About every few days I hear from clients, colleagues and others how difficult not only composing a show on the artistic field is, but also how difficult running a show is. Running a show is not easy, but if the owner of a show tells me “but 20 years ago this used to work” I always reply with this question “And how does this work today?” or “Why is the number of visitors decreasing?”. I get the same answers, time after time.
The internet, TV, the animalban and Cirque du Soleil
Of course the audience loves to see animals in the show, but why can a circus not keep up with other touring shows that do not showcase animals? Because circus is very often stuck with tradition and their need to keep up with it. Most shows that had to stop did not bend along with with the bans (or possible bans) on Animal keeping. Most shows never offered their audience a spectacular substitute for the lack of animals and thus creating the image that circus is “children’s entertainment”.
Like I mentioned in earlier blogs: “The internet is not your enemy” on the contrary “make the internet work for you”. Tell people about your history, use your photo’s, videos and perhaps quotes or memoires to share your stories.
In a few years will there be a revival just like happened after television? Only if we work for it!