A FIVE-RING CIRCUS

But not the Ringling Brothers one. This one is about the "Pathetic Convention" that followed the Democratic Convention. I remember when I was a little boy, my mother used to take me and my brothers to the circus because she thought I would enjoy it. I never told her I was afraid of the clowns. I don't know why but they gave me the chills. I thought that clowns were hiding their faces with exagerated make-up, because they really had something to hide. Something very bad.

I saw so many similarities with the circus clowns during the "Pathetic Convention"! Even the music, mainly marching bands, playing patriotic
themes to captivate us with national pride as a wonderful strategy to
hide their mediocre performance. At one point they all stood up and delivered the Pledge of Allegiance. That was incredible and unique. By then, the entire audience was under the spell. Nothing they could say or do would be wrong. Brilliant!

On ring number one, there were the high trapeze men, jumping and flying from one subject to another with a lot of air in between, and trying to keep things balanced to avoid falling to a floor without net. On ring number two, a lot of elephants, making deafening uncoordinated noise in a sea of extreme confusion. On ring number three, center stage,
THE CLOWNS! The dreaded clowns! One after another performing to the laughter of the crowds. They, as usual, had nothing of substance or logical to say. It was slapstick at its best, insults, slapping, banging, running around one after another with no real direction, falling, getting up, picking their noses. All the stupid things that clowns do to make us laugh, because they have nothing else to say or accomplish. What I found interesting among these clowns was the introduction for the first time in this circus of a couple of cartoon characters, SUPER HERO and WONDER WOMAN.

They were, without any doubt, the climax of this pathetic convention. They did not disappoint me as their performance was extraordinary, worthy of the best science fiction comic book. Although my favorite is still SUPERMAN, who will never be outstaged by Pathetics or Democrats.

Rings four and five were just carrying on, but no one was paying attention. Number four was actually shown on a giant screen. It was not physically present at the Convention, not to break the pattern. It was, therefore, irrelevant. On ring number five they had the "PATHETICS". That was a large group of individuals dressed with dark suits and ugly ties. They all looked like beings from another planet pretending to be earthlings. Kind of reminded me of that old TV series "V", where the invaders looked like people, but in reality they were dangerous lizards from another galaxy. These people-look alike on ring number five were trying to be part of the circus by making outrageous comments during one-on-one interviews. The idea, I think, was to try to outdo the previous talker with a bigger lie and a lower I.Q. I had never seen such an original number in the circus before. I must admit it was unique and harmonized in their own peculiar way with the clowns act.

Oh, before I forget, there was an incredible act performed by a male puppet chameleon. During his act he kept changing colors to please everyone. He even became colorless to please the color-blind crowd!
The zenith of his performance was when he spoke and said he was a democrat!

(Some of the phases, faces and fesis of the chameleon)

I could mention the names of the clowns and of all the characters, and believe me...they were some characters! But like in any circus, the clowns are just there to make us laugh. They do not get top billing. Actually, no one gets top billing in any circus.

How I miss the real circus when I was young, even with the frightening clowns. At least they were honest!