Circus.

For some reason, I got caught by the 6 hour documentary about one season of the Big Apple Circus.

This is the pinnacle of the circus business, and these acts are at their peak. Athletes and artists.

It starts out in their off season quarters in Walden, N.Y., as acts are selected and honed. There is a class structure, the roadies on the bottom, the acts in the middle, and the management. Within the talent there are "circus" people (eighth generation!) and outsiders.

The roadies are like the French Foreign Legion. If you're willing to work hard and fit in, no questions asked.

Anyway, at first there is a bit of the "glamour", as the circus people put their best face forward and the documentary crew seems to be buying it.

But as the show progresses, you realize just how precarious and dangerous and dirty the living is. They talk a lot about the wonderful traveling life, but you see they rarely leave their trailer park.

The artists have a limited life-span; limited by changing tastes and constant pressure and their own bodies.

They are like supreme, world class athletes who are paid a pittance, and can be without a job at any time. "Working at Target," as one of them says.

They talk about "family" a lot, but there is an obvious pecking order. One "outsider" trapeze artist leaves the show about halfway through, to go back with her boyfriend, and one of the circus family sort of mocks her: "Oh...true love......" and you feel sort of like she's failed the test.

By the end of the documentary, you realize that she probably made a smart choice.

Like I said, they seem to have no security, all of them seem the realize that circus's don't have much future -- this is a good as it gets. Most everyone in the show who started out being profiled is leaving the show, or leaving their acts.

The roadies have brought their problems with them, and you begin to see that they are simply cogs in the circus machine.

Meanwhile, the owners go off and hobnob with the rich and famous in Monte Carlo and New York.

I suppose it goes to show, you should never look too closely behind the glamour.

Just like owning a bookstore!!!