Ringling Bros. brings circus to town

This digital, on demand, Wi-Fi world we live in is all well and good, but the producers of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus are quite happy to keep doing it old school.

The circus' latest show, titled “Barnum's Funundrum!” after legendary circus co-founder and promoter P.T. Barnum, rolled into Rosemont earlier this week via train, just like in the old days. The attractions include classic crowd-pleasers like jugglers, clowns, a strong man and people doing death-defying stunts on the flying trapeze (with what appears to be, of course, the greatest of ease).

“There's no CGI here,” said Johnathan Lee Iverson, the ringmaster of the show. “These are real people doing spectacular real-life things in front of your eyes. Not even Broadway can do the things we do.”

The Funundrum will fill the Allstate Arena through Sunday, Nov. 14, with 130 performers from all over the world. After the final show in Rosemont, the circus will set up shop in Chicago's United Center.

The show pays tribute to co-founder Barnum, who was born 200 years ago in Connecticut.

“He's the spirit behind everything here,” Iverson said.

Circuses had been popular in Europe since the late 18th century, but they didn't take off in America until roughly 100 years later, when people like Barnum started putting together traveling shows.

During its heyday in America, which ran from about 1870 through the 1920s, the annual arrival of the circus would literally shut towns down, said Janet Davis, author of “The Circus Age: Culture and Society Under the American Big Top,” an examination of the circus' history in the U.S.

“People would come from miles around to see the circus parades that marched through the towns back then,” said Davis, a professor of American studies at the University of Texas at Austin. “If a town normally had 2,000 people, on ‘circus day' there could be 20,000 people watching the parade.”

Davis said the circus remains popular to this day precisely because it's different from most other forms of entertainment.

“It's live, first of all,” Davis said. “You're still in the presence of people doing things that have an element of danger about them. So much of our entertainment is mediated by a screen or an iPod or something. And I think there's still something appealing about seeing acts from all over the world performing together here at home. It creates a sense of community.”

Iverson agreed, adding that he's never seen kids light up the way they do at the circus.

“There's still something magical about this,” he said.

Among the attractions that both children and adults can enjoy at the Funundrum:

Ÿ The Puyang troupe from China will display astounding jumps and flips on a two-tiered trampoline.

Ÿ The Mighty Meetal, the World's Strongest Man, will lift more than 1,200 pounds.

Ÿ Contortionists will fold their bodies into a milk-crate-sized cube three people per cube!

Ÿ The Flying Caceres will try to nail a quadruple somersault on the trapeze, one of the most difficult tricks to pull off.

Fans are invited to arrive at the show an hour early for the All-Access Pre-Show, a chance to meet the performers, learn circus skills and say hello to the Asian elephants and some of the other animals that will be starring in the main event. The All-Access Pre Show is free to all ticketholders.

Iverson, a New York resident, has been involved with the circus for 12 years. He's the first black ringmaster in the history of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey.

“My original ambition was to become an opera singer you know, legitimate fare,” he said with a laugh. “But when I saw what these people do, and how much hard work goes into it, I was amazed. I really think the people who perform in these shows don't get the artistic credit they deserve.”