In an age where artificial intelligence is being promoted as the next big thing, we’re incessantly told about how robots will soon replace humans and everyone will be out of a job.
That hasn’t happened quite yet.
With one exception – circus animals.
This year, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus has returned, and is touring for the first time since closing seven years ago. But, this isn’t the Ringling Bros. you may remember from when you were a kid. There are no more horses, zero tigers, and elephants are no where to be found. There is not a single live animal in this show.
The circus animals have all been replaced by a robot dog named Bailey.
A robot dog joins the circus
Could the modern circus – a hundreds of years old industry almost synonymous with live animal acts – successfully pull this off? A robot dog?
Mashable was invited to a recent performance of the Ringling Bros.’s latest show at UBS Arena in Long Island. I had plenty of questions regarding Bailey. I also wanted to see if Bailey was viewed as an adequate replacement in the eyes of attendees.
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How would the circus-going public react to Bailey? More importantly, how would the circus’ most important demographic – children – react to Bailey and the lack of live animals? To find the answers to these questions,I took my own two kids, aged 4 and 8, to see Bailey as well.
Credit: Matt Binder / Mashable
Before the show started, Ringling Bros. invited us to get up-close and personal with Bailey and talk with Bailey’s co-star, human-performer Jan Damm who plays Nick Nack, as well as Lukasz Zajda, a crew member who helps bring Bailey to life (via remote control).
Bailey first greeted us backstage, trotting around with pink and yellow fur and a spring as a tail. We followed Bailey to the circus stage, where Damm and Zajda walked us through some of Bailey’s biggest tricks. Bailey could roll over, spring, and beg just like, well, a real dog.
Plus, Bailey can dance, which helps when one of the biggest acts in the show is a dance-off between Bailey and Damm.
Behind Bailey
Perhaps the most impressive thing about Bailey, however, is how simple Bailey actually is. Zajda, who controls Bailey throughout the show, gave me a look into the tech behind Bailey.
Bailey has a unique design, distinct to Ringling Bros. circus. However, underneath the colorful fur and cartoon eyes is a robot dog model that anyone can buy, Unitree Robotics’ Go1 Model. The Unitree Go1 starts at around $2,700, although the company now has newer models for sale.
Credit: Matt Binder / Mashable
Zajda controls Bailey’s every move from about 150 to 200 feet away using a wireless remote control, the default remote that comes with the Unitree Go1 model. It’s basically like a drone remote control with two joysticks. And Bailey’s battery can last around 45 minutes long, which is more than enough for a 2-hour performance with multiple acts of which Bailey makes three appearances.
And, speaking of Bailey’s quirky cartoon robot dog eyes that I just mentioned before? That’s just a looping video playing on an iPhone 12 which Ringling Bros. attached to the robot to make Bailey’s face. It really did feel like Bailey’s eyes were interacting with everyone around it, so I was surprised to hear that wasn’t the case.
The return of Ringling Bros.
Originally founded in 1871, Ringling Bros. was once the biggest and most famous circus in the world. With the tagline “The Greatest Show on Earth,” the live show toured the country with its infamous three-ring production. Ringling Bros. became so popular in the late 1950s that the company could no longer run shows out of their portable big top tents, moving to larger venues and sports stadiums like Madison Square Garden.
Ringling Bros. featured all the standard circus fare, from clowns to trapeze artists performing unbelievable stunts. But, Ringling Bros. biggest ticket-sellers were the live animals. And Ringling Bros. had the resources to bring animals on the road that competitors couldn’t, like tigers and arguably Ringling Bros. most popular act, the elephants.
Elephants were such a major draw for Ringling Bros. that it easily became the circus’ trademark. The circus elephants were featured everywhere in promotions for the show. When Ringling Bros. came to New York City, the circus was known for parading the elephants around Madison Square Garden.
However, a traveling circus really can’t properly provide adequate care for wild animals, as many animal rights groups argued over the years. Ringling Bros. faced criticism and legal challenges from organizations like the ASPCA and PETA over the treatment of its elephants. The USDA even fined Ringling Bros. under the Animal Welfare Act.
In 2016, citing new local laws regarding the usage of elephants in entertainment, Ringling Bros. announced that it was retiring its elephants, ending the elephant portion of its show entirely. And in 2017, 8 months after the elephants retired, Ringling Bros. parent company Feld Entertainment shared that ticket sales had abruptly fallen. Citing the removal of elephants from the show as the reason for the downturn, the company announced that the then-146-year-old circus would be closing its doors.
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Ringling Bros. would remain closed until 2023 when Feld Entertainment relaunched the show without live animal acts.
Farewell to live animal performers – it’s for the best
Now for the real test though: How would circus attendees react to Bailey? Would kids like the robot dog?
The answers: The audience loves Bailey. Kids, especially.
Credit: Matt Binder / Mashable
The show is roughly 2-hours long and filled with musical and comedy segments, death-defying stunts, and record-holding acts like Wesley Williams, a Guinness World Record holder who rides a 34 foot tall unicycle in the show.
Bailey appears in just 3 segments – one appearance in the first half of the show to introduce the audience to Bailey, the aforementioned dance-off segment in the second half of the show, and then the farewell act featuring all the performers.
Judging by the crowd reactions every time Bailey came out, it actually feels like Ringing Bros. underutilized him. The audience lit up every time Bailey appeared. Bailey wasn’t being talked about as a “robot dog act” like people would refer to the live animals as just the “tigers” or “elephants.” Kids were calling out Bailey by name.
Bailey is now arguably the Ringling Bros’ biggest star. And while he may be there to replace the horses and tigers and elephants, Bailey is clearly no consolation prize.
Credit: Matt Binder / Mashable
At 8 and 4, my kids are too young to remember the circus with live animals. I explained to them that there was once a time where you could see real-life tigers and elephants at Ringling Bros. “Woah,” they exclaimed.
After the show, I asked them if they would have preferred to have seen the live animals or Bailey at the circus. They could only pick one and the other had to go! Based on their reaction to my telling of the circus of old, I was actually surprised by their answer.
“Bailey,” they both agreed.
So, the circus is back without live animals. And in this rare instance, it’s good that a robot named Bailey took their jobs.
