Circus tigers roar into Arena Park

When 29-year-old Shane Johnson talks about working with six Royal Bengal tigers, it's with the scratches and scars that came with experience. The tiger trainer is a third-generation circus performer who spent his youth traveling the show circuit.

On the night his trapeze artist mother delivered him, Johnson's father was wowing an audience with acrobatics. His grandfather was a clown and his grandmother was an aerialist.

Johnson of Dallas, Texas, is one of many contracted performers in the George Carden Circus at the A.C. Brase Arena Building in Arena Park. Thursday night's audience reached 550 people, according to show manager Charles Amaral.

"It's cold out here tonight," Johnson said next to his cages. "And they love it. They'll be real frisky."

Growling and pacing, the big cats rub up against the bars -- knowing it's nearly show time. Sisters Bengali and India are in heat, which is driving two sets of brothers, Barnum and Tangier and the younger Voltan and Conan, into fits of machismo.

"That's the problem with working a show with all males," he said. "They're all dominant. Conan likes to prove he's stronger than some of the others."

Johnson used to train elephants, spent time as a clown and worked the trapeze. Whatever was needed, he did. He took on the tiger show 11 years ago after a co-worker retired.

Some tigers have challenging phobias, Johnson said. Wheelchairs terrify Tangier, who once trampled over Johnson at the sight of one and left the trainer with claw scars on his arm and chest.

"When we go to a Shriner's circus, I don't use him," Johnson said.

The 10-minute tiger show is more traditional than the Las Vegas style of Siegfried Fischbacher and Roy Horn, Johnson said. Horn was critically injured onstage by a tiger in October.

"I know Roy Horn very well," he said. "But the main difference is that ours is a caged act and there's no physical contact made with the tigers. There are no hugs and kisses. These are wild animals with claws and teeth. It's not in their nature to purr and rub up against you."

mwells@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160