Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/10/14/other-side-with-zabrecky-reaches-out-to-sigfried-and-roys-tiger-manticore.html
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Well, that’s kind of creepy, kooky and cool.
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The tiger’s story is convincing enough: I had a good life full of yummy food, Roy was my friend, he slipped during the act and I so I carried him off stage to safety. Makes sense from a tiger perspective.
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My takeaway here is “if someone who spent a lifetime training and performing with tigers was horribly injured by a tiger that wasn’t even trying to hurt him, then perhaps humans should not keep tigers as pets/performers at all.”
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But…but…the tiger doesn’t speak English, and they don’t speak Tiger.
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Well, that is what makes such acts that exciting after all…
But yeah, I’m with you.
Meanwhile, I’m wondering what the MOST famous performing feline is if Manticore only gets second place.
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Likewise, maybe we shouldn’t try to jump over canyons with rocket motorcycles. Or tightrope walk without a net. Or race cars. The “attraction” of these entertainments is basically waiting for somebody to screw up and get hurt or killed.
I’ll disagree there, but only slightly. Having seen a Wallenda work a wire live (I worked a show with them in the late 80’s), as opposed to on television, the feeling is wholly different in person. It isn’t a case of waiting for them to screw up so much as the heart in your mouth fear that they might and hoping they don’t. It left me absolutely breathless. There is something about watching a daredevil’s courage that is more than just hoping for a disaster.
Back in the days when Evel Knievel’s jumps were covered live on television (ABC’s Wide World of Sports), we’d rush inside to watch the jump and we would be terribly disappointed if he wiped out. I remember the special where he was going to jump over a pool full of sharks, live, and he crashed in practice and wasn’t going to jump. They played the footage of the wipe-out, but none of us cared, we wanted the jump.
Of course, your mileage may vary. I mean, I cannot understand the watching of NASCAR (for example) without waiting for a fiery crash to break up the monotony so…there is that.
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