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“Furniture Act”

A Special Kind of Tiger Show. The Daytona Beach News-Journal features a wonderful, heart-warming story about one man’s love for something. It is not clear exactly what Mike Inks and his crew seek from this world of pain and despair but it involves tiger fluids. The article drew our attention because it mentioned Roy Horn. More about that reference in a second.

The rest of the article is just plain bizarre; or maybe it is us.

Mike Inks and two trainers drive the carnival trails to show off their Tigers of India show. It is described as a 30-minute show featuring tigers that come from India. The three men work for Josip Marcan, a tiger breeder from Panama City, Florida. Their mobile home is decked out in tiger themed elements including a tiger drawing on a bulletin board and a tiger skin on the sofa, like a throw rug, made of one of their former animal stars. “That was Toby.”

Mr. Marcan used to train tigers to jump through hoops, not fear fire, sit up and do nice things for the paying public. He worked for Ringling and Cole Brothers circuses.

But something changed in Mr. Marcan’s world. Why take the time to train the animals if you can make just as much by showing untrained animals? A cynic might ask such a question. But the trainers would rather say it is a “Liberty Act.” Here, the trainers do not train as in the familiar “Furniture Acts.” They describe the difference between the two approaches thusly: a “Furniture Act” is “‘just the trainer chasing the animals around.’ This show, he said, is a ‘liberty act,’ on a more or less empty stage, where ‘the tigers have to use their minds.'”

And the difference for the audience is strikingly clear.

“Often, during the show, Spolyar hugs and kisses the tigers. Occasionally they spray the audience with urine.”

Now, back in the day, a good, old-fashioned urine spraying was almost expected. The kids would cry all the way home if they weren’t struck with some bodily spray. It may…

“Furniture Act”

The rest of the article is just plain bizarre; or maybe it is us.

Mr. Marcan used to train tigers to jump through hoops, not fear fire, sit up and do nice things for the paying public. He worked for Ringling and Cole Brothers circuses.

And the difference for the audience is strikingly clear.

“Often, during the show, Spolyar hugs and kisses the tigers. Occasionally they spray the audience with urine.”

Now, back in the day, a good, old-fashioned urine spraying was almost expected. The kids would cry all the way home if they weren’t struck with some bodily spray. It may not have come from a tiger or even an animal ? perhaps just one of the drunken workers ? but kids nowadays often miss the chance to have a large, dangerous animal spray them with urine. That is what we in showbiz call “giving back.”

“We’re kind of fading away from circus act stuff,” said Inks. “These (tigers) aren’t trained as well. They get away with a lot and that’s fine.” Mr. Inks and his guys use sawdust to cover the readily produced excrement and urine during the show to make clean-up a snap.

As a finale to this particular show, the female tiger vomited for the fans. The trainer explained she had been eating a lot of grass on the show grounds. Too often animal trainers try to make life on the road “safe” and “artificial” for their animals by providing food other than the matted grass of a filthy fairground. Anyone could provide the type of nourishment Siegfried and Roy gave their stars, but that would hardly fit in with this show’s unique theme: wild animals in a cage, spraying the kids with urine, pooping and puking.

Now, here is the reference to Roy Horn. One of the trainers said in response to the question whether the infamous mauling of Roy changed the way he deals with the animals, “People get hurt by tigers a lot; but you can run and play and romp and have total trust” with a tiger.

Maybe it is us but it seems like this is a disaster waiting to happen. Either the tigers will end up like Toby the throw rug or the trainers will end up under a sheet in the coroner’s office. No one is suggesting that kids shouldn’t have a chance to be covered in the rare animals’ bodily fluids, but it comes at a cost. Montecore did not maul Roy because the performer did not understand that he could “totally trust” the large, well-fed mammal and therefore “romp, run and play.” Some of suggested that even well trained animals can act “wild.” One wonders, therefore, how a wild animal will act without training. We hope we never find out.

Read the full article here. Let us know if we are missing something.