Ringling Bros. puts magic front and center in latest tour
For many children -- and those young at heart -- the circus has always been a magical thing. This year's edition of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus just got a bit more so as magic and illusions take the center ring this season under the watchful eye of award-winning magician Alex Ramon.
Ramon currently is appearing as the "Zingmaster" -- the circus' magical take on the traditional role of ringmaster -- in "Zing Zang Zoom" at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont through Nov. 15. The circus moves to Chicago's United Center on Nov. 18-29.
It's the first time in the famed circus' history that a magician has been given the honor. Not bad for a 24-year-old from San Francisco who didn't start doing magic tricks until he was a teenager.
"I was 13 when I saw my first card trick," Ramon recalls. "I went to work with my dad and he had a co-worker who was a magician, and the co-worker showed me a couple of card tricks and I was immediately fascinated."
He begged his dad to buy him a magic book and then spent the next year and a half learning everything he could about his new-found passion.
"At first, I didn't do any shows. I didn't perform. I didn't want to," he says. "My mom finally kind of loving coerced me into performing at my dad's 50th birthday [party]."
From there, Ramon graduated to non-family birthday parties, magic shows at restaurants and then, finally, a stage act.
Now, he has hit the big time with Ringling Bros., where he is at the center of some pretty interesting magic that goes beyond simple card tricks. Ramon consulted with Oak Park native Jim Steinmeyer, a world-renowned inventor of large-scale illusions who has created feats for every major magician in the world. Pulling off any illusion is no easy task, though.
"We're performing magic in the round and in a 360-degree environment," Ramon explains. "There's not much magically on your side in an arena."
Despite the challenges, Steinmeyer and Ramon were able to craft various feats that are performed throughout the circus production as a transition between the more traditional acts. Ramon's Zingmaster has a clown nemesis called Mr. Gravity who gets turned into a Bengal tiger. Ramon also makes a 4-ton elephant disappear.
In another feat, three kids are selected at random at every show, brought into the ring and given the chance of a lifetime.
"I teach the three kids how to make their parents levitate," Ramon says. "We dress the kids up as student wizards and we give them what every kid wants: complete control over their parents. Just for a few seconds, anyway. They levitate and go up and down, and everyone loves it."