- July 1, 2026
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Before the action gets underway at the Summer Circus Spectacular, Italian clown Davis Vassallo does a little housecleaning. He takes his feather duster and starts brushing the heads of people in the audience. Is Vassallo as tidy at home? You’ll have to ask his new bride, Ashley Vargas, who is the emcee of the show produced by Sarasota’s Circus Arts Conservatory.
At no point during the circus in The Ringling’s Historic Asolo Theater do Vassallo and Vargas publicly announce that they are man and wife. But they seem so sympatico that we decided to do a little internet sleuthing.
We learned that the adorable clown and the charming emcee were married in May in Italy and are “honeymooning” in Sarasota. With his Chaplinesque oversized shoes and black suit, Vassallo looks every inch the clown, but not a scary one. For her role as mistress of ceremonies, Vargas wears a double-breasted coat and a hat cocked sideways. She looks a bit like an Art Deco bellhop, only with a skirt instead of trousers.
While Vargas clearly runs the show at the circus, she is periodically summoned from backstage by Vassallo (“Ashley!”) to bring out props while he leads audience recruits in humorous but harmless stunts.
Set inside a jewelbox theater rescued from a castle in Asolo, Italy, the Summer Circus Spectacular is more intimate than the one the CAC stages during season under the Big Top at Nathan Benderson Park. The Historic Asolo Theater, or HAT for short, only seats 279 patrons, while the CAC’s tent holds up to 1,645 guests.
The summer show is just an hour long, so it’s perfect for people of all ages who have trouble sitting still or staying off their devices. There were four generations of a family at a recent show where Vassallo responded to a baby’s periodic howls with comedic aplomb. His ability to improvise and go with the flow is inspiring.
For whatever reason, clowns with Italian style seem less threatening than the traditional American clowns of yore that have been demonized by Hollywood in horror films. Vassallo’s clown persona is reminiscent of Italian actor Roberto Benigni, who won the Best Actor Oscar in 1999 for “Life is Beautiful,” about a man who uses humor to create a fantasy world during the Holocaust.
At any moment, I expected Vassallo to start singing “Shaddap Your Face,” a 1980s ditty by Joe Dolce, an American-Australian artist of Italian descent, that inexplicably became a global chart topper. (“What’s-a matter you?”)
To the American sensibility, the Italian style of communicating with lots of gestures and facial tics is funny even without words. Woody Allen has been known to splice silent footage of Mussolini in his films to get a laugh.
Vassallo is funny without trying too hard, or at least without appearing to do so. The kids in the audience eat it up. His intentionally hapless slack wire routine drew howls of laughter, especially when he lands in a sensitive place.
Once it became evident that anyone in the audience could end up on stage, the younger patrons were on the edge of their seats. Vassallo had no trouble finding volunteers for the ensembles he put together on the fly. Music and sound effects drove the action, once again in a manner that seems deceptively simple but depends on perfect timing.
There are some truly thrilling performances in the 2026 edition of the Summer Circus Spectacular, including aerial feats and circular roller-skating on a platform by Duo Transcend. Audiences might know the married couple, Mary Wolfe-Nielsen, and Tyce Nielsen, from their appearance on “America’s Got Talent,” where they were finalists.
Every performer in the Summer Circus Spectacular, a joint venture of the CAC and The Ringling that dates back to 2007, is a standout. Each drew spirited cheers of approval and multiple rounds of applause from the audience. If the performers didn’t think the audience response was sufficiently enthusiastic, they encouraged them to turn up the volume with gestures like holding a hand to an ear.
One performer who used this approach with winning results was juggler Noel Aguilar, a Mexican-American performer who is part of a multigenerational circus family. Although he is about 30 years old, Aguilar has the face of a child and a diminutive but powerful physique. Like a tot playing with toys, he captures the audience’s heart, something he did amid the sequins and feathers on the runway at the CAC’s recent Cirque Vogue fashion show.
Even if he occasionally falls short of his ambitious goals on stage, Aguilar’s short, but pulse-racing performance, is a crowd pleaser for sure.
Another showstopper in the Summer Circus Spectacular is seventh-generation circus artist Yelitza Vivas. Her hand-balancing act combines jaw-dropping strength and ethereal grace. With her colorful paisley unitard, Vivas would stand out in any crowd. Her performance was one that you won’t soon forget.
Superstar aerialist Nik Wallenda bills himself as “America’s Hometown Hero” at his Wonderland holiday circus and other local appearances, and with good reason. But he’s getting a little competition lately from Emma Grace Clarke. Now 18, Clarke is the daughter of CAC President and CEO Jennifer Mitchell. She is the poster girl for the Circus Arts Conservatory’s training program.
Like Cowgirl Jessie in “Toy Story 5,” Clarke is getting a starring role in Sarasota’s circus arts scene with her aerial artistry. Just 11 when she appeared on The Mall on Washington, D.C., for a Smithsonian Folklife Festival dedicated to circus arts in 2017, she recently received the Circus Ring of Fame Foundation’s Generation NeXt Award. Clarke also performs internationally with the world-renowned Flying Caballeros. Fans of Sarasota’s Sailor Circus of youth performers have watched her grow up.
Speaking of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, it was put on pause this year for the Great American State Fair, part of America 250 celebrations. But Mitchell was recently summoned to Washington to meet with Smithsonian officials, so Sarasota-based circus artists could be back on The Mall in the not-too-distant future.
Even though Mitchell wasn’t on hand to greet patrons of the Summer Circus Spectacular on a recent day the way she normally does, patrons still got to pose for free selfies with the circus performers in the lobby of The Ringling after the show.
If you still haven’t had enough circus, you can take your ticket to The Ringling box office and add an admission to the Circus Museum and affiliated exhibits for just $5.
Circus aficionados around the world are well aware of Sarasota’s role in the history of the entertainment that dates back to the Roman empire. However, newcomers may not be aware that The Ringling houses Howard Tibbals’ miniature circus of more than 42,000 pieces. You can also learn about the history of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, which John Ringling first brought to town nearly 100 years ago.
With its caring ushers who will store strollers, walkers and wheelchairs during the show, The Ringling ensures the Summer Circus Spectacular is something that the whole family can enjoy together, regardless of where they are on the road of life.
Like baseball, the circus is sometimes viewed as old-fashioned and out of date. But both Great American pastimes give us a chance to collectively celebrate what we have built together during the past 250 years and remind us of what unites us.
