Venardos Circus 20191012, Asheville NC, Asheville Outlet Mall
My wife and I made plans for one year to make sure we could take a vacation planned around The Venardos Circus in Asheville, NC. We planned to stay for ten days! The first day of prep two days before take-off, our slide out on our RV broke. This was our third of three slide outs to break in some manor to hinder our plans. Fortunately, I found the Mobile RV Doctor Gary Casto. $611.00 later and an entire day of wrenching we were ready and determined to catch the sold-out show. A dealer would have ruined the trip and charged me twice as much. Dr Casto did some Circus type move and found his tools blindly and actually put on difficult threads blind! I’ve been through some wanna be RV techs through the triad and i have found my Dr. Call Gary +1 (336) 692-5984 if you are in a bind. We thought we might catch a hotel. But booking a Hotel in Asheville during leaf blowing season is a $300.00 per night adventure for a room. I was thinking the entire time having flashbacks of 30 years on the road as an entertainer, thinking, imagine my problem times 20 other entertainers! These entertainers had deadlines to meet and have to make the show come hell or broken slide outs! On our way, we blocked traffic for a while as Asheville makes these skinny turns to the interstate too small for trucks or large RV’s. I narrowly missed a median sign and but for the kindness of a stranger might still be there trying to avoid scratches on my fifth wheel.
In my thirty years on the road as a professional Frisbee Flying Disc player I ran into the best and worst acts on the road in many different venues. I learned first-hand how hard it is to market and sell an act. I had learned the hard way from town to town and had an understanding at the marvel I was about to witness.
I pulled into the Venardos Circus on the last leg of their US tour in the middle of their two-week showing in Asheville. I was awed by the neatness, cleanliness and visual appeal of the set up. They kept their lot squeaky clean. I was amazed by the signage, the generators, the vendor trucks and the way the entertainers all had many different hats to wear.
Every single entertainer was seasoned often many generations of life-long Circus and stage performers. This was a rare treat for any town. Every single entertainer came from larger shows that swap talent. They swab the decks and wash the floors. The owner of the Circus takes the garbage out at the end of each show. Behind the glitz and glamour of being famous in their own specialty arts, they each swabbed the stage, set up the tents, sold the concessions, worked the ticket booths and worked this show 24/7! You could tell it. Each act could carry an audience on their own for hours at a time. However, Venardos produced a show that was nothing short of a Broadway or Vegas show with incredible timing and professionalism! There is no wonder that he is booked for FORTY-FIVE MORE dates all over the United States for the 2020 season. They had to easily work 16 hour days full blast all day!
His hospitality was amazing. He extended an invitation for me to live with his team for the rest of his duration in Asheville. I had to think of the love I have for my wife and had to leave because of her schedule. I did not want to leave!
I understand Kevin is looking for a good sound and light person! His last stop is at my favorite town in St Augustine, Florida to kick off his 45 town 2020 season! He will be performing on the same stage as many of the most popular musicians of all times have performed at The St Augustine Ampitheatre! When I lived in St Augustine, I could barely feed myself and my favorite ex-girlfriend! Kevin has twenty teams to feed and their families!
Circus families are the greatest entertainers and athletes of our time. You have to see it to believe it!
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I am currently in the Dog House with Vimeo Video. I posted some news rips and that violated their upload policy. So I am rebuilding my site. I’m leaving up my titles so I can mark what videos I need to find a new home for!
Photography by:
https://shaneksmithphotography.com/
There will be more photos on FlickR. Hold your finger down on the > forward button and watch the Circus speed by!
This link below is hyper-linked to FlickR. It used to play within WordPress. Something is broken. So be sure to come back. Just click on the photo and it leads to more Venardos photos.
Let’s see how long it takes the audio Police to get me. I’ll try an upload on Youtube and Vimeo.
Youtube is only going to violate me in a few countries. And I can’t monetize this video. No Problem! Let’s Hit the Road Jack!
I’m proud I finally found the video exposure correction button in Final Cut!
I made these downloadable for everyone. You can download the photos at the adobe link all at once or individually.
That is too cool dude! Thank you for the honorable mention as well! Whatever you’ve done, has been done with excellence and I can really appreciate that!