Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus has confessed to an identity crisis so severe, even its clowns are considering therapy. CEO Juliette Feld Grossman revealed that today’s kids are unwitting circus virtuosos—masters of hula hoops and jump ropes—but they’ve ghosted the “Greatest Show on Earth” faster than a bad TikTok trend.
Enter the digital savior: YouTube. Feld Entertainment, the circus’s proud parent company, is unleashing a barrage of tutorial videos designed to trick—er, entice—screen-glued youngsters into rediscovering juggling, plate-spinning, and other feats that make parents everywhere breathe a sigh of relief over zero emergency room visits.
“Kids already know how to play Ringling,” Grossman quipped to CNN, with the subtlety of a cannonball act. “They just don’t know it by name.” It’s a savvy pivot for a 154-year-old brand that’s seen more reinventions than a chameleon at a camouflage convention.
The circus, once a spectacle of sawdust and spotlights, hit the brakes in 2017 after over a century of dazzling crowds. Blame it on slumping ticket sales and animal rights activists who turned elephants and tigers into poster children for retirement homes rather than rings.
But like a rubber chicken that refuses to snap, Ringling bounced back in 2023—animal-free, acrobat-heavy, and suspiciously free of full-faced clown makeup. Horror movies, it turns out, have ruined the red-nose vibe; now it’s all about ironic observations and a robotic dog named Bailey who probably fetches better than your average pooch.
Grossman, ever the ringmaster of reinvention, borrowed a page from her company’s Monster Jam playbook. “Something new happens every three seconds,” she explained—be it a lighting flash, music drop, or video burst—to combat attention spans shorter than a tightrope walker’s pinky toe.
The result? A show that’s less “under the big top” and more “over the moon” with high-energy tunes, comedy sketches that land softer than a feather pillow, and upcoming tours featuring a live DJ spinning hits that make even grumpy uncles bob their heads.
Ticket sales from the last tour? Stronger than a strongman’s grip, wrapping up this summer after dazzling dozens of cities. No public numbers, of course—Feld’s as tight-lipped as a lion tamer with a secret—but whispers suggest families are flocking closer to showtime, wallets in hand, like bargain hunters at a midnight sale.
“We learned to shout what is there, not what isn’t,” Grossman admitted, a nod to ditching the drama of absences for the dazzle of what’s left. Gone are the outdated bits; in are the ones that stick, proving the circus isn’t fading—it’s just learning to scroll.
This isn’t just kid stuff, mind you. “It’s a family show,” Grossman insisted, where parents can relive glory days minus the hay fever, and siblings bond over who can balance a spoon on their nose longest.
Feld Entertainment, juggling juggernauts like Disney on Ice and Super Motorcross, knows cautious spending is the real trapeze these days—folks buy last-minute, not leap-of-faith early.
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