It may be a stretch to call the Kelly Miller Circus’ single tent a “big top,” but the human and animal talent inside is both international and highly skilled.
The Oklahoma-based, 77-year-old circus wraps up a weekend visit to Belvidere Discount Mall in Waukegan with a final show at 8 p.m. Monday and has shows at 2, 5 and 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Civic Center grounds in Round Lake Beach.
Billing itself as “America’s One Ring Wonder,” the circus crams into 115-minute shows Bengal and Siberian tigers, clowns, aerial acrobats from Mongolia, jugglers from Ethiopia and Holland, elephants, dancing showgirls and a ventriloquist from Finland.
A high-tech sound system, choreography and ringmaster Rebecca Ostroff keep the show moving briskly. Ostroff, a petite blonde from Boston, somehow keeps her jaw limber for speaking after an “iron jaw” routine during which she hangs by her teeth from a rope suspended some 30 feet above the ring, with no net.
Putting on a circus, Ostroff said, is a major logistical challenge and carries the weight of tradition.
“A circus like ours is reminiscent of something that happened a long time ago, but it’s happening right now,” she said. “It’s not an easy spectacle to create. We travel almost every day, and a crew of 20 men set up the tent. We deal with all of the legalities there are now of having and caring for animals and traveling. But for us it’s an undertaking of passion, of joy and of love.”
Ostroff was the stunt double in an “iron jaw” routine for actress Reese Witherspoon in the 2011 movie “Water for Elephants,” also starring Christoph Waltz, Hal Holbrook and Robert Pattinson.
In addition to the center ring acts, the circus has pony and camel rides, face painting, a few carnival games and typical carnival food: funnel cakes, popcorn and corn dogs.
Ostroff, in the circus business since 1986, said circuses are and always have been “family affairs.”
“We’re a big family and have performers who are married. We have parents and their children working here. We have a sense of community. This is the real deal, a traditional American, traveling, tented circus with international artists, performers from around the globe,” she said.
“We’re families performing for families,” she said.
Gabriel Rivas and wife Brenda, of Round Lake, brought their three children — Angel, 6; Natalie, 3; and Melanie, 5 months — to the circus adjacent to Belvidere Discount Mall on Saturday.
Rivas forked over $7 each for the two older siblings to take a short ride high atop the back of a camel. Cradling his baby, Melanie, Rivas said the baby was nearly killed recently in a traffic accident on nearby Route 41, and he was sparing no expense to see his children had a good time.
Denys Bucksten is a News-Sun freelancer.
