fun!

It's probably just a business decision. Way back in the day, circuses and World's Fairs were a big deal. People could go to the circus and see a man who looked like a woman on one side and a man on the other. Now, you can just watch a movie and there are androgenus characters. Why pay for either? In the old days, you could see a strong man. Now, there are gyms you can go to to see weight lifters, and you can watch a weight lifting competition on TV or just click a video on Youtube if that's your thing. Why pay to see someone fly on a trapese when you can just click a video? There are other acts besides this circus, too. There is America's Got Talent, Britain's Got Talent. You could also go to Vegas or just watch something like that for free online.

And who really likes clowns. Did this circus still have them? In the old days, that was entertainment. Then, the Joker was an evil scary clown in the Batman University. that 'It' clown from the Stephen King movie was pretty scary. In movies and commercials, clowns are presented as freaky. Honestly, there is much better entertainment available.

Now, we have radio, TV, cable, video players, the Internet, and cell phones. Americans spend a lot of money on entertainment. It's probably just hard for a circus to compete with all the other, frankly more entertaining, things people can do with their time.

MrMan wrote:It's probably just a business decision. Way back in the day, circuses and World's Fairs were a big deal. People could go to the circus and see a man who looked like a woman on one side and a man on the other. Now, you can just watch a movie and there are androgenus characters. Why pay for either? In the old days, you could see a strong man. Now, there are gyms you can go to to see weight lifters, and you can watch a weight lifting competition on TV or just click a video on Youtube if that's your thing. Why pay to see someone fly on a trapese when you can just click a video? There are other acts besides this circus, too. There is America's Got Talent, Britain's Got Talent. You could also go to Vegas or just watch something like that for free online.

And who really likes clowns. Did this circus still have them? In the old days, that was entertainment. Then, the Joker was an evil scary clown in the Batman University. that 'It' clown from the Stephen King movie was pretty scary. In movies and commercials, clowns are presented as freaky. Honestly, there is much better entertainment available.

Now, we have radio, TV, cable, video players, the Internet, and cell phones. Americans spend a lot of money on entertainment. It's probably just hard for a circus to compete with all the other, frankly more entertaining, things people can do with their time.

It's not the same. At the gym, there are no motorcycles zooming around in a steel globe or acrobats on highwires suspended 50 feet above the ground or stunt people being catapulted at 65 miles an hour, flying 75 feet up into the air and then landing in an air bag. Neither will you see people with nifty looking umbrellas, swinging on a trapeze, doing triple aerial somersaults, walking on huge steel spinners and revolving hoops, and riding bicycles with 10 to 15 foot diameter wheels, at a gym. Not to mention interacting with the clowns and performers during the All Access Pre Show.

It sounds okay. I might take my kids to something like that. But it sounds about as entertaining as a good zoo and lower on my list of things I'd like to do than paintball, white water rafting, a relaxed trip to the beach, or another round of laser tag.

It was a great experience to watch Ringling Brother's back in the 80s. I'm sure because of PETA and other ridiculous groups, going to the circus is a complete different experience nowadays.