Ack! I am getting behind with the posting, as I've been running around instead of writing. News of today's meeting with the lovely eggsaucted and the princess is forthcoming. But first, the circus report!

The circus was sensational. It was the perfect storybook one-ring circus, performed by three generations of an Italian-American family (ages between a few months and 83 years old) with acrobats and ponies and clowns and performing dogs. It reminded me of circuses of my childhood except that I�m not sure I ever saw one quite like this outside of books. If you ever had a dream to run away and join the circus, this was probably the kind of circus you were thinking of.

We arrived in the parking lot of Caputo Bros. Italian Supermarket in Addison, Illinois about twenty minutes before the performance was to start and there was already quite a line assembled at the gate of the colorful tent that had been erected on a patch of grass next to the lot. As we headed towards the crowd, we saw a man in a green suit with a white conical hat with his face painted white and his ears painted scarlet standing with a group of children dressed in red, black and gold costumes and a drummer. The five of them made a solemn parade across the parking lot, the drummer playing a marching rhythm, and headed into the market where, I presume, they paraded through the store and returned about ten minutes later to the tent. When they returned, they slipped past the head of the line through a gate and the circus workers proceeded to greet the crowd in Italian and English, giving a little about the history of the Zopp� Circus, thanking us for coming, and warning us that we would be part of the show. Then the gates opened and we were swept with the crowd past the ticket taker to the refreshments booth where AJ's uncle, who spoils him rotten, bought him one of everything before we proceeded to climb up the precarious bleachers. These were no child-safe sporting event bleachers. They were carefully assembled pieces of lumber with gaping holes between them. The seats were tied on with yellow x-es of rope. AJ was barely tall enough to climb up himself and, since I am neurotic and was worried about him falling to his premature death through one of the gaps, we ended up carrying him, which he did not like AT ALL.

Before us lay the ring, its painted edges holding in a thick layer of sawdust. The drummer was now seated in a corner next to the sound system, which was now blaring a miscellany of classic Italian songs. Every now and then he started to drum along.

As the time approached to start, the workers who had introduced the circus to us before opening the gates came in to tell us the show was starting. A hush came over the audience and a new song came out of the speakers � Neil Diamond's "Coming to America," whereupon I started giggling. The song seemed to have been a reference to the circus' history. The Zopp� family has been performing circuses since 1842, as the sign over the tent proclaims proudly. The oldest member of the American troupe came to the United States from Italy at the behest of Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus on the condition that Ringling Bros. pay the Zoppe family in Italy for the loss of his acrobatic services by providing them with an elephant. Ringling Bros. complied, and Grandfather Zopp� moved to the U.S., eventually starting the circus that we saw last night.

The grandfather was on stage, dressed as a count and seated regally in a throne-like chair next to the tent flap through which the performers entered. The rest of the family -- including a baby who couldn't have been more than a couple of months old -- came in carrying a trunk full of the tools of their trade. That was the baby's one and only appearance, but the several children ranging in age from about 2 or 3 to about 10 came back to perform later.

The acts were interspersed with banter between Nino the clown and the emcee, who was the green-clad figure who'd led the parade through the supermarket. Both characters seemed inspired by the commedia dell'arte tradition and reminded us more of something out of Cirque de Soleil than American circuses. There was a terrific juggler who also did tricks on a trampoline. There was a female aerialist and acrobat. There was another woman who performed tricks on the back of a horse that reminded me of Georges Seurat's painting The Circus. She also did an act with a miniature pony named Cavallino. There was an act with a large group of trained dogs who did all kinds of tricks, the denouement of which was a miniature poodle sailing up into the air in a miniature hot air ballon and leaping into the arms of the trainer from the top of the tent.

It was not a polished show. But the things that went wrong went wrong in pleasing ways. At the end of the dog act, one of the dogs was so excited that after he exited, he ran back in and started tearing around underneath the bleachers until someone corralled him. And during the trampoline act, the small girl who was learning the trade from her father stumbled several times. But she could not have been applauded more loudly, because we were all happy to see the children there too.

The heart and soul of the performance was the clown Nino who was wonderful and who interacted constantly with the children in the audience. One of his recurring bits involved his hat, a small, stiff brimmed red cloche, that he would occasionally toss into the audience, imploring the catcher silently to toss it back onto his head, which was next to impossible. AJ was thrilled to catch the hat once. He even got his own laugh when, as he tried to throw the hat to Nino, it landed instead on the head of a man in the first row of seats.

It's a circus from another era and it was a perfect summer night. If any of you has a chance to see the Circo Zopp� perform, I really can't recommend it highly enough. And now, for some pictures:

The big top.

The entrance.

Inside the tent.

The performers enter.

The aerialist

AJ is rapt.

The performing dogs.

The emcee

Nino the clown

Nino and Tosca, the equestrian

The flags of the big top

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