Balls
A couple of years ago, a circus came to the village where I live. A massive big-top appeared in the field, posters went up and a sense of excitement was - Well, nobody was that arsed to be honest. My daughter, however, was desperate to go. And so off we trotted.

You know how people say "The circus is in town"? And how they never say "The circus is in village"? Turns out there's a reason for that. When I saw the posters, I wondered whether a four-night residency was maybe a tad optimistic for a village with a population that would struggle against the Polyphonic Spree in a tug-of-war. And I was right; We took our seats in the cavernous big-top alongside* approximately three other families. My immediate concern was that, if the clown** tried any of his zany hi-jinks with me, it'd be a lot more difficult to tell him to stick it up his arse and fuck off.

Anyhow, the circus acts did their best, faced with rows of empty benches. Tumblers tumbled, acrobats acrobatted, bendy women in lycra provided a little something for the dads, and the whole thing was presided over by the traditional ringmaster. Hurrah!

One act sticks in my mind, however; The juggler. A young chap strutted into the ring (fnarr fnarr, etc) and, to great dramatic music, displayed his awesome ability to throw things and then catch them a few seconds later. Bravo. This was all a build-up to his grand finale though. The lights went down, plunging the ring into darkness. And then, in the middle of the ring, three glowing white balls appeared. He was going to JUGGLE IN THE DARK!

Suffice to say, after a couple of minutes of watching some white circles going up in the air, plummeting down to the ground, rolling along the floor a few feet, getting picked up, then going back up in the air, then plummeting down to the ground again, then rolling off in a different direction this time, then getting picked up, etc, we decided to leave the other three-quarters of the audience to it.

* Several yards away from
** Yes, 'clown' singular. Which meant that his wacky capering looked less like madcap antics and more like harrowing mental illness.
(costas, Fri 10 Jun 2011, 14:44, 2 replies)

Aces
Clicking for 'his wacky capering looked less like madcap antics and more like harrowing mental illness.'
( Pig Bodine., Fri 10 Jun 2011, 17:41, closed)

You had me at
'a village with a population that would struggle against the Polyphonic Spree in a tug-of-war'
(muppers, Mon 13 Jun 2011, 14:32, closed)