I went to one about 8 years ago when my then-girlfriend’s mom got us tickets. It was a Ringling Brothers circus. I had never gone to one and didn’t know what to expect.

The animals were seldom used. There certainly was a bit where someone did gymnastics on top of an elephant which looked cool. They also brought out a Tiger and did some trick where the tiger was bouncing a ball on its head back to the handler kind of like they were playing catch. From cartoons and such I had expected to see some tiger jumping through a flaming hoop, and a ringmaster holding a chair and cracking a whip at a big lion, but there was none of that.

Mostly it was gymnastic stuff, like these guys riding these big “hamster wheels” and jumping on top of them, and someone getting shot out of a cannon, and some rope swinging stuff. I liked all that.

Maybe 8 years ago was a long time and things have changed, but even back then the animal use was minimal. I hope circuses don’t go away, as it was a lot of fun just watching the people do tricks.