As city workers will be sweeping the streets of San Francisco and people all over the country will be recovering from their first hangovers of 1999, the New Pickle Circus will be packing up their trucks, ending their run at The Cowell Theatre on Jan. 3, 1999.

New Picklers, Pino and Razz (aka Diane Wasnak and Jeff Raz) brought Russian performers, Chinese acrobats, San Fran Mime Troupe's Amos Glick and the Pickle Jazz Band to audiences in a run that began Dec. 10, 1998.

Directed by Tandy Beal, the New Pickle Circus is part of the somewhat new brand of circuses -- featuring one-ring of action (usually dance and drama) and no animals. The trend was popularized by Canadian surrealists, Cirque du Soleil, who recently opened a new permanent show at Florida's Disneyworld.

This year's New Pickle featured Yuri and Svetlana Gololabova and their balancing act, teeterboarding and acrobatic clowning, and six Chinese acrobats (including Weng Xiao Hong, Guangyi Cai, Chun-Yan Hou, Zheng Bo, Cao Liang and Chen Feng Shun) presenting pole and hoop tricks, chair balancing, knife juggling and Chinese clown skits. Amos Glick, who trained at the San Francisco School of Circus Arts, has performed with the San Francisco Mime Troupe as well as with the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival in A Midsummer Nights Dream and Twelfth Night.

After the San Francisco run, the New Pickle Circus travels to Mountain View, Rohnert Park and Watsonville. For tickets ($24-$11) to Step Right Up!, call (415) 441-3687. The Cowell Theatre is located at the Fort Mason Center on Marina Blvd.

-- By Sean McGrath and Christine Ehren