Cheers for Circus Smirkus: Wild West Performances Draw Big Island
Crowds

By MARCUS TONTI

The big top, a blue-and-white-striped number festooned with green
and yellow stars, beckoned to passersby from Old County Road. The smell
of popcorn and cotton candy filled the air as one approached the tent,
the sight of children already sticky with lemonade and sno-cones
lightening the heart.

But all this was prelude. It was the show inside that really soared.

Circus Smirkus's eight performances at the West Tisbury school
grounds this past weekend provided a whiz-bang, rollicking, virtually
nonstop good time for all who had the good sense to attend. The Wild
West-themed program featured cowpokes and varmints, cowgirls and rodeo
clowns in a show jam-packed with a surprising diversity of aerial feats,
classic circus entertainment and general tomfoolery.

It's what Oklahoma! might have been if Curly, Laurey and Will
Parker had run away and joined the circus. Or perhaps part of Will
Rogers's oeuvre, had he substituted a red clown's nose for
the folksy political commentary that accompanied his famed rope tricks.

The team of 30-plus mostly teenaged troupers spent the better part
of two hours vaulting, tumbling, dangling from the trapeze, soaring
above the crowd, twirling hoops, juggling, doing lasso tricks, balancing
on chairs, jumping ropes, walking the highwire, cavorting on stilts and
unicycles and teeter-totters - it could have been exhausting if it
weren't so danged entertaining.

Stagehands and troupe members themselves kept the show moving in a
whirl of essentially constant activity, set pieces with clowns filling
the gaps between more elaborate performances.

A crucial element of the program was the Route 7 Ramblers, a
talented roots-music sextet featuring banjo, mandolin, accordion,
fiddle, standing string bass and a drum set that played bluegrass-tinged
tunes. Clad in overalls and other western wear, this band would have fit
right in at a Dodge City saloon. Their music accompanied the show
perfectly by offering traditional fare like Dueling Banjos, Buffalo Gals
and I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow, as well as a few non-C&W tunes
- a little jazzy number to accompany a faux gunfight and even a
prairie-inflected Brahms Lullaby.

Audience members - adults and older children - were
swept up in the twang of the banjo and the rat-tat-tat of the drums,
clapping in time at various points throughout the program even as
"yee-hahs" and "yippee-kay-ays" erupted
periodically.

But the youngest in the audience were too caught up in the spectacle
before them to be so easily distracted. Children ringed the 60-foot
ring, trying to take everything in - in some cases sitting
literally slack-jawed, agape at the goings-on, and in all cases
obviously delighted.

The smiles on the children's faces were mirrored throughout by
the Smirkos, as troupe members are called, who constantly ran back and
forth into the ring.

Costumed depending on their specialties in plaid shirts and blue
jeans or gingham-accented leotards, cowboy hats and neckerchiefs were
virtually ubiquitous, even for those who swung from the trapeze and even
hung upside down.

These latter Smirkos - mostly young women but a few men
- moved back and forth like human pendulums, gymnasts performing a
kind of aerial ballet as they dangled from colorful silks or, at times,
seemed to graze the roof of the tent above. Impossibly agile, this
elaborately choreographed artistry dozens of feet in the air was one of
the most appealing elements of the show.

Not to be outdone, the troupe's clowns were instantly
recognizable in face paint, big floppy shoes and oversized pants.
Consistent with the western theme, some wore chaps - although they
looked in some cases as if they were cut from fuzzy bathroom rugs.

Particularly entertaining was a bit in which two clowns armed with
water-filled buckets took turns spraying and spitting water at each
other, culminating with a bucket of water down a pair of pants. Simply
classic (although one wonders how thrilled parents will be when kids
mimic that bit at home).

Augmenting the clown routines were sound effects from the band to
accompany their pratfalls - cowbells echoing the smack of a
ladder, and so forth.

Another highlight was the variety of juggling routines, as young
women and men were lost in a swirl of balls, pins and flaming batons. In
one case a juggler maneuvered five pins while perched on one foot on the
wire.

At the show's end, one couldn't help but wonder if it
was too late to pack his worries under a tent and catch a lift with the
Smirkos as they head to their next gig. The sense of regret was
pervasive as the band fired up their instruments one last time and the
entire troupe ran into the ring, smiling and waving, inviting the
audience to join in - playing, as they bid adieu, a tune that was
predictable, perhaps even inevitable.

What was it? Let's put it this way, pardner: On behalf of all
Islanders - Happy Trails, Smirkos, until we meet again.