Flying Funny: My Life Without a Net

The unusual, gravity-defying first act of improvisational theater's founding father - now in paperbackDudley Riggs didn't have to run away from home to join the circus.Home was the circus. Son of the acclaimed aerial flyers Riggs and Riggs, he made his circus debut as a polar prince parading in a wagon pulled by a polar bear.At the age of five, he graduated to a risqué vaudeville act during the circus off- season; at eight, he outgrew his cutes (and his child stardom) and joined his high-flying parents on the trapeze.Eventually he had to learn to "fly funny" because he grew too tall to fly straight.In one way or another, Riggs has been flying ever since. The rest, as they say, is history. And what a story it is. In Flying Funny, Riggs shares many highs and lows while describing circus life and the evolution of America's popular entertainment during the twentieth century.From his early life in circus and vaudeville to his creation of the Brave New Workshop, we see how his show business