A REAL RINGER : Who’d Have Thought This Clown Could Command the Spotlight of the Greatest Show on Earth?

Funny, isn’t it? With all the derring-do and spectacular stunts in the current Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, the best moments are spent with a guy in goofy shoes.

A masterful mime and understated comic, David Larible (pronounced La-ree-blay), is one of few clowns to headline the well-known circus, which comes to the Anaheim Convention Center on Tuesday through Aug. 13. As seen at a recent performance at the Long Beach Arena, Larible’s acts, sprinkled throughout the 2 1/2-hour show, are a refreshing break from the three-ring sensory assault, soothing our sequin-shocked senses in ways that tickle the funny bone and tug at the heart strings. And he does it without day-glo wigs, ridiculous costumes or inflatable body parts.

We first meet Larible in the opening number. Lit by a single spotlight, he meanders into the ring; an amiable guy in a floppy suit out for a stroll. Suddenly, the music surges and a bevy of parading pachyderms, shimmying showgirls and other flashy folks thunder into view, Larible blundering wide-eyed among them. Even if his face weren’t plastered on thousands of circus promotions, you would still feel you know him. He’s that great guy at the office, or maybe your favorite grade school teacher; a regular Joe dazzled by the hoopla.

That Everyman persona is Larible’s trademark. After a handful of acts, including a three-ring cavalcade of buffalo, camels, horses, zebras and barnyard animals (more about them later), we meet him again, this time for a little one-on-one with the audience. During the 10 minutes or so that follow, he recruits viewers to star in comic bits that carry as well in a 10,000-seat arena as they would in your living room.

The 33-year-old Larible, a native of Verona, Italy, is a seventh-generation circus performer. He made his debut in the ring at 16 in Italy’s Circus Medrano, and later clowned with Swiss Circus Nock and Germany’s Circus Krone. In 1988, he won the prestigious Silver Clown award at the International Circus Festival in Monte Carlo, and earlier this year was tapped by Ringling Bros. producer Kenneth Feld to headline the 121st edition of the show.

During a recent phone interview, Larible explained how he came to involve audience members in his act. Eight years ago, while performing with Circus Krone, he had a routine in which he sent Frisbees spinning over the heads of the viewers, he said. When a Frisbee got away from him at one performance, an elderly woman caught it and attempted to throw it back into the ring. “She try so many times, people cry from laughing,” he recalled in broken English. “Finally, she takes the Frisbee and she come into the ring and give it to me. People enjoy it so much, I get the idea, ‘Why don’t I use the people every day?’ ”

The idea has been well received by audiences, said Larible.

“When I take somebody from the audience, it’s like everybody in this big arena is in the ring with me,” he explained. “It makes it more warm, more intimate.”

Elsewhere in the show, animal trainer Lisa Dufresne also strives for a homey touch with her menagerie of cows, pigs and goats that perform a variety of stunts seldom seen during your average day on the farm. Other four-legged stars include the Bogar Family’s buffalo and steer revue and Mark Oliver Gebel’s ponies, camels, horses and zebras.

In the division of derring-do, Soviet juggler Gregory Popovich bucks gravity by juggling rings and clubs while teetering atop a ladder kept vertical only by his own motion, then moves to the floor where he keeps a remarkable nine rings aloft. Animal trainer Marco Peters caps off a mixed-cat act with a spin on the “Wheel of Death” with his brother Philip and a pair of Bengal tigers. Two-wheeled artistry figures prominently in the show: motorcyclists Ivan and Noe Espana and Carlos Leal perform heart-stopping stunts in the “Globe of Death” (sense a theme here?), and the Fujian Acrobats stack an amazing 14 riders on a single, moving bicycle.

Near the end of the second act, Larible returns for a comic knife-throwing sketch, again with a volunteer.

“I always say the best clown is not the one that makes the big laugh, because you can do that in big arena in many ways--exploding props or something vulgar,” he noted. “. . . What I cherish is the quality laugh, and that every time they think of me, they smile.”

What: Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

When: Tuesday, Aug. 6, through Aug. 13.

Where: Anaheim Convention Center, 800 W. Katella Ave., Anaheim.

Whereabouts: Santa Ana (5) Freeway to Katella Ave., then go west.

Wherewithal: $8.50 to $22.50. Discount coupons available at Lucky supermarkets. All seats $4 off on Tuesday, Aug. 6.

Where to call: (714) 740-2000.