The Circus Comes to Town
Cole Bros. Circus flies through the air at Memorial Day stop in Livingston.
Excited kids and their parents braved the heat Sunday afternoon to enjoy the Cole Bros. Circus of the Stars at the Eisenhower Corporate Campus. Billed as the World’s Largest Circus Under the Big Top, the two-hour show featured an assortment of animals, high-flying acts, and clowns.
“When they come out to see the show, people can expect to see the greatest show on earth,” said Georgia-born Lewe Andrews, who is known as Lewe the Clown.
Andrews has been working with various circus shows since he was six. Now 19, Andrews is the Cole Bros. Circus Advance Clown. As the ambassador of good will, Lewe greets the youngsters before they go into the show and does much of the organization’s promotion.
“We’ve got lots of highlights,” he added. “There are the elephants, the flying trapeze, and cartoon poodles. Kids will love it!”
Armed with cotton candy, popcorn, soda, and more, families made their way into the red and yellow tent to take in the show. Ringmaster Chris Connors and Alissandra Von Rose opened the festivities with a musical salute to America. The audience was then treated to an impressive showing by an array of large bengel tigers presented by Judit and Juergen Nerger of Germany. Throughout their portion of the show, the tigers executed tricks and jumped through fire-coated hoops.
The Ponce Family of Guatemala elicited oohs and aahhs from the crowed as they performed their flying trapeze act. They swung through the air, doing front and back flips, and more. Crowd rousers Kellan and Maribel performed extraordinary feats on a ladder that rotated high in the air.
Other show-stopping performances include The Human Cannonball, ThunderDome: The Moto-Chamber of Danger, the Circus Elephants of Asia, and the Bermudez Family of Clowns. The Cole Bros. Circus will perform two shows on Memorial Day at 1:30 p.m and 4:30 p.m. at 290 Eisenhower Parkway.
The circus is part of the weeklong Youth Appreciation Week events that have taken place in Livingston. The celebration ends Monday with the Memorial Day ceremonies and parade. The remembrances begin at 9:30 a.m. at the Oval with the parade stepping off at 10 a.m. down Livingston Avenue toward Harrison School.
We've started a community scrapbook of YOUR photos from the Memorial Day weekend festivities in Livingston. Email your photos to marilyn.lehren@patch.com
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CANCELED: Memorial Day Ceremonies and Parade
May 30, 2011 at 9:30 amLivingston High School (The Oval) -
lyle3000
3:37 pm on Monday, May 30, 2011
Your Patch News should stop this whitewash and do real reporting , of how this circus animals are tortured each day for money.Having live animals in a circus is cruelty to animals . Memorial Day for all the animals that have been beaten , bolted and wiped to perform tricks is not humane to say the least . It is evil for animals what goes on behind this pretty scene for kids & adults.
see this:
www.animalrightsflorida.org/ColeBros.htm
lyle3000
3:41 pm on Monday, May 30, 2011
Each year the Cole Bros. Circus travels miles across the eastern U.S. with animals including elephants and tigers. The circus has a horrible history of animal abuse and neglect, and of violating federal laws intended to protect animals.
Update: Cole Bros. Circus pleads guilty to violating the Endangered Species Act! In February 2011, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that the Cole Brothers Circus and its president, John Pugh, had pled guilty to violating the Endangered Species Act for unlawfully selling two Asian elephants ("Tina" and "Jewel"). The two long-suffering elephants were confiscated by the USDA in 2009. Mr. Pugh was sentenced to three years probation, 100 hours of community service and over $5,000 in fines. The Cole Bros. Circus was ordered to pay a $150,000 fine! The fine may be the largest ever against a circus.
Animal abuse. Violent, physical abuse remains a common method of training and controlling elephants and other animals in the circus. In 2010, the Cole Bros. Circus traveled with several elephants under the control of trainer Tim Frisco. Mr. Frisco is infamous for undercover video footage that captured him beating elephants with bullhooks and shocking them with electric prods. In the video, Frisco is heard instructing other elephant trainers to, “Hurt ‘em! Make ‘em scream! … Sink that hook into ‘em … When you hear that screaming, then you know you got their attention!” The disturbing video is widely available online.