This is a big surprise. I have a lot of friends in Ringling who are heartbroken. I agree with thenewgreen's assessment that circuses are going the way of Cirque du Soleil. I myself like to see smaller circuses with artistic performances and a storyline. Yes, I went to RBBBCC (Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Clown College) in 1993 and toured part-time with Royal Hanneford circus as a clown the following year. Then I went back to school and was in the FSU Flying High circus for 3 years performing juggling, double-trapeze and slackwire. But alas that was 20 years ago and I have discovered that the muscle turns to fat. I still harbor a plan of putting together an artistic circus-style math show. We've recently applied for a cultural grant to put together such a show, and if approved we'll put together a 40-minute 3-person show where math will come alive with music, dance and visual deliciousness. We'd then perform 10-20 shows at schools or wherever.
I used to be on the business side of Circus Contraption, who toured frequently with the New Old Time Chataqua. And we did a lot of stuff with the Flying Karamazov's, the Pickle Family Circus, and - of course - the Moisture Festival (the world's largest comedie/varieté festival) in Seattle. I'm also affiliated - loosely, nowadays - with the School for the New Circus Arts (SANCA) and Emerald City Trapeze in Seattle, and the Vespertine Circus in SF. I'm pretty sure we have a few friends in common!
That is an awesome comic you point to! I learned to juggle in college and by the time I graduated with a BS in math I just wanted to perform. So I did street juggling, taught juggling classes, took up clowning, did some small gigs, then went to RBBBCC and toured with Royal Hanneford for a year. Then I really wanted to be a math teacher. Took the GRE and scored high enough to get free tuition and a TA position at FSU, which also has a student circus. Fell in love with math at grad school and stayed on for a doctorate. Circus is far in the taillights now, but I continue learning new things and making new things. Very much into math art now, of all kinds, and have made digital art, print, videos, sculpture, jewelry, music, drama, literature and poetry. Running my own math creativity center now. Don't know what the next career is, but there is still time...