Circus Vargas

Extremely Disappointing!!! I went on Saturday to the 4 P.M. and it was incredibly hot inside the tent, they had a few fans blowing not nearly enough. The entire show consisted of what look more like a musical act. The sound and lighting was awful. There were no clown skits which I would expect to see at a circus. There were no animal such as puppies jumping through hoops, no ponies, or no elephants «never been to a circus that didn’t have some sort of animal show». Over priced for what you get.

Awesome show! All the adults and kids in our party loved the show. Clowns, acrobats, motorcycles, magic show and best part is that there are no animals involved!
Highly recommend going when they are in your town!

This is for the circus Vargas now appearing in Santa Clara fairgrounds, great show, but plan to get there super early. We got to the fairgrounds with 20 minutes to spare, but it took 30 minutes to get parked, it was chock a block. Very disorganized, then another 10 minutes to get our tickets at will call, There were hundreds of people in line & only 3 windows working. Also it is very dark if you enter while show is on, so bring a small flashlight if you have difficulty seeing at night. or in the dark.
But it was still loads of fun, & the humans more than made up for no circus animals. Great entertainment for all ages tots to grannies.

We had a great time! It was a little hokey but they were targeting the smaller kids while they set up. The only negative was it was so HOT in the tent we had sweat dripping down our backs. They are amazing acrobats. Impressive stunts!

I haven’t been to the circus in about 30 years. It was kinda sad and sorta scary. Traumatized my oldest daughter and she is still afraid of clowns eating her in her sleep. So we went to Circus Vargas with some reservation. But it was awesome! It’s a family business with a fun wholesome evening of fun and acrobatics. We loved the whole event. Highly recommend Circus Vargas!

Brought my kids here… the entire family loved it. This is great live family entertainment. Nice energy and entertainers. The acts are fun and good performers who were born to entertain. Had a great per-​show for kids an hour before. Highly recommend going an hour before to get good seats for the kids and so they can see and participate in the pre-​show.

We saw this show today in Burbank and it was great! It exceeded our expectations. This was an old fashioned circus, with tightrope walkers, trapeze, acrobats, clowns, magic tricks, and a guy shot out of a cannon. They also had motorcycle stunt riders who rode around on the sides of a steel sphere. There are no animals in this show, which was plus for us. Yeah, it’s not high budget — no Cirque du Soleil — but so entertaining and the performers were very professional. It was really fast-​paced, and our 5 year old son loved it. (Normally he can’t sit through anything longer than half an hour.) If you come half an hour early, the kids can go in the ring and try some tricks, like balancing something on their noses. We went to the matinée and everyone there had kids, but this show would be fun for adults without kids also. Check for coupons on line, or Living Social, Groupon deals.

SO MUCH FUN!!! omg. It was such a delightful experience! There was spectacular performances from juggling to a guy being launched out of cannon like device to tight rope balancing. The energy of the show was amazing and very captivating. There was no moment that was slow or boring. I really recommend it. Plus! they always have coupons available so you don’t have to pay full price. I paid 20 dollars for the 2 hour show and it was totally worth it!

I loved this place as a kid and love it just as much today as an adult! Cotton candy, hot dogs, popcorn, & clowns… doesn’t get any better for $ 13 bux… got a deal off Living Social… no animals though… but was still really delightful!
Check out my photos labeled: Arcadia!

This was mostly fun beacuse I got a Groupon deal ($ 13) and was in good company.
I imagine that, with the exception of lighting, if I went to a random traveling circus in the 1940s it would be much like this. Anyone who knows me will tell you I’m like a 5 year old at heart so I was REALLY excited about this but it was just dissapointing. Half the acts built up to «big tricks» that they actually did not land :/​. No offense to the trapeze artist but I saw better acrobatics at Sea World. But considering most of them had obviously seen their heyday I suppose I shouldn’t have expected much. The motorcylist were cool but short lived and the human cannonball underwhelming. The lighting and sound were terrible even for such a small venue.
Really the saving grace was the impromptu clown who did skits with various audience members which were really funny. I would NOT recommend paying the full $ 25 – 55 that this circus usually cost it’s just is not worth it.

Despite there being no animals in this circus act, I had a blast! The jugglers, motorcyclists, clowns, gymnasts were all great! I don’t want to give away too much, as it may ruin somebody else’s experience. When I told someone I was going to a circus that wouldn’t have animals, there reaction was one of disapproval.
My date and I had a great time, just minus one star for the firm bleacher sits. Definitely smart of them to rent out cushions for $.25, like the Hollywood bowl does.
Free parking, ticket deals on
Be warned: Port-​a-​potties only, overpriced icees in shiny cups, but this is all to be expected.
Have a blast under the big top!

I bought 2 living social vouchers for this past Sunday’s performance and was very pleased with the show! It’s an animal free circus, so lots of acting and stunts. Overall, the show was very enjoyable. The tent is small and it was not crowded at all, so every seat was a good seat. The clowns were funny, the ringmaster had a wonderful singing voice, and the stunts were all pretty amazing. My favorite one was definitely the motorcycle cage one. It kept me on the edge of my seat and was both terrifying and fascinating to watch. What I noticed, and I suppose is common, is that most of these stunt people were families, and so many had their children performing along with them. Which for some stunts was a little concerning to watch, especially the motorcycle cage, the kid was only 10 years old!
While I like the show a lot, the negatives were that the tent was really hot, and there were a lot of children. Of course, both is to be expected since this is largely a family oriented show, and how would you install air conditioning in a tent? So I guess these are just minor complaints.
I would definitely recommend going to see this if you are looking for something to do on a weekend. It’s inexpensive and a great experience!

Wow! Super fun — felt like I was 10 again!
Took my seven year old daughter. She loved it. The «no animals» thing was cool. All the acts were pretty amazing — favorite would have to be juggling, the «flying» bit and and strangely enough the motorcycles in the cage and the two clowns turned out to be one of the best parts as well… small enough to feel so close to the action and parking was breeze, short walk from the parking lot.
Fun — go do it!

I went with my mother and we left with smiles on our faces. What a great experience. It is well worth the money and a fantastic idea for people looking to do something different. I totally recommend for everyone — families with or without children, date night, or for all of us hard to please Los Angeles snoots.
A great show, with clearly passionate performers. I plan to go again next year when they come through Los Angeles.
Thank you Circus Vargas

ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT!!! So glad it was animal free… and I love the fact that it had a very intimate feel as the the tent is not made to accommodate lots of people. Worth every penny…

This is probably best if you have kids, but it isn’t too bad if you’re a grown-​up.
Everyone else described it really well, but I did want to mention:
1) that the circus is fast-​paced and entertaining enough that there is lots to appreciate even if you didn’t like one act. The kids LOVED it, and there’s enough adult stuff to appeal to grown-​ups.
2) I had ringside tickets (thanks KCRW!), but I think it is probably a better view if you aren’t directly under the acts– the bleacher seats seemed to have a great view.

Took my 2yo daughter and 8yo son plus my wife, her aunt and grandmother. We had seats in the mid section seating (not ringside but not bleachers either.) This was late October in the San Fernando Valley — 84º at 2PM. Nice outside by my standards. Making our way in to find our seats, I was almost knocked on my ass by the heat coming from the tent. It was easily 15º-​20º warmer inside the tent than it was outside. I figured they hadn’t turned on the fans yet. I actually thought, once I saw the ticket prices online, that it would be air-​conditioned inside.
Anyway, no A/​C, no fans, no air circulation at ALL! They had the tent doors open all around the tent but closed them when the show began. It was unbearable. I went for water and it was more expensive than at the movies and warm (I got them to give me cups of ice). Popcorn was stale and also too expensive. They had cheap crappy toy souveniers like light-​up swords and septors.
As for the show, it was okay I guess. Definitely not on par with a Ringling Bros. production. They had hoola hoopers, Argentinian drummers, a guy balancing increasingly large objects on his chin, one of those spinning aparatuses that a guy walks in and on while it spins around, and various trapeze artists. But it was hard to enjoy any of it due to the heat. Overall, it felt like cut-​rate talent — people that tried out for bigger productions and couldn’t didn’t make it.
Definitely expected more on the entertainment side. Since they stopped using animals (which made me want to support them in the first place) I figured they would step up the entertainment to compensate. Not the case. This truly felt like a bunch of performers that were tired and wished they were elsewhere, as did I.
Won’t ever go back.

I LOVED IT! Took my daughter for her first time at the Circus. Great fun. It was really entertaining. No animals! Amazing performers!

Everyone but drunks will love this.
They don’t serve beer, and there were NO animals, which is okay considering a) the animals usually seem depressed, beaten, or sick; and b) there was considerably less animal feces smell.
Basically it was all Stupid Human Tricks.
Half of it was the kind of stuff you’d see on the Venice Boardwalk,
but here you didn’t have to avoid eye contact or run away when the collection bucket came around.
The acrobatics in the sky weren’t too amazing for adults
(basic stuff, especially considering what the kind of flips
I can do in Tekken 3),
but the surprise twist on the classic motorcycle ball was exciting,
and the gymnastic work showed so much stamina and strength
(both in solo artists and the group of pirates who became a reverse human pyramid) it made you think «Whoa, I could never do that!» and «Ouch!»
The guy balancing things on his chin was pretty cool,
and the most thrilling was the guy in the rotating hamster wheel thing. He ate his babies, too, which was weird. (not really)
I think the most applause went to the Asian dude who looked like
the guy who electrocutes Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon I.
He did this crazy spinning clickety-​clacky percussion thing with highspeed clacker balls, and was inches away from being a featured Americas Funniest Home Nutcracks.
Thankfully there weren’t a bunch of annoying clowns– just one, a silent one with a whistle, who did a few acts with audience participation. His acts were crowd-​pleasing. And by crowd pleasing I mean there were no bony elephants coughing on us.
By the way, Bony Elephants Coughing are playing Coachella 2012.
Anyway, nothing was really lame, although the six bulging (in more ways than one) pirates made me uncomfortable because they chased one girl around making me think, «The Accused: the Musical».
I thought the production values were pretty cool, particularly the Candyman in Glasses ringmaster who retreated to a Sheila E type percussion module, technically never leaving stage.
I recommend that you go. For the price of a 3D movie, I think it’s a really good value, and you don’t need the glasses.
A bonus was the chance to pose with a big boa snake at intermission for $ 10 (you buy one AND you can take your own). Or for $ 5 you can pose with my willie– basically the same thing.

No animals! Just a family friendly, excellent adventure. A great value. Take the kids early because they invite children into the ring before the show to teach them a few circus tricks.
My 12-​year-​old daughter and I had a great time. Very professional acrobats and a very friendly troupe that greets you on the way out. Even though the place was virtually empty the performers gave it their 100% best.
I’ve been to most of the Cirque shows and they’re wonderful, but Circus Vargas is a great value for the money, and feels much more intimate.