center stage

Francesco Caballero has been juggling a lot — quite literally.

When he’s not tending to his online studies at the California Virtual Academies, the 13-year-old can be found in the circus ring — hurling bowling pins, straw hats, hollow rings and rubber balls high up in the air, all in one harmonious cycle.

But the bright-eyed teen is also balancing something far greater: a legacy. The rookie showman is proving his mettle as part of the Caballero Circus, a five-generation family of performers, by enchanting audiences with his charismatic stage presence and sharp coordination.

“My family is a circus family. That’s what they did when they were kids and it just passed on to me,” said Francesco, hours before a Wednesday night performance in Santa Ana.

Though Francesco is only a month into his journey as a traveling cast member, he pranced about the ring Wednesday with the confidence of a seasoned ringmaster. For his act, the teen juggled up to five objects at a time; as a couple of stray balls fell to his side, he swiftly picked them up and tossed them into the air, as if it were part of the script all along.

And, once the thrill wore off, Francesco marched into center stage with a small motorbike — enclosing himself in a chamber known as the “Globe of Death”: a mesh sphere where riders ramp their bikes using the power of centripetal force to loop around the Globe. He also played the trumpet.

“In order to grow as a performer and to be better, you really have to be patient,” said Caballero. “It’s not something that’s easy, that you’ll be better in like a week.”

Francesco Caballero, 13, poses for a portrait at the Caballero Circus on Wednesday, May 13, 2026, in Santa Ana.

As boldly charismatic as Caballero appeared on stage, his path to performing in the family circus was hardly clear-cut.

At the age of 3, he was diagnosed with leukemia: a cancer that causes the body to produce too many abnormal white blood cells. This made it difficult for his body to fight infections, carry oxygen and stop bleeding. He was in treatment for four years, until he finally beat cancer by age 7.

This is why his mother, Liliana, a former flying trapeze artist, felt overprotective of him when he began showing interest in the performing world — which began with a small role in the Cirque du Soleil show “The Beatles Love,” in which he played one of the Fab Four in childhood.

At first, Liliana would watch closely to make sure Francesco didn’t get tired or bruised. Yet doctors eventually assured her that physical activity for a recovering pediatric leukemia patient would be beneficial to his quality of life.

“I was against it [at first], but he was so spoiled,” said Liliana. She joked that her son, the youngest of her three children, was “mimado” — a term in Spanish used to describe someone who receives excess attention. Back in the ring, as Francesco prepared his juggling act for another night of play, she stood farther back in the stands, being an ever-observant coach.

“When he told me that he wanted to be like my family, like his grandparents, it was a great satisfaction for me,” said Liliana. “After everything we’ve been through, and still my son dreams of being in the circus, it was a huge blessing for me.”

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The Cartoon Poodles perform at the Caballero Circus on Wednesday, May 13, 2026, in Santa Ana.  (Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)

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Chicharron performs at the Caballero Circus on Wednesday, May 13, 2026, in Santa Ana.  (Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)

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Francesco Caballero, 13, juggles pins during his performance at Caballero Circus on Wednesday, May 13, 2026, in Santa Ana.  (Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)

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Nicole Caballero, 15, second from left, Gianna Rios, 8, Francesco Caballero, 13, Judith Caballero, 15, and Chicharron perform at the Caballero Circus on Wednesday, May 13, 2026, in Santa Ana.  (Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)

The Caballero circus dynasty dates back to the turn of the 20th century in Guadalajara, with Adelaida Caballero was the first in the family to practice the joyous spectacle. Her daughter, Isabel, would be the first of the Caballeros to open her own circus, as a way to earn income during the Mexican Revolution. (They allegedly entertained Pancho Villa, a well-known circus-lover, in 1916.)

During this time, circus families blossomed all over Mexico, aided by the appearance of the steamship and railway systems, as the circus historian Julio Revolledo Cárdenas would detail in a 2018 article for the Fédération Mondiale du Cirque.

However, much of the Caballero family’s performance lore begins with Isabel’s son, 82-year-old Rubén: an apparatus connoisseur well-versed in the high wire, trapeze and hand balancing. Around 1981, Rubén would bring the entire Caballero family to the United States; all eight of his children performed for the esteemed Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circuses, with the flying trapeze as their specialty act.

Two members of the Caballero family, Rubén Sr. and Rubén Jr., are also recognized for being the first to execute the quadruple somersault under the big top tent in 1985. It requires extreme faith in the opposite catcher, as much as it does for the individual flipping multiple times over — they even recorded the groundbreaking stunt for posterity’s sake, along with other home videos.

In 1995, this risky act helped the family secure the esteemed Payaso de Oro: the top prize at the International Circus Festival of Monte-Carlo, an award comparable to soccer’s Ballon d’Or or music’s Grammy. Some of the Rubén’s direct descendants would win the award once again 30 years later.

By 2000, Rubén would open his own white-and-purple tent circus, Caballero Circus, where Liliana now oversees the concession stand. Her sisters Maria and Judith manage the circus and supervise show details, respectively.

“My father’s American dream was always to run his own circus,” said Liliana.

Rubén Sr., who continues to be the patriarch of the Caballero family, is teaching his youngest grandson everything he knows. “He wants me to be better,” said Francesco.

Nicole Caballero, 15, from left in the front row, Melody Caballero, 22, Francesco Caballero, 13, and Judith Caballero, 15, at the end of the show at the Caballero Circus on Wednesday, May 13, 2026, in Santa Ana.

Now carrying the family’s torch is the fifth generation of tumbling acrobats skilled in the art of balance and flexibility. Liliana’s 15-year-old daughter, Nicole, specializes in the Globe of Death, where she gets in the locked cage with her cousin Judith, also 15; together they maneuver the motorbikes around the globe at opposing-intersecting paths. This is a skill set she takes pride in, since many in the audience assume there are men underneath the protective gear.

“Once we come out, we take our helmets out and they see girls can do it too,” said Nicole before her Wednesday performance.

Melody, host of the bilingual show, competed as a contortionist on Season 8 of “America’s Got Talent,” which aired in 2013. “ We could have the worst day of our lives, but when we step on stage, we have to have the biggest smile in the world,” said Melody.

Two of Rubén’s older sons, who married Russian acrobats during international stints, broke off and founded their own troupe as Circus Caballero. They have their own touring show stationed in Bell through May 25.

Francesco Caballero, 13, gets ready in a mirror inside a trailer at the Caballero Circus on Wednesday, May 13, 2026, in Santa Ana.

Some of the Caballero family members also compete internationally as the Flying Caballero — something the youngest Caballero member, Francesco, hopes he can work his way up to.

“ I’ve been told that they’ve been to France, to Italy, Germany, everywhere,” he said. “My primos just went to one of the most prestigious festivals in Monaco and they won first place. I wanna be like my cousins and do what they’re doing.”

Francesco might still be learning the ropes of the circus world — but before he can compete on the glamorous world stage, he must first conquer his school’s virtual talent show. On June 8, he will participate in a nationwide competition by the virtual academy K12, which will showcase student talent from across the country.

Thankfully, he will have plenty of time to practice. The Caballero Circus will station itself in Lakewood between May 22 to June 7.

“Not a lot of kids do what I do,” said Francesco. “It teaches us to connect with the public, to connect with other people.”

Wildfire and insurance — issues amped by climate change — along with the price of gas, took center stage at the California governor’s debate on Tuesday night.

Here are some of the candidates’ defining statements, starting left of the stage:

Tony Thurmond

The Democratic State Superintendent of Public Instruction addressed the state’s wildfire insurance crisis, where private insurers have been dropping policies as climate changes fuels more frequent catastrophic fire. The state has allowed insurers to raise rates in return for writing more policies, but so far its backup FAIR Plan, meant to provide coverage when other companies will not, continues to grow.

Thurmond said he would withhold tax credits, subsidies and benefits from non-cooperative insurers, although moderators and other candidates raised questions about the legality of this strategy.

“The governor can certainly work with the Insurance Commissioner to say there should be no rate increase unless the insurance industry is actually writing policies. They have failed California in our greatest need. They’ve taken the money for premiums and then when people needed to have support to rebuild their homes, they said, ‘whoops, we’re not going to help you.’ Then they got a rate increase. I’m sorry, where I come from, when you do a bad job, you don’t get a raise.”

Chad Bianco

The Republican Riverside County Sheriff said insurers aren’t leaving California because of climate change, but because the state has failed to pass and enforce vegetation management and defensible space policies that would reduce wildfire risk.

“It wasn’t global warming, stop believing that. It was a failed environmental policy that doesn’t allow fire departments to prevent defensible space around our homes or clear out the brush for 30 years that are building in our mountains and in our hills that took out a city. [Insurers] specifically said we were going to lose a city, and our governor said ‘we don’t care.’ And so the insurance companies left.”

Inadequate brush clearance has contributed to other fires in the state, although it’s not a factor experts cite in the Los Angeles fires specifically.

Tom Steyer

The Democratic billionaire hedge fund founder who is positioning himself as the climate candidate in the race, touted his drive to make oil companies pay for damages from climate change, including rising insurance rates and homes lost to wildfires.

“In environmentalism, I have three real rules. Number one is polluter pays. It’s absolutely critical that if people are going to pollute and damage the environment and cause harm to their neighbors, they pay. Two, we have to include environmental justice in every single environmental rule. And third is we need to start to deploy all of the clean energy stuff that’s cheaper now and get us back to the front of the world in leading it.

“There is one person that the corporations are going after, including Big Oil, who is spending millions of dollars to stop me. The electric monopolies, PG&E, millions of dollars to stop me, because I’m the person on this stage who’s the change agent.”

Steve Hilton

The former Republican Fox News commentator said insurers should be allowed to raise rates consistent with actual wildfire risk. He also advocated for “modern forest management,” removing fuel from forests, as a way to protect against wildfires, reduce carbon emissions from fire, and revive the state’s timber industry.

“We can create jobs and opportunity in rural California and reduce carbon emissions in the process, because we won’t have the mega wildfires.”

Asked if he supports the transition to electrification, he promoted natural gas: “Yes, but let’s be sensible about electric. Right now, we have a fleet of gas fired power stations generating electricity that are running at 10 to 15% of their capacity, even though we have abundant natural gas in California that we could be using to generate affordable, reliable electricity that would lower the cost of electric bills for consumers and businesses.”

According to the U.S Energy Information Administration, California’s natural gas production provides less than one tenth of what the state consumes.

Xavier Becerra

The former Health and Human Services Secretary said he would call a state of emergency as governor to require wildfire insurers to freeze rates and come to the table.

“This affordability crisis is hitting every family, and we have to act as if this were a break glass moment … Rate payers have to understand what their risk is, so they understand why they are going to pay for what they’re going to pay for their home insurance. But an insurance company has to be open and transparent about how its pricing its policies so people can afford it.”

Moderator Julie Watts noted that California home insurance rates are below the national average and questioned the legality of a freeze.

Katie Porter

The former Democratic Orange County Congresswoman was asked whether California should keep its refineries. Two of them closed in the past year, reducing the state’s refining capacity by 20 percent and causing California to lean more heavily on imports.

She said the state should keep the remaining refineries open, but also rapidly scale up green energy to meet the state’s growing electricity demand: “Right now we need to keep all of our energy sources online. That’s just the reality that we’re in. … Right now those refineries, they’re up, they’re running, they’re creating good jobs. Let’s keep them there. But I want to be really clear … The people who work at those refineries, and the people who live in Kern County also face some of the worst pollution and lower life expectancies. Green energy gets us out of that.”

She also backed an idea to have state dollars cover insurance for insurers, known as reinsurance.

Matt Mahan

Democratic San Jose Mayor called to suspend the state’s 61 cent-per-gallon gas tax, used to fund road repairs, bridges, and public transport. The state is looking at a $216.4 billion revenue shortfall over the next decade due to increasing fuel economy and electric vehicles. The other Democratic candidates support keeping the tax; Mahan has instead proposed a flat fee on all vehicles.

He said: “I’m the only candidate on this stage who has pledged to suspend and then reform the gas tax. It is the most regressive tax in California. Working people, rural people, are spending three times as much maintaining our roads as wealthier EV owners.”

On the wildfire insurance crisis he said: “The government in Sacramento created so many restrictions, including taking over a year to approve any rate changes, prohibiting insurance companies from using climate data to project future costs, that they stopped writing new policies. The answer is bring them back, force them to compete, allow them to appropriately price risk, and then hold government accountable for maintaining our wildland, reducing all that vegetation and wildfire risk so that we don’t have these catastrophic fires.”

Antonio Villaraigosa

The former Democratic L.A. mayor expressed his concerns with the readiness of the state’s infrastructure to support a transition to electric vehicles.

“We need an all of the above strategy that understands we’ve got to transition from oil and gas to renewables. But here’s an example: the 2035 mandate [to ban gas-powered car sales]. We built 167,000 charging stations in the last 10 years. We need 2 million more to get to that mandate, and if we build them, we don’t have a grid. So we ought to build the grid instead of arguing about whether or not we need an all-of-the-above policy.”

Brothers Leo and Oliver Kremer visited karaoke spots around the globe and almost always had the same impression.

“The drinks weren’t always great, the aesthetics weren’t always so glamorous, the sound wasn’t always awesome and the lights were often generic,” says Leo, a former bassist of the band Third Eye Blind.

As devout karaoke fans, they wanted to level up the experience. So they dreamed up Mic Drop, an upscale karaoke lounge in West Hollywood that opens Thursday. It’s located inside the original Larrabee Studios, a historic 1920s building formerly owned by Carole King and her ex-husband, Gerry Goffin — and the spot where King recorded some of her biggest hits. Third Eye Blind band members Stephan Jenkins and Brad Hargreaves are investors of the new venue.

Inside the two-story, 6,300-square-foot venue with 13 private karaoke rooms and an electrifying main stage, you can feel like a rock star in front of a cheering audience. Want to check it out? Here are six things to know.

The Kremer brothers hired sculptor Shawn HibmaCronan to create an 8-foot-tall disco-themed microphone for their karaoke lounge.

1. Take your pick between a private karaoke experience or the main stage

A unique element of Mic Drop is that it offers both private karaoke rooms and a main stage experience for those who wish to sing in front of a crowd. The 13 private rooms range from six- to 45-person capacity. Each of the karaoke rooms are named after a famous recording studio such as Electric Lady, Abbey Road, Shangri La and of course, Larrabee Studios. There is a two-hour minimum on all rentals and hourly rates depend on the room size and day of the week.

But if you’re ready to take the center stage, it’s free to sing — at least technically. All you have to do is pay a $10 fee at the door, which is essentially a token that goes toward your first drink. Then you can put your name on the list with the KJ (karaoke jockey) who keeps the crowd energized throughout the night and even hits the stage at times.

Harrison Baum, left, of Santa Monica, and Amanda Stagner, 27, of Los Angeles, sing in one of the 13 private karaoke rooms.

2. Thumping, high sound quality was a top priority

As someone who toured the world playing bass for Third Eye Blind, top-tier sound was a nonnegotiable for Leo. “Typically with karaoke, the sound is kind of teeny, there’s not a lot of bass and the vocal is super hot and sitting on top too much,” he says. To combat this, he and his brother teamed up with Pineapple Audio, an audio visual company based in Chicago, to design their crisp sound system. They also installed concert-grade speakers and custom subwoofers from a European audio equipment manufacturer called Celto, and bought gold-plated Sennheiser wireless microphones, which they loved so much that they had an 8-foot-tall replica made for their main room. Designed by artist Shawn HibmaCronan, the “macrophone,” as they call it, has roughly 30,000 mirror tiles. “It spins and throws incredible disco light everywhere,” says Leo.

Karaoke jockeys Sophie St. John, 27, second from left, and Cameron Armstrong, 30, right, get the crowd involved with their song picks at Mic Drop.

3. A concert-level performance isn’t complete without good stage lighting and a haze machine

Each karaoke room features a disco ball and dynamic lighting that syncs up with whatever song you’re singing, which makes you feel like you are a professional performer. There’s also a haze machine hidden under the leather seats. Meanwhile, the main stage is concert-ready with additional dancing lasers and spotlights.

Brett Adams, left, of Sherman Oaks, and Patrick Riley of Studio City sing karaoke together inside a private lounge at Mic Drop.

4. The song selection is vast, offering classics and new hits

One of the worst things that can happen when you go to karaoke is not being able to find the song you want to sing. At Mic Drop, the odds of this happening are slim to none. The venue uses a popular karaoke service called KaraFun, which has a catalog of more than 600,000 songs (and adds 400 new tracks every month), according to its website. Take your pick from country, R&B, jazz, rap, pop, love duets and more. (Two newish selections I spotted were Raye’s “Where Is my Husband” and Olivia Dean’s “Man I Need,” which both released late last year.) In the private karaoke rooms, there’s also a fun feature on Karafun called “battle mode,” which allows you and your crew of up to 20 people to compete in real time. KaraFun also has an entertaining music trivia game, which I tested out with the founders and came in second place.

The design inspiration for Mic Drop was 1920s music lounges and 1970s disco culture, says designer Amy Morris.

5. The interiors are inspired by 1920s music lounges mixed with ‘70s disco vibes

A disco ball hangs from the ceiling.

If you took the sophisticated aesthetic of 1920s music lounges and mixed it with the vibrant and playful era of 1970s disco culture, you’d find Mic Drop.

When you walk into the lounge, the first thing you’ll see is a bright red check-in desk that resembles a performer’s dressing room with vanity lights, several mirrors and a range of wigs. “So much of karaoke is about getting into character and letting go of the day, so we had the idea to sell the wigs,” says Oliver. As you continue into the lounge, the focal point is the stage, which is adorned with zebra-printed carpet and dramatic, red velvet curtains. For seating, slide into the red velvet banquettes or plop onto a gold tiger velvet stool. Upstairs, you’ll find the intimate karaoke studios, which are decorated with red velvet walls and brass, curved doorways that echo the building’s deco arches, says Mic Drop’s interior designer, Amy Morris of the Morris Project.

Sarah Rothman, center, of Oakland, and friend Rachel Bernstein, left, of Los Angeles, wait at the bar.

6. You can order nontraditional karaoke bites as you wait for your turn to sing

While Mic Drop offers some of the food you’d typically find at a karaoke lounge such as tater tots, truffle popcorn and pizza, the venue has some surprising options as well. For example, a 57 gram caviar service (served with chips, crème fraîche and chives) and shrimp cocktail from Santa Monica Seafood. For their pizza program, the Kremer brothers teamed up with Avalou’s Italian Pizza Company, which is run by Louis Lombardi who starred in “The Sopranos.” He’s the brainchild behind my favorite dish, the Fuhgeddaboudit pizza, which is made with pastrami, pickles and mustard. It might sound repulsive, but trust me.

As for the cheeky cocktails, they are all named after famous musicians and songs such as the Pink Pony Club (a tart cherry pomegranate drink with vodka named after Chappell Roan), Green Eyes (a sake sour with kiwi and melon named after Green Day) and Megroni Thee Stallion (an elevated negroni named after Megan Thee Stallion).