July 2011 in Review

July is the single busiest month of the year for us.

On July1st we had the opening of 2 major events for us. . . Subfest in Groton, CT as well as the St. Joseph's County 4H Fair in South Bend, IN.

At Subfest the Naval Sub Base on the banks of the Thames River opens it gates to the public for its annual event celebrating the 4th of July. This years Subfest entertainers included a return of Bwana Jim's Wildlife Show (now in his 4th or 5th straight year a

t this event), Franzen's Elephants & Tigers and the Flying Pages aerial thrill show. Animals are always a huge hit at this event as they are at most events and tiger shows continue to draw the public in the gates.

Out in South Bend the Hot Dog Pig Races made its first

ever appearance at the St. Joesph's County 4-H Fair. Pig racing is a favorite at all kinds of events from fairs to BBQ festivals and the Hot Dog Pig Races offers up to 5 shows per day with a finale of racing Hot Dogs. Actually miniature Dachshunds dressed in buns and condiments, but it always gets a huge reaction from the crowd. I don't know what it is about pig racing but audiences gather at least 6 to 10 deep or more to catch a glimpse of this hilarious spectacle. They performed at the fair until the 9th.

On Saturday the 2nd until Monday the 4th Alexanderiathe Great performed her Houdini style escape show at the Houlton Fair in Houlton, Maine. Houlton is the last exit on I-95 before you get to the Canadian border, I also like to call it the outer most reaches of our Solar System since if you travel to Maine to see the amazing model of the solar system along route 1 you will find Pluto at the visitors center in Houlton. The models follow route 1 all the way into Presque Isle. Alexanderia found a new fan base up in Aroostook County many of who m now follow her on Facebook.

On Sunday North American Amusements brought their family rides to the Stoughton Night Before 4th Celebration. This traditional event attracts locals who its seems come together as a community for this one night a year bring their blankets & coolers to enjoy the rides, music and fireworks.

In addition to the event we had over the July 4th weekend we were busy with last minute arrangements for a daredevil stunt FIVE YEARS in the making. The Human Home Run at the Lowell Spinners. On July 5th the big event was finally to take place. The stadium was sold out and media surrounding the field as if it was the bottom of the 9th in the World Series! David Smith Sr. was shot 165' over the center right field wall to the delight of the baseball fans. Immediately the Boston Red Sox TV coverage picked up the happening on their broadcast and by the 11pm news all the Boston media was buzzing. By the early hours of the morning ESPN Sports Center did a feature on their broadcast and the next day the Human Home Run was

one of the lead stories on Yahoo News! The coverage was picked up nationwide and David Smith's daughter even saw media coverage in Europe!

On the weekend of the 8th, 9th & 10th we brought the Hu

man Cannonball David Smith to the Whaling City Festival in New Bedford to do a victory lap of cannonball performances so to speak. New Bedford is the largest fishing port in the country and we were blessed to meet the crew of the tug the "McAllister Sisters" who came out to see the show and invited us back for a tour of their vessel in New Bedford Harbor. It was awesome to see a real working tug boat and our 8-year old had an amazing time with the Captain taking the ship out for a spin in the Harbor. Thanks to the crew for the tour and for all you do!

The 10th also saw the closing of the Anastasini Circus at Wild Adventures Theme Park in Valdosta. They had a run there that lasted over a month and enjoyed every minute of working with this family friendly theme park. It was a pleasure working with the staff

once again!

On July 14th the McIntyre Family Circus opened a 10 day stand at the Nanuet Mall with Dreamland Amusements performing aerials, unicycle and high wire!

Saturday the 16th was the opening of the Barnstable County Fair on Cape Cod which is open for a full week plus a day from Saturday to Saturday. This year we had the "Enchanted Wa

gon" for the run of the fair. The "Enchanted Wagon" is a kid magnet and I can easily say there is no other strolling entertainment

quite like it, it is completely original and unique. The wagon is operated by a puppeteer and guided by an enchanted faerie. The wagon is like something out of a childhood adventure book with a sea turtle carrying a magical house on his back. It is driven by an owl and their are windows that the children can open to see magical creatures like a sea dragon come to life. It is hands on for the kids which is so rare these days of do not touch. The wagon also blows bubbles and sprinkles magic faerie dust as it goes along its merry way. If your at an event with the "Enchanted Wagon" and you want to see it for your self just look for the crowd of happy laughing children and their you will find it right in the middle.

Wednesday to Saturday Lucky Bob made his appearance at the fair for the 3rd year in a row. The Lucky Bob Show is filled with comedy, magic, juggling and a little rola bola for good measure. I have noticed once a fair books Lucky Bob they repeat him year after year, which is easy to do with such a talented performer who keeps his show funny, fresh, exciting and family friendly.

On Friday the 22nd the South County Balloon Festival opened on the grounds of the University of Rhode Island. The entertainment line up this year featured the Flying Pages with flying trapeze, juggling and aerials. They also had the all new "Flying Pig Races" from the producer of the Hot Dog Pig Races. The Flying Pig Races is also a traditional pig racing show with a final heat of "Flying Pigs" that is pigs who run up a ramp, jump into the fair, splash down into a pool, swimming across to the other side, up a ramp and back out onto the track, refreshed and ready for the final homestretch to the treats waiting to reward them for their efforts. It was the buzz of the festival this year!

July Saturday the 23 rd we took a day out to support a worthy non-profit organization benefiting retired thoroughbred

racehorses, Old Friends Equine Retirement. We spent a day at the beautiful Saratoga Race Track enjoying the races and witnessing

the Coaching Club of America Oaks featuring the five best 3 year old fillies in the country including Joyous Victory, Plum Pretty and Its Tricky. Its Tricky and Plum Pretty put on one heck of a show in the stretch and Its Tricky came out on top. The race was televised by NBC and was seen by over 1.2 million viewers. After the races we headed over to the Washington Inn to the cocktail party hosted by Michael Blowen and his wife Diane White benefiting their local Cabin Creek division. Also in attendance were Hall of Fame Jockey Angel Cordero Jr. and New York legend and former jockey of Funnycide Richard Migliore. There were lots of silent auction items of racing memorabilia and a great time was had by all.

The last weekend of July came all too quickly!

On the 29th we had two events open: the Quick Chek NJ Festival of Ballooning and the Northern Maine Fair in Presque Isle, Maine. At the Quick Chek NJ Festival of Ballooning we

had the "Cannon Lady" Jennifer Smith doing her amazing Human Cannonball. Everyone within 100 miles knew the Cannon Lady was going to be their there were no less than 10 feature articles written on her by the local media. While she was traveling to the event she stopped at Devil's Tower in Wyoming and someone stopped her and said "I know who you are, your the Cannon Lady, I'm from Readington, NJ and you are all over the news!".

Lucky Bob began his first ever run at the Northern Maine Fair in Presque Isle, and if you live up that way or are visiting the area you can catch him at the fair until August 6th.

So what have we learned this month everyone? To entertain your audience and keep 'em on the grounds, pig racing is what you need. Needs something this kids will love and help create memories they will cherish, you must have the "Enchanted Wagon". And if you want the media to cover your event and bring you media attention that has the power to reach millions . . . none other than a human cannonball!

August 2010 in review

August began on a sad note with Dondi the elephant's memorial service at the Southwick Zoo on Sunday evening August 1st. Dondi passed away after a brief illness in late July. She had a very well attended service with about 100 people in attendance, including her family Joshua, Ashley, Phil, and Francine. Much of the staff of Southwick's zoo was there, many performers who knew and loved Dondi, staff from the Enchanted Forest Amusement Park in New York where she once worked as well as fair committee members from the Guilford Fair in Connecticut. Even more surprising were the everyday people who Dondi had given rides to or performed for, one lady came out from Connecticut, Dondi had given her husband a ride while he was suffering from Alzheimer's Disease. Dondi was truly an extraordinary animal who touched many, many lives and without the ability to travel and perform this would not have been possible.

On Wednesday the 4th we traveled up to the Crown of Maine as it is known to the Northern Maine Fair in Presque Isle. This is a beautiful ride right to the northern end of I-95 followed by 50 miles on Route 1 through countless potato farms. We had a chance to visit with the fair President Andy LeBlanc and also Vicenta Pages with her White Bengal Tigers that we had booked at the fair this year. We even saw motor daredevil Crash Moreau visiting the fair. Crash is a thrilling performer but also visits many, many fairs and circuses during the season and documents the layouts of each and every one. We were hoping for an appearance by the Aurora Borealis that evening since there had been a recent solar flare but the skies did not co-operate with a cloud cover much of the evening.

On Thursday the Rehoboth Fair opened on the south coast of Massachusetts. We had the Magic of Lance Gifford and Company and his amazing staging. Also at the fair was Lance's Grannie's Racing Pigs as well as Lucky Bob. This fair is everything you think of when you think country fair, a carnival midway, motor events, 4H animals and entertainment. The fair reopened about 5 years ago after a long layoff and a change of fairgrounds and fair committee. Every year the attendance has increased and it is very well received by the people in Rehoboth and the surrounding communities. The fairgrounds itself is a nice mix of open spaces and shady trees. They have grown so much and improved each and every year I cannot wait to see what the next 5 years brings.

On Monday the 9th we were called in by the Anastasini's to help bring acts to a secret location in central Maine for an all star circus rivaling some of the finest shows traveling the world. The acts for the show included the CannonLady, Sacha Pavlata(Cloud Swing), Chiara, Anastasini (Hand Balancing), Ringmaster Joe Barney, Jumbo the Clown, "The Human Inferno" - Nicholas Penny (Fire Eater & Sword Swallower) and Vicenta Pages with her White Tigers, Larry Records (Camels) and a boatload of Clowns! The show was presented at 6 am!!!!

We spend a lot of time in August preparing for Labor Day Weekend's Spencer Fair, making all the final advertising and promotional arrangements with the media. Spencer is an event that the media looks forward to each year as it is the largest event in Worcester County and a long time family favorite.

The end of August we had the Flying Wallenda's making a return engagement for the Union Fair and their talent buyer Diana Ammon of Atlantic Music Productions. The fair is well known for also being the Maine Blueberry Festival.

This Great photo of the Flying Wallendas is courtesy of Legendary Daredevil & Movie Star Crash Moreau.

On Thursday the 26th we traveled up to Lyndonville, Vermont for the Caledonia County Fair, we had a visit with midway operator Bob DeStefano of Dreamland Amusements. We also had an opportunity to visit with the Flying Pages and Vicenta Pages and her White Tigers.

On Friday we headed over for the set up day at Champlain Valley Exposition where both the Nerger's Tigers and the Anastasini Circus under the big top were making return performances.

Saturday was opening day of the Champlain Valley Exposition and is was a very busy opening day. We had a chance to catch a couple performances each of both Nerger's and the Anastasini's. This year's Anastasini Circus included Heidi Herriott ring-mistress and big & little horses, Luciano's Pound Puppies, the Globe of Death, Rola Bola, Rocky the boxing kangaroo, Nicholas Souren juggling & contortion. It was nice to see the crowds at the fair were filling the tent right from the very first performance.

Most of the month of August was extremely hot here in the Northeast, with many, many days reaching well into the 90's normally we have just a handful of 90 degree days in a summer this year it was not unusual to have a handful of 90 degree days in a week!

We are looking forward to having a very busy September!

July 2010 in Review

A very busy July, lots of travel, and tons of heat and humidity! As always July began with a bang with one of the busiest entertainment weekends of the year here in the United States, the Fourth of July holiday weekend.

We began July on the road traveling to Houlton, Maine through one of the most picturesque parts of I-95. Houlton is just about as far as you go before I95 ends at the Canadian border. Its fair time in northern Maine and we paid a visit to the Houlton Fair and fair president Paul Cleary. We had a couple of shows returning to Houlton, Kachunga and the Alligator came to Houlton for the 3rd time in 6 years, this time bringing with the the ultimate in rare reptiles, an albino alligator born in Louisiana and one of less than 50 known in the world. All albino alligators live in captivity since their life expectancy in the wild is less than 24 hours due to predators and the fact that they have zero sun protection, exposure to the sun would cause a quick death.

Also returning to Houlton was Maximum Velocity, an action sports show featuring BMX riders and a flatland skateboarder. This year Maximum Velocity performed outdoors in front of the Civic Center. Maximum Velocity is a very popular attraction with young people who really enjoy the high flying, acrobatic BMX stunts and their parents enjoy the message of safety and safety equipment.

On Saturday we spent most of the day just south of Boston in the town of Stoughton, Massachusetts were we had two events in the same day celebrating the July 4th holiday. First was Kids Day run by Janet Jasmin formally Janet Salvaggi whom I graduated high school with in an undisclosed year. Kids Day is for the local children and there were lots of activities for the children including the music of the Bravo Bros. who also performed for the committee in 2009, Chuckwagon Mac Tales of the Old West, and Boris Koski who supplied balloon twisting, face painting artistry and a little Velociped riding to start of the bicycle parade. Later that evening Chuckwagon Mac stayed on for the fireworks celebration, after all what is more American than cowboys on the 4th of July. North American Amusements also supplied a midway at the event for the second year.
Sunday it was off to Groton, Connecticut to the U.S. Navy Base for Subfest 2010. Rockwell Amusements again supplied the midway with lots of rides for the whole family. Returning for an unprecedented fourth year was Bwana Jim's Wildlife show. Two all new shows for Subfest 2010 was Vicenta Pages and her Royal White Bengal Tigers and the Old Tyme Lumberjack Show.

Overall the entire east coast was in the midst of a heat wave over the weekend from Maine to Georgia where the Anastasini's finished up their run at Wild Adventure's Theme Park in Valdosta. The heat was an overall factor in the attendance figures at so many events once that mercury rises & the humidity becomes oppressive we find the attendance is similar to that of a day filled with rain.

On July 16th we opened up the South County Balloon Festival at the campus of the University of Rhode Island for the Wakefield Rotary Club. Two shows at this popular event this year, returning for a second year was Taylor Michael's Magically Medieval and his lovely assistant and wife Vicky. All new for 2010 it was the High Flying Pages trapeze family whose aerial artistry is a nice compliment for this type of event and audience. George Gritzbach, blues artist and Becky Chase, Americana provided an afternoon and early evening of music on Saturday night.


On Saturday the 17th after the festivities of the balloon festival we made a trek up to Boston's Hatch Shell for a show with Eddie Money who after a long flight delay in Chicago made it to the show by the hair of his chinny chin chin, as did we coming from the furthest reaches in Rhode Island. The audience was just tremendous, overfilling the famed Esplanade for this show presented by Oldies 103.3 Boston.

July 17th was the opening of the Barnstable County Fair. For the opening weekend we had strolling artist Brad Bodary with his Bronze Cowboy, Living Mannequin and other popular characters. Returning to the food court stage this year was the prop comedy of Lucky Bob who can really draw in and keep an audience. On Thursday evening George Gritzbach graced the food court stage on what turned out to be a record attendance night at the fair.

The weekend arrived with another tremendous blast of heat and humidity on the east coast as the Flying Pages trapeze act traveled to their second weekend at a hot air balloon festival. This time they appeared at the Quick Chek New Jersey Festival of Ballooning at the Solberg Airport. This is the largest hot air balloon festival outside of New Mexico and probably the most unique of any festival we have attended. The highlight of the event is always the sunrise and sunset launch of more than 125 hot air balloon but they also offer a large music stage with national acts as well as some variety entertainment to pass the hours between the launches. Their is a vendor and food concession area that compares to no other event, and they continue to amazing me with some what can only be called one of a kind offerings, that you won't see at any other event. The Quick Chek New Jersey Festival of Ballooning can certainly be considered a destination and is certainly worthy of your vacation or leisure time! Bring comfortable walking shoes as this event takes up the entire airport, leave your heels and flip flops at home!


We had some devastating news on Wednesday the 28th, Dondi the beloved Asian elephant belonging to the Schacht family passed away after a brief illness at Southwick's Zoo in Mendon, Massachusetts. She had appeared at many festivals, fairs, amusement parks, zoos, church events, some circuses and Renaissance Faires over the years that were all too brief.
The Schacht family dedicated the last 35 years to her care after she was taken as a calf from a lumber camp in Thailand. For those of you unfamiliar with the teak camps in Southeast Asian they can be hell for elephants and humans alike feeding the need for teak furniture, lumber, boat decking, etc. Elephants are used to knock down trees with their heads, carry the lumber miles through hot, humid, infested jungles to rivers, over and over again. They are used because these places do not have the machinery to pull off this type of labor. Elephants and humans die young and baby elephants are either taken from their mothers or killed if the lumber business owners feel the babies are taking away from their mothers work in the forest. Their is no regard for life of either the human laborers or the endangered Asian elephant.
Dondi was bonded to Phil, Francine, Joshua, & Ashley although Dondi had been introduced to her own kind she had little interest. Her human family and later on a couple a miniature horses is what she desired for companionship. Please keep the Schacht Family in your prayers their loss is devastating, they have lost not only their beloved elephant, but their way of life and also their co-worker, Dondi. They will be in our thoughts and prayers as they start over in life.

On the 29th of July the Tigers of Adam Burck opened at WestFair in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Adam and his wife Elaine have a nice mix of Royal Bengal Tigers, three golden tigers and three white tigers. They perform a great show educating the public on the natural abilities of tigers and bringing attention to the few remaining tigers left in the wild. Elaine tells me they really enjoyed their time at WestFair and they were well received by the fair goers.

Friday the 30th was opening day at the Northern Maine Fair in Presque Isle up in the crown of Maine. If you ever had a Maine potato chances are it came by way of Presque Isle a lovely farming community and only of the only cities in far northern Maine. The fair committee is dedicated to bringing first quality entertainment to the people who live in Aroostook county especially animal shows. This year we had Vicenta Pages and her White Bengal tigers perform at the fair this was Vicenta's second visit ever to Presque Isle she also visited with the Shrine Circus.

Although July was busy it passed far too quickly but we are now into August and enjoying our time visiting on the road.

Until our August review . . . we will see you all down the road!

August in Review

Wow, where did the summer go? August goes by so quickly, this year was no exception.

We began where we left off, Close Encounters (Vince and Pom Pom) finished up for the Volunteer Fire Department in Bushkill. They reported bad weather throughout the run which has been par for the coarse this summer.

We also had Pam Rosaire Zoppe's Chimpfabulous at the Northern Maine Fair in Presque Isle. We were up to visit on the 4th, its always a wonderful ride up north, very little traffic, lovely scenery. The chimps were very well received as are all animal acts at the fair, its a long trip from Presque Isle to the closest zoo, and chimps in general are all too rare anywhere. On the way home on Wednesday we had a nice breakfast with Paul Cleary from the Houlton Fair. Meeting Paul up in Houlton is a lot like meeting Norm at Cheers, everyone knows his name!

Later on that week we had the Rehoboth Fair open, Lance Gifford returned to the fair with his amazing newly renovated stage and Lucky Bob who can really draw and audience! Our son Justin fell in love with a couple of baby rabbits at the fair and being that I grew up with pet rabbits I agreed to bring the pair home. That is what fairs are all about, family fun with agriculture. The bunnies are growing nicely, "Buffy" named for my mothers cat, Justin's favorite feline, is a tri colored mini lop bunny. The other is a cute little tan mini lop bunny with some charcoal colored shading named "Smoke" for Tony Stewart, one of Justin's favorite NASCAR drivers.

On Friday the 9th it was great to catch up with our friends at the Whaling City Festival who had a volunteers dinner hosted by Joe Eugenio (the unofficial mayor of New Bedford). Its always great when our clients include us in their celebrations. We brought a cake from Amazing Cakes, a local bakery who does an amazing job of supply us cakes with logos and special requests for our clients and family, and they taste great to boot.

Our next event was the Tri-State Fair in Vermont for Dreamland Amusements, we had the Flying Pages perform their trapeze and pony act as well as the Nerger Tigers who brought with them 3 one year old white tigers who they hand raised after the mother rejected them (quite common with the first litter) as well as an adorable 3 month old standard color cub. Of course the 12 show tigers and one male lion.

On the 21st Kieran Ridge Band performed on the main stage of City Hall Plaza in Boston for GreenFest. It was a hot, hot, hot and humid day.

Later that evening we met with a Blues artist who was opening for BB King at the Cape Cod Melody tent. George Gritzbach was recommended to us by our good long time friend Laurie Webster. George and his band had a fantastic sound and could not have been received better by the audience who gave them a standing ovation.

Our late August fairs come fast and furious, Dreamland Amusements worked with us and the Caledonia County Fair to bring the Flying Pages to Lyndonville for the first time. The Pages really enjoyed their time there and it was another fabulous drive up on Thursday the 27th to visit them. Anthony Pages had a bad fall a few weeks back and it was nice to see he was beginning to recover (the doctors want him out maybe 6 to 8 weeks). He had multiple broken bones as well as a head injury. He'll have a follow up with the doctors in the coming weeks and he is really hoping he is cleared to begin practice again. The Pages have been working very hard to keep him relaxed and healing while getting temporary replacements to fill Anthony's spot, which I know is tough for him to see.

We found time on Sunday to head up to Spencer for their annual volunteer barbeque, yes, yet another Amazing Cake!

The Flying Wallendas performed up in Union Maine for our friend and talent buyer Diana Ammon of Atlantic Music Productions, unfortunately Saturday rained too much for the fair to handle and they closed for the day at 11 am.

We stayed up in Vermont after Caledonia for set up day and opening day of the Champlain Valley Fair where we had the Nerger Tigers as well as the Anastasini Family's Big Top Circus. Saturday rained on the opening but it was nice to see Struppi Hanneford visit her daughter Nellie and grand daughter Kathy who performed on the Spanish Web for the show.

Also that same weekend Lucky Bob performed for the Cummington Fair in Massachusetts.

Busy, busy August, but busy is good!