By JoAnn Ireland
I had the great pleasure to watch the Ringling Bros & Barnum and Bailey Circus at the PP&L Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The show was about 2 hours and 15 minutes with a 15-minute intermission; I got to see many circus acts and more than I was expecting.
The show started with a “Welcome” act where attendees got their first view of the show’s performers and some of their balancing, aerial, and unicycling skills as well as the movable platforms that would be used throughout the show. The “Happy Birthday” segment followed, a sweet idea where the audience members were asked who was celebrating a birthday and then they proceeded to show those individuals on the large screen at the far end of the performance space.
Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey Circus – Welcome Act
This was followed by a teeter board act that included feats of acrobatics, balance, and strength.
Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey Circus – Teeter Board Act
Next up was an aerial performance with plenty of artistic high flyers. This was followed by the, “Pick a Color,” segment where a selected individual from the audience gets to pick the next song.
Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey Circus – Aerial Act
This rolled into a cute segment where the lights went out and a set of three clowns had to work together with an unsupported ladder to find the reset switch.
Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey Circus – Clowns and Unsupported Ladder
A multi-person acrobatic / balancing / jump rope act was next, I had never seen individuals who were many levels high, standing on each other’s shoulders, jumping rope. This was followed by acrobatic tumbling.
Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey Circus – Jump Rope Act
One of my favorite acts was next, with multiple unicyclists and unique unicycles. The unicyclists were: Wesley Williams, (https://www.wesleyowilliams.com) known as the “The One Wheel Wonder,” and Mimo Seedler (https://www.mimoseedler.com) who performed jumps on a trampoline while on a unicycle, rode on a slack line, and performed extreme street unicycling. There was also a cyr wheel performance within this act.
Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey Circus – Unicycle Performance
Wesley performed on a small wheel unicycle with a wheel that is an inline-skate wheel while lifted up on a platform. He used a giraffe sidewinder unicycle where he pedaled forward or backward that caused the unicycle to move perpendicular to the direction that he pedaled (left or right). He also had a giraffe unicycle that had the wheel offset 18” to the right of the seat and seat post. Wesley used a unicycle that had four wheels stacked vertically that he jumped rope with. He also used a scissors-jack unicycle that can be raised and lowered from four feet to a height of 13 feet. He also used a vertical zig-zag unicycle that is about ten feet high. Here are additional explanations about the unicycles from Wesley. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKRTIVD32Ho), (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKtZ90cFVug), and video of him riding many of the unicycles (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUc30cYwOsM). Next was an audience participation segment, “Boom,” “Clap,” “Go,” to keep the audience energized as they got ready for the next act.
More of the unicycle performance
This was followed by what is often known as a “Wheel of Death,” however Ringling has referred to it as the more family-friendly, “Wheel of Steel,” and there were two of these, with four performers in the act.
Wheel of Steel
There was an approximately 15-minute intermission with a QR code on the big screen to share photos from the event with the possibility that they could appear on the big screen.
The flying trapeze act opened the second half of the show with two sets of flying trapeze that were perpendicular so all audience members got a really good view of the performance. They even had cameras mounted on some of the flying performers with the footage appearing on the big screen, so the audience members could see the act from a different point of view.
Flying Trapeze
This was followed by a humorous piece, “Don’t Touch this Button,” with three clowns, an audience participation piece, “Bailey’s Dance Party,” and a balancing / acrobatic piece.
Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey Circus – Clowns and Balancing / Acrobatic Act
Next Wesley rode his very unique 25-wheel unicycle that is over 34 feet high. This video shows his performance on the 25-wheel unicycle (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vInvFnWCtpo).
Wesley Williams and his 25 wheel unicycle
Up next was multi-person dance / trampoline / acrobatic act.
Dance & Trampoline & Acrobatic Act
This was followed by a multiple bicycle act with extensive multilevel balancing and acrobatics.
The show concluded with a human cannonball act and the closing act that did include some limited club passing, additional unicycling, and some brief diabolo skills.
Human Cannonball Act
Closing Performance
If you would like to see this impressive show of circus skills and support live performance circus events, here’s more information on Ringling’s current tour (https://www.ringling.com) with upcoming shows in California, Arizona, Texas, Kansas, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio through the rest of 2026 (https://www.ringling.com/tickets/).
JoAnn Ireland
JoAnn Ireland is a longtime hobbyist juggler who especially prefers juggling beanbags, joggles (running and juggling), and occasionally rides a unicycle. She is grateful for the opportunity to have been able to attend many IJA and regional juggling festivals.