Uploaded October 2025 | Updated September 2026, 5 days ago
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Mini-Circus in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, New York August 6th, 1987 featuring the Whirling Wizards
From an article in the Staten Island Advance 8/6/1987:
"The big top came to the Rich-mondtown Restoration yesterday afternoon for a double feature - a musical circus and puppet show, drawing about 150 youngsters from throughout New York City.
The shows delighted the young-sters for nearly two hours as both campers and families enjoyed the entertainment supplied by the city Parks Department.
First, the Parks Department's mini-circus amazed the crowd with the antics of clowns, unicy-clists, and even a man on stilts.
The circus was a story told in musical form, with its main char-acter, Horace Scott, playing the role of a teen-ager who is too involved in rehearsing for the cir-cus that his school work began suffering.
The circus addressed the prob-lem of rumor-spreading and the importance of being responsible to commitments, as the songs the troupe performed followed the storyline. "Rumors," "Lean On Me," "You Got a Big Mouth" and "Great Big Ball of Confusion" not only entertained the crowd, but also served to develop the plot.
Ying Goodson Haynes, who help coordinate the mini-circus, said the show attempts to get across a message in addition to entertain-ing the children. "It's about living up to responsibilities and working out problems," she said.
The Whirling Wizards, a trio of basketball-playing unicyclists, made the specialty seem as easy as skipping rope. To top off the performance of dribbling and passing basketballs, one unicy clist, 18-year-old Ra-Sheem Thomas, did skip rope but he did so while riding the unicycle.
Thomas said learning to ride the unicycle is like "anything else in life."
"It's really quite simple," he said. "It just takes practice and a lot of patience."
Following the mini-circus was a puppet show, also sponsored by the Parks Department. Hordes of animals were represented at the show, including chickens, birds, alligators, elephants, rabbits, worms and even kangaroos.
There was also a hors with heads at both ends of his body, who didn't know whether he was coming or going.
"I liked the bunnys and the elephant," said 8-year-old Ellen Rossel
Five-year-old Tiffany Mignemi of Grant City said her favorite parts of the show were scenes involving a lion chasing and try ing to eat a mouse and the ele phant-dancing routine.
Her older brother Michael said although he enjoyed the elephant-dancing, it was a hyperactive skeleton that really grabbed his attention. "I liked how the skele-ton came out and danced," he said. "The way he moved around was great."
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I found this tape at a thrift store in Queens, NY in 2025
Celene's Thrift Shop https://share.google/lZG7MzjANtHDj5wRt
An interesting side note, the owner of Celene's wrote a book.
Going the Extra Mile: Stories from Celene's Thrift Shop https://a.co/d/9nND9EO
I bought myself a copy. I'd love to know where he got this tape!
Like and subscribe! 👍❤
Follow me on Twitch Twitch.tv/CIVICTV83 💜
Follow me on Instagram instagram.com/civic.tv83 📸
Follow me on TikTok tiktok.com/@civictv83 🎵
---
Mini-Circus in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, New York August 6th, 1987 featuring the Whirling Wizards
From an article in the Staten Island Advance 8/6/1987:
"The big top came to the Rich-mondtown Restoration yesterday afternoon for a double feature - a musical circus and puppet show, drawing about 150 youngsters from throughout New York City.
The shows delighted the young-sters for nearly two hours as both campers and families enjoyed the entertainment supplied by the city Parks Department.
First, the Parks Department's mini-circus amazed the crowd with the antics of clowns, unicy-clists, and even a man on stilts.
The circus was a story told in musical form, with its main char-acter, Horace Scott, playing the role of a teen-ager who is too involved in rehearsing for the cir-cus that his school work began suffering.
The circus addressed the prob-lem of rumor-spreading and the importance of being responsible to commitments, as the songs the troupe performed followed the storyline. "Rumors," "Lean On Me," "You Got a Big Mouth" and "Great Big Ball of Confusion" not only entertained the crowd, but also served to develop the plot.
Ying Goodson Haynes, who help coordinate the mini-circus, said the show attempts to get across a message in addition to entertain-ing the children. "It's about living up to responsibilities and working out problems," she said.
The Whirling Wizards, a trio of basketball-playing unicyclists, made the specialty seem as easy as skipping rope. To top off the performance of dribbling and passing basketballs, one unicy clist, 18-year-old Ra-Sheem Thomas, did skip rope but he did so while riding the unicycle.
Thomas said learning to ride the unicycle is like "anything else in life."
"It's really quite simple," he said. "It just takes practice and a lot of patience."
Following the mini-circus was a puppet show, also sponsored by the Parks Department. Hordes of animals were represented at the show, including chickens, birds, alligators, elephants, rabbits, worms and even kangaroos.
There was also a hors with heads at both ends of his body, who didn't know whether he was coming or going.
"I liked the bunnys and the elephant," said 8-year-old Ellen Rossel
Five-year-old Tiffany Mignemi of Grant City said her favorite parts of the show were scenes involving a lion chasing and try ing to eat a mouse and the ele phant-dancing routine.
Her older brother Michael said although he enjoyed the elephant-dancing, it was a hyperactive skeleton that really grabbed his attention. "I liked how the skele-ton came out and danced," he said. "The way he moved around was great."
---
I found this tape at a thrift store in Queens, NY in 2025
Celene's Thrift Shop https://share.google/lZG7MzjANtHDj5wRt
An interesting side note, the owner of Celene's wrote a book.
Going the Extra Mile: Stories from Celene's Thrift Shop https://a.co/d/9nND9EO
I bought myself a copy. I'd love to know where he got this tape!
