There were elephant rides, acrobatics, and plenty of peanuts to go around when the circus came to town Saturday night for two shows at McMinnville Civic Center.
The nightcap was a packed house with the audience filling the main floor and a large portion of the Civic Center balcony.
Florida-based Circus Pages has been making annual trips to McMinnville for around a decade with its unique blend of family fun. Circus Pages begins its tour in mid-January and visits 250 cities before taking a break in the fall.
“We’re fresh right now, but we’ll be worn out by the end,” said ringleader James Earhart.
Jungle Jorge and the Lovely Colleen began the show by entering a cage filled with lions and tigers and getting the savage beasts to perform tricks. A massive white lion named Achilles was more than willing to oblige as he sat on another lion then posed atop a revolving disco ball at the end of the routine.
The Sensational Luis was a new act this year and he showed his upper-body strength by walking on his hands up steps to a platform. Once on the platform, he stacked four chairs on top of one another and did a handstand high in the air. Since he was about 15 feet off the ground, a fall would have been disastrous.
Circus Pages also had the services of a new clown recently hired from Ringling Brothers. Stepping into the crowd, he got two members of the audience to put on boxing gloves in what was an amusing routine.
Other highlights included Earhart juggling pins that were on fire, and a foot juggler tossing around a large dowel with its ends on fire.
But as is usually the case, the steel Globe of Death received the most applause. Three motorcycles entered the globe and rode around inside at the same time. This required some riders to go upside down in a death-defying maneuver.
Elephant rides and pony rides were offered at intermission with nearly 100 kids rushing to climb atop one of the two elephants at the show.