Performing in the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey’s “Zing Zang Zoom, Gold Edition” tour is a family affair for Jodie Urias.

She and her husband, Erwin, her brother-in-law, Melvin, and his fianc/e, Olga Surnina, have an act called The Urias Family Globe of Steel in which they ride motorcycles inside a 16-foot diameter steel cage.

“We ride at 55 miles per hour,” she said. “We go crisscross, upside down, zig-zag patterns. I stand in the middle.”

Family is also a factor for circus “thrillusionist” David DaVinci, who performs illusions and transformation – including an attempt to escape a straitjacket while suspended three stories in the air above a den of lions – with his wife and lead assistant, Jamie.

“It’s amazing. We’ve been married six years, nine months and 12 days,” DaVinci said, laughing. “We work together to achieve a common goal. Not many people can say they turn their wives into lions.”

It’s a partnership that takes a lot of trust, DaVinci said.

“If the timing is off, someone can get hurt,” he said. “You don’t get that from working with anybody.”

People can see the performers and more at the circus at 7 p.m. Friday; 11 a.m., 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday; and 1 p.m. Sunday at E.A. Diddle Arena at Western Kentucky University. Tickets are $15 and $20, with limited seating available for $25 VIP and $30 for VIP floor seats. Kids tickets are $10. An All Access Pre-show where people can meet the performers and animals will be an hour before each show. Pre-show is free to all ticketholders.

“We want it to be something families can afford to do and still have a memorable experience,” Jodie Urias said.

DaVinci began experimenting with magic at a young age as a way to not compete with his older brother, who was good at sports. He began playing with a magic kit his brother received for Christmas.

“I started experimenting with different tricks. It became this new obsession for me. I did my first show in fifth grade,” he said. “I could challenge myself and compete with myself. It was a way to express my creativity without competing with my brother.”

Getting an illusion ready for the show isn’t a quick process. In fact, it takes a two-year gestation period from the time an idea is created to the time the audience sees a one-minute, 30-second illusion on stage, DaVinci said.

“It will start with me hearing a song on the radio. Then I create an idea based on the music,” he said. “I do a drawing on a napkin. I send it to my creative team, and they turn it into a rendering.”

DaVinci looks at his illusions from many different angles to keep everything fresh for audiences.

“I ask, ‘How do I make the experience brand new, something they’ve never seen before?’ ” he said.

DaVinci also performs with 10 birds, including an African Grey, a Blue Throated Macaw, Rose Breasted Cockatoos and Camelot Macaws.

“I get to work with exotic birds. They’ve been to 20 countries with me,” he said. “Most people don’t get to see these animals fly. They’re so majestic when they fly through the air.”

Jodie Urias said for this performance, her family will do an aerial stunt that has never been done in circus history. This required the building of a new globe. The family still owns and uses her husband’s great-grandfather’s original globe, which will be 100 years old in 2012.

“My husband is a fourth-generation circus performer. His great-grandfather innovated the act we do now,” she said. “We used it until we did the new stunt.”

Rehearsal is ongoing for the family, Urias said.

“We practice every week. You don’t just get enough with your performance. The timing has to be there,” she said. “A gymnast can’t go to the Olympics and not have tons of practice time. You can lose your stamina and abilities and have no opportunity to grow and progress.”

Urias said their children are home-schooled and travel with the group, making it truly a family adventure.

“Every city we go to has something historical that we can take our kids to. We get to live in a little bit of history,” she said. “We make it fun, but at the same time they’re learning history. If we just read it to the kids from books, it would feel like school. Our kids appreciate everything every city has to offer.”

— For more information, call 800-524-4733 or visit www.ringling.com.