LIONS AND TIGERS AND HORSE-RIDING BEARS

Horse-riding Russian bears, acrobats performing the Double Swing of Death and one of the world's funniest clowns those are some of the top acts that will perform at a three-ring circus Wednesday at the Show Me Center.

The Sterling & Reid Bros. 3 Ring Circus, with more than 125 performers and dozens of animals, will perform two shows, at 4:30 and 7:30 p.m.

"It's really an outstanding circus," said Gordy Klein, who performs as Homer the Happy Tramp and is serving as advance man for the circus. "We've been packing them in everywhere we go."

Being a clown himself, Klein said he especially admires Sterling & Reid's top clown Koko Kramer, who was voted the world's funniest clown at a European competition three years ago.

"Clowning is one of the hardest jobs in the circus," said Klein. He noted the physical demands of doing such stunts as pratfalls, acrobatics and juggling and having to make it all look easy. "People don't understand how hard it is until they try to do it," he said.

He said that historically circuses have used clowns to entertain while setting up or breaking down other acts, such as high wire or animal acts. While there might be three animal acts, each in a different ring, to keep an audience's attention, clowns generally are out there by themselves, Klein said. This puts pressure on them to successfully make the audience laugh.

And clowns are always on call. If an accident or something unexpected happens, the clowns are called in to carry on the show.

That will fall to the 11 clowns that perform with Sterling & Reid, which is the second largest circus in the world.

Other acts include:

Russian Dancing Bears, an act from the Moscow Circus that includes bears riding on horses.

Double Swing of Death, where 20 Moroccan tumblers fly through the air propelled from two giant swings.

White Tigers of Las Vegas, an act that combines trained tigers with a magic show.

20 White Horses in Three Rings. Klein said these Lipizzaner horses are beautiful and exciting to watch.

Motorcycle Mania on the High Wire, a high wire motorcycle act.

Performing Elephants, including a 10,000-pound Asian elephant that climbs onto then rolls around on a ball.

Russian Skip Rope Acrobats. Klein said it's amazing to watch what these performers can do with that traditional childhood toy, the jump rope.

Cirque du Lido, an aerial act with 35 show girls.

Wild West Show, an act that includes rope spinning, fancy whips and trick riding.

Animal acts including lions, horses, laughing hyenas, camels, llamas and dogs.

Daredevil acts such as flying trapeze, high wire and bungee divers.

Before the show and during intermission, rides will be offered on an elephant, camel and pony. There also will be a 40-foot slide.