ORANGE PARK – The circus is in town, and after watching its two-hour performance on Monday night, I can confidently say it’s worth checking out before it leaves Clay County forever after its final performances on Sunday.

I was skeptical at first. A circus? I didn’t even know circuses really existed anymore, especially after the circus industry decided not to use animals in its shows. However, Cirque Italia’s Cirque Alcatraz doesn’t need an animal to make its show worth the price, and it has single-handedly revived the fascination I used to have as a child.

Cirque Alcatraz is an adult circus. There’s a healthy heaping of curse words and more than one scene that will make you blush and it’s quite refreshing as a result. It’s fun, raunchy, exciting and at times, scary. My wife jumped a dozen times when a man flipped more times in air than we thought possible only to stick the landing not on top of the nice and safe landing pad on the ground, but on the combined wrists of two other performers.

The show follows two characters wrongfully accused of murder. The two wind up in the famous Alcatraz Prison as a result and together, they hold the circus’ story together. Their performances can best be described as one part buddy comedy and another part Broadway musical. In between their performances are the traditional circus acts you expect, each with their own Alcatraz-themed twist.

Trapeze artists are attempting to escape the prison as are the acrobatic jumpers. Two janitors are secretly magician dancers who do some things on stage that I still can’t wrap my head around. One guard uses a female inmate as his personal target when practicing his arrow shots. He shoots arrows at balloons held by her hands, her arms and mouth.

You’ll see the same woman meet her own self-inflicted demise in the prison after performing a beautiful aerial acrobatics routine. A Hannibal Lecter-type of character performs their own aerial acrobatics routine, too – with his own twist of course.

Elsewhere, the acrobatics more comfortable flipping through the air than sitting in an Alcatraz prison cell hoot and holler, shimmy and jive while awaiting their turn to flip off of a large swing.

If you want to see someone ride a unicycle across a tight-rope, this is the circus for you. If you want to see someone walk over fire while suspended on a rope 20 feet, this circus is for you. If you want to see some things I can’t write about here – again, this is an adult circus – then this is the circus for you.

Cirque Alcatraz is located in the parking lot of the Orange Park Mall, and it’s easily visible from both Blanding Boulevard and Wells Road. Tickets can be purchased at https://cirquealcatraz.com.

The circus is in town until Aug. 8, and if you’re looking for something fun and exciting to do here in Clay County, it is a must.