You won’t be able to catch the Culpepper & Merriweather Circus on video, or satellite TV or the internet this weekend. But Annandale area residents will be able to witness the old-fashioned show in person and up close under the big top Sunday, Aug. 3. The circus – complete with elephants, clowns and aerial acts – will perform shows at 2 and 4:30 p.m. on the Bendix Elementary School grounds. The appearance will be sponsored by the Annandale Area Chamber of Commerce. The public can also watch the show’s elephants raise the tent at 9 a.m. People can learn about the circus animals in a free Endangered Species Show at 10. It used to be that a circus was the only entertainment when it pulled into a small town, said Jeremy Segel-Moss, spokesman for Culpepper & Merriweather. Now there’s a lot more competition from things like satellite TV and the internet, he said. The key is to get people into the tent where “their jaws just drop” – especially among the kids – when they see the live animals and entertainment. The show’s biggest stars are Barbara and Connie, its African elephants, Segel-Moss said. Barbara, 17, weighs about 7,000 pounds and Connie, 15, tips the scales at about 6,000 pounds. When the elephants perform in the big top, spectators are only about 20 feet away, he said. “To see an elephant up close like that – it’s not TV, it’s not the movies. “These are intimidating, big creatures” and they’re about 10 feet tall on all fours. “They’re just spectacular.” The circus has up to 25 performers and numerous animals, including a petting zoo. The performances include two 45-minute sets, each with about eight acts. Among them are Tiny the clown, Casey Cainen and his dog show, Tavana Luvas on the trapeze, Miss Stephanie on the rings and the acrobatic Chimal family. It all takes place under a 120-by-80-foot tent that’s about 30 feet high at the center pole. “We can seat between 600 and 800 folks pretty comfortably,” Segel-Moss said. Because it’s an old-fashioned one-ring show, “everything’s right there. There are no bad seats.” The circus also features a midway with the Titanic Slide, Moon Bounce, concessions and elephant and pony rides. The Endangered Species Show is a response to people who are concerned about the animals, Segel-Moss said, and it aims to demonstrate that they’re treated well. The United States Department of Agriculture inspects the circus every six months. “We’re very concerned about our elephants,” Segel-Moss said. From a business viewpoint, the owner of an expensive animal isn’t going to mistreat it, he said. On a personal level, “we love elephants and we care about them.” The circus has been around for 21 seasons. It travels in a caravan of six or seven large trucks and several more recreational vehicles carrying the performers and crew. It spends the winters at its headquarters in Hugo, Okla., and takes to the road from February to the end of October. Last year the circus traveled to 17 states – mostly west of the Mississippi but including Wisconsin and Illinois – and more than 225 towns, Segel-Moss said. “It’s a different town every day,” he said. After two shows, “we pack everything up and move out the next morning.”
