Day With A Dog and Pony Show Part IV: Second House

After a break for a quick meal, its time for the second house. This is the evening performance and the last of day before we start pulling down to move onto the next site.

The second house is worse than the first, crowdwise; only about 18 people straggle through the ring doors and there is no point shuffling them around the seats because then the tent will look empty.

One of the tentmen comes in, looks disgustedly at the rows of empty seating and starts piling up the planks to carry them out to the truck. We fully expect to see him march out with a row of people on his shoulders one of these days.

"Isn't there going to be a show then?" A portly matron asks as I trudge past on my way to put on my costume. She is filling a row of seating by herself with her brood of children.

"Yes," I say with justifiable pride. "We will perform to one person if they have paid for their ticket."

"We've all got free passes," one of the matron's brats says gleefully.

The record player is finally working all right and the records are back in order so this time I perform to my own music and it goes without a hitch. I have to change now for the Red Indian act, as our sharpshooting turn is known.

While we are waiting to enter the ring, Pamela tells me about the cross-eyed boy, one of the free pass mob, who was sitting smack at the end of her tightrope as she walked across. She took one look at him and nearly fell off.

The tentmen continue grimly to give us their opinion of showing to 18 people as they silently remove seating and start taking the wallings down.

"Can't you stop them?" Dad says to the boss. "It's bloody cold in here without the wallings."

"Good tentmen are harder to come by than red indians," the boss says pointedly, and marches into the ring to announce the act.

After the act one of the portly matron's kids wants to know how Little Beaver can eat fire.

"Is is cold fire?" he asks innocently. The rest of the show finishes suspiciously quickly - are people cutting their acts, we wonder? - and the small audience truckles home. Their applause was genuine at the end, but we have tent to pull down now.

Go To Page: 1 2