Balancing Acts This Year’s Shrine Circus Is Bringing A Fresh Show To The New Arena - Aerial Acts And Animals Are Sure To Entertain

If you’re planning to attend the 42nd annual Spokane Shrine Circus this weekend, you’re likely to see some unfamiliar faces.

Of course, the usual circus personalities will be on hand - clowns, elephants and trapeze artists - but the look of the circus is entirely different from the one in years past.

That’s because the Shriners have chosen a new Big Top - the George Carden Circus International - to provide all the thrills, chills and spills for its grand fund-raiser.

The George Carden Circus International, based in Springfied and Willard, Mo., ranks as the second largest Big Top in the U.S., just behind the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey.

“We’ve had Johnny Jordan (Circus) before, for about five years,” says Barry Jones, the potentate of the El Katif Shrine. “We’re going into the new Arena and we thought it would be better if we had a new circus.

“Johnny Jordan was a good circus, but he had been here five years.

While he would change his acts, people said, ‘Well, I’ve been to that circus.”’

So, Jones decided to go scouting for a different one, one that had never been to the area.

“We had an opportunity to get George Carden, who’s the second largest circus in the country next to Ringling,” he says. “They’re a distant second; I’m not trying to say they’re Ringling Bros.

“We went down and previewed it and thought it was really good.”

Although ticket sales for last year’s Shrine Circus dipped, Jones said money didn’t factor into the change.

The George Carden Circus packs a whopping 22 displays in three rings into each two-and-a-half-hour performance.

It has everything you’d expect from a first-rate Big Top: hilarious animal tricks, stunning aerial wizardry, knee-slapping clown buffoonary and suspenseful, death-defying displays.

One of the circus’ most-talked-about acts is Jennifer Smith, the Human Cannonball. Hoisted on a truck, the monstrous cannon launches Smith several stories high, propelling her within inches of the Arena’s ceiling.

Also not-to-miss is the highly touted family trapeze team, the Alvarados.

Featuring the third-generation circus performer Reuben Alvarado, his daughter Yessica and two sons, Israel and David, the Alvarados blend acrobatic, aerial elegance with daring flare on the trapeze.

Of course, the elephants are likely to steal the show.

The mighty pachyderms, 12 of them, will attempt to gracefully (as graceful as an elephant can be) dance around the the ring, executing some maneuvers that are remarkable, considering their size. Burly beast Cowboy Joe - he dons a giant cowboy hat - will balance on a narrow beam on just two huge legs.

The George Carden production includes a host of displays you don’t normally see in a major circus, displays such as dog acts. This circus has two of them, “The Red Dog Review” and “Helen’s Terriers.”

The Shrine Circus raises money for a number of programs, including the Shriner Children’s Hopsital.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: SHRINE CIRCUS Location and time: Arena, tonight at 7 p.m.; Saturday at 11 a.m., 3 and 7 p.m.; Sunday at 1 and 5 p.m. Tickets: $11, $9, $7 and $5 (Seniors get a $2 discount at tonight’s performance, the 11 a.m. Saturday showing or the 5 p.m. Sunday performance. Discount tickets are available only at the West Mallon Box Office or the Opera House box office.)