Are you looking for something fun to do while the family is in town over Thanksgiving weekend?
Step right up, children of all ages, to witness the famous Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus!
“The Greatest Show On Earth” visits CFG Bank Arena in Baltimore for six shows over three days on Friday, Nov. 24 at 1 p.m. and 5 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 25 at 12 p.m. and 4 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 26 at 12 p.m. and 4 p.m.
“What better way to let all the big Thanksgiving meals digest than to sit and watch other people do super athletic, superhuman things?” Show Guide Alex Stickels told WTOP. “It’s a very exciting show obviously designed for families for multi-generations. It’s very bright, very colorful. We really celebrate human achievement and the human experience, so we want it to be inspiring. We want people to leave the show thinking, ‘That was amazing!'”
The show includes 75 performers from 18 different countries, including Argentina, Canada, Cuba, Ethiopia, Italy, Mongolia, Spain, Ukraine and the United States. Stickels joins Lauren Irving and Jan Damm as a trio of emcee characters named Stix, Aria and Nick Nack, who serve as the musical ringleaders hosting the entire performance.
“There are moments where you feel like you’re at a rock concert or a pop concert,” Stickels said. “We love to get the audience involved, we create a song with the audience, so it’s a very magical thing. … I’m the drummer, I’m really the rhythm of the show, the heartbeat of the show, I make music and get everybody involved in dancing and creating rhythms together. Aria is the melody, she’s kind of the soul or the emotion, then Nick Nack is the humor.”
The laughs come from Nick Nack interacting with a trio of comedians for a modern take on clowning, leaving the makeup behind to instead focus on a comedic blend of Rola Bola, juggling, acrobatics, dancing and silliness.
“We have this wonderful troupe called Equivokee, three guys from Ukraine who are just absolutely hysterical,” Stickels said. “All show long, there is this back and forth between them that is just absolutely hysterical as they try to aid the circus in getting things set up and ready to go for the other performers and all the funny mishaps that ensue. They try to imitate other performers or things they’ve just seen and do it in a brilliantly funny way.”
You’ll also see The Lopez Family, sixth-generation performers from Mexico and Chile on the Triangular Highwire.
“You think about the original highwire of people walking between two buildings or something like that, but they’ve taken this to the absolute max of what you think you could do,” Stickels said. “They’re balancing on each other, on bicycles, they’re doing handstands while up on the highwire, it’s just incredibly thrilling.”
Meanwhile, nine trapeze artists will ascend to the ultimate swing set consisting of four pedestals for a multi-directional act, as well as other aerial acrobatics that culminate with the launching of a human rocket.
“We’ve got this cross trapeze thing … where people are flying in between spaces and it’s just absolutely nuts,” Stickels said. “We have a whole aerial display routine where we’ve got a couple different performers all doing either acro, hand balancing or silks or using a ring, some are individual, some are duets, we have hoop diving. There is a young lady who gets shot out of a rocket at the end of the show who flies all the way across the arena.”
Don’t forget Wesley Williams, the One Wheeled Wonder, who sets a Guinness World Record every time.
“We have Wes the One-Wheeled Wonder, who all show long is using different unicycles,” Stickels said. “Progressively throughout the show they get larger and larger until his big moment towards the end where he is riding the world’s tallest unicycle. It’s 34.6 feet high and every show he sets the world record for the tallest riding unicycle, which is unbelievable. He has to take a wire to get to the top of the unicycle to even get on it.”
It all unfolds in a visually dazzling playground for an immersive, 360-degree performance.
“The idea of revamping where do we want this to go in the 21st century and beyond was, OK, the big top is iconic, but let’s think about how other acts are using arenas,” Stickels said. “With that, we get these really unique opportunities for a 360 performance in the round, we’re using a lot of technology, the things we can do with lights, effects, video screens. … We’re modernizing it into the 21s century, but you definitely feel the legacy and power.”
