ELLENTON, Fla. – Audience members were finally dealt a bit of relief Monday afternoon as Ringling Bros. head ringmaster Patrick Hildegarde finally addressed the elephant in the room after an hour and twenty minutes of beating around the bush.
“It was really uncomfortable for everybody in the big top. The elephant was clearly there but neither the ringleader nor anybody in the audience was addressing it. They even went as far as bringing the clowns out just to make small talk about the weather,” said circus attendee Mike Howell. “You could cut the tension with a knife.”
Hildegarde says things finally came to a head when the elephant began eating peanuts and was just too big a subject to ignore. With quick thinking, he used a joke to ease the tension. “It really just came to me in the moment. I asked the audience what an elephant uses to pack for a vacation, and when I told them a trunk they were disarmed and much more open to talking about the elephant in a real manner.”
The show was then able to continue, and the elephant even performed a crowd favorite of standing on a tiny ball.
