Q&A: Big Top Big Shot — Kenneth Feld

Kirk Baird

Sunday, July 2, 2000 | 1:07 a.m.

Kenneth Feld's official title is chairman and CEO of Feld Entertainment Inc. But it might as well be Mr. Entertainment.

Feld helped put together the Siegfried & Roy show, first at the Frontier hotel-casino in the '80s, and then in 1990 at the Mirage hotel-casino, where it's been playing to virtually sold-out audiences ever since. In fact, the master illusionists' production was one of the first of a new wave of Las Vegas shows in which glitz and glamour and flash and polish combine with the latest technology. Feld also helped put together "MADhattan," a conceptual show in which New York street performers did their thing onstage at the New York-New York hotel-casino. Although the show received generally favorable reviews, it closed 11 months later.

But it's not just Las Vegas that Feld has affected. Feld Entertainment Inc. owns Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus (which comes to Las Vegas Wednesday through July 9 at the Thomas & Mack Center) and produces numerous other shows, including various "Disney on Ice" productions as well as "The Wizard of Oz on Ice." This, and the fact that these shows have appeared in 44 countries, explain why Feld Entertainment Inc. bills itself as the "largest producer of live family entertainment today."

Feld recently talked about his role in the entertainment industry:

Las Vegas Sun: How have audiences changed over the years?

Kenneth Feld: Audiences don't change. What changes is that they're exposed to a lot of different things now. I always find it interesting that with Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey, we've been around for 130 years, and people are still fascinated by the fliers doing triple somersaults.

What we've been able to do is enhance the presentation through all the technology of the lighting. What's great about the circus this year, the music is 100 percent original music, so it's a score that was written specifically for the 130th addition of "The Greatest Show on Earth." It really enhances each act. What we do is we have a great performer, doing a great act, and then you try to fit in as much support from costumes, from lighting, from music, and present it to the public in a very different way.

What happens today is kids are so overdosed on two-dimensional entertainment, be it movies, television, the Internet. If you go and take pictures and everybody has red eyes, you can go and you can fix it yourself. So no one knows what to believe what's real anymore. And I think that Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey provides a great opportunity for young people to see reality almost in its stark form.

Sun: Are these enhancements something P.T. Barnum would appreciate and approve of?

KF: Absolutely. P.T. Barnum understood an audience better than any human alive and he understood human nature. And today people are on a quest for information.

Sun: I don't know if you are aware that the first date the circus is in Las Vegas -- July 5 -- is actually P.T. Barnum's birthday.

KF: I did know that. Next to my birthday it's the thing I look forward to most every year.

Sun: Do you have any special plans for it?

KF: You know what I do? Every day I have what I call my "Barnum moment." I try to think like Barnum with an off-the-wall idea -- one crazy way we can enhance our business in some unorthodox method -- and I throw it out to our people.

Sun: How much of an impact has Siegfried and Roy's show had on Las Vegas entertainment?

KF: It's changed the entire blueprint of entertainment in Las Vegas. Siegfried and Roy and the show and the concept was a forerunner for every major new production that's been there; they were the predecessors of "O" and "Mystere." They are mainstays.

Sun: What about "MADhattan"? Would you have done anything differently with that show?

KF: One of the things was we got very good reviews on the show, people enjoyed it, but it did not find the mass audience that I felt it should have. I think one of the things was that there is this expectation in Vegas of a little more razzle-dazzle. I don't know that Vegas was ready for that show at that time. It's interesting, we're working on actually putting "MADhattan" back together in somewhat of a different form in the United Kingdom, (where) there's been a tremendous amount of interest.

Sun: What are some elements you look for in shows?

KF: You look to be entertained in an unexpected fashion. You know what's interesting? One of the things that, for instance, defines Siegfried & Roy -- there are other illusionists, but Siegfried & Roy have put together three or four illusions ... and then topped it off with their use of animals that make it mind-boggling; it's totally unexpected. When you think the illusion's over, there's always a kicker, there's always something else. That's something that I must say that I try to incorporate in every show.

Sun: I read where your mission is to make people forget about their cares for a few hours. Is that something you look for in all your shows?

KF: Let's face it, we're not sermonizing, we're not preaching. We want people to enjoy themselves. We want to take them to a different place for that two hours (or) two hours and 20 minutes. And if we can do that in today's world where everybody is so intense and the work ethic is so tough, I think it's a great thing. It's pretty rare that that can happen.