The Circus Comes to Town, and It's Not Britney's World Tour

By Kristian Laliberte July 9, 2009

Cocktails and clowns come together at CANCER101's Big Top at the Bowery benefit

The Circus Comes to Town, and It's Not Britney's World Tour

Clowns don't just scare me, they petrify me. Dig deep into your mid-'90s TV memories for that Are You Afraid of the Dark? episode featuring the sadistic punchinello that pretty much left a generation of SNICK fans scarred for life. It's a safe bet that those of the Baby Boom generation felt similar chills with the introduction of Steven King's It. Simply put, clowns are freaky--the birthday party presence that leaves kids more shaken than stirred.

It was with trepidation, then, that I attended CANCER101's anticipated Big Top at a cocktail benefit celebrating cancer patients, survivors, and their caregivers at the Bowery Hotel last week. The pouring rain only added to the surreal atmosphere created by aerialists, acrobats, jugglers, stilt-walkers, tarot card readers, magicians, and…hula-hoopers. Children might like that shiz, but it's my idea of the nightmarish acid trips they tell you about in D.A.R.E., where I imagine giants on wooden stilts would peer portentously at me though kohl -rimmed eyes.

Despite my initial fears (and death grip on my dates Miguelina Gambaccini and Carol Han), I got through the night unaided by benzodiazepines, dirty martinis, or packs of Marlboro Reds--if you're gonna smoke, Parls are the only way to go. It was really the Solerno Bellinis, cotton candy, and more popcorn than a Peggy Siegal screening that assuaged even the most hard-core of coulrophobiacs.

Spectators of the three ring circus included Euan Rellie, who, in his usual 'gamesome gallant' fashion, escorted the dazzling Ann Caruso (o-b-b obsessed with her Chingy blingy); The City star Erin Lucas, who hula-hooped for over thirty minutes with everyone's favorite G-A-Y Jared Craft; Social Life Editor-in-Chief Devorah Rose; Schooled authoress Anisha Lakhani; photographer David X Prutting and his fiiiine fiance Chau Ngo (P.S. They've set a date for the wedding that might just rival Lauren Santo Domingo's Colombian nuptials); and furniture magnates Shoko and Nikki Cheng.

There was no clowning around during the silent auction, where guests like Rachelle Hruska, The Fashion Show's Keith Lissner, and Robert Fowler and Jared Clark (whose obvious attire deliberation translated into a sexier vers of Siegfried & Roy), fiercely fought it out for items like a Rosenthal Vibration Platinum Reflections Vase, his-and-hers bottles of Clive Christian No. 1 ("the world's most expensive perfume"), and tickets to the CHOCHENG Spring/Summer 2010 fashion show at Bryant Park.

Though I didn't quite get over my fear of all things circus (obviously excluding the Britney Spears single and tour), learning about cancer survivor Monica Knoll, who founded CANCER101 in 2002 to help empower newly-diagnosed metastatic cancer patients and their caregivers, helped me realize that clowns are much less scary than cancer.

For those deterred by face paint and card tricks, Madame Paulette's John Mahdessian (dubbed "The Greatest Sponsor on Earth") will be hosting the fall gala. Learn more at cancer101.org.