SUNDAY OUT OFTHE PAST: Cirque du Soleil’s Intensely Creative Kurios Works Overtime to Win Us Back: Give Them High Marks for Trying ...

Where are they now?  So much time has passed.  Let me take you back to 2014

 
Circus Review
Cirque du Soleil - Kurios
San Francisco, December 5

In its most infections frames, what the latest offering from Cirque du Soliel seems the most happy doing is simply dancing.  Being a little goofy and off axis juggling and tumbling, making magic and riding upside-down bicycles — and dancing.  It's happy heart is that of a free spirited Italian variety show romping through the streets of Rome.  Fellini would have loved filming it all.

The agreeable spirit of quirky invention can make the more standard circus turns (two of them attached to lifelines) seem a tad secondary, or make that obligatory (a touch of Corteo comes to mind).   Even slightly passe, as if we have somehow left the big top rather than entered it, and are on our way for other worlds to conquer and charm. The attractive revelers, who engage more directly with the audience this time around, have a ball cavorting about on ingenious rigging devices that lift and drop them with terrific force and agility.

Directed by Michel Laprise, the party begins at the wacky control panels of a whimsically mad-scientist character, who is very funny just to watch waddling about, puttering through a maze of gadgets, turning knobs to test lights, ridding oddball contraptions to prove his obscure genius – all of which gives the company ample sanction to flex its abundant creativity.  That’s about the gist of the first half.

It is not until after a long intermission, only lacking a pony ride to make the merchandising orgy complete (there is free water this year, but no cups – they cost a buck), that Kurios turns itself into a high powered circus spectacular, and here the Montreal monster proves that it can still rise gloriously to the occasion when it has to, as here it surely must.  Public patronage has been ominously on the decline in recent seasons, a fact even acknowledged by the Cirque King himself.

First to soar are troupe exploits over a super-large trampoline, followed by a couple of fellows working straps in a clean efficient fashion.  After more audience clowning and dancing, and a rather drawn out finger puppet show, big top gusto resumes on the ground, where the company develops vaulting acrobatics in fantastically thrilling ways.  Much too marvelously complicated to explain, nor have I at hand a program to name names.  On principal, I refused to invest $20 in one. 

So, whatever you may think of the part that came before the break (I recall a blur of phantasmagorical stage pictures) , you are sure to go out singing at least half the show’s praises.  And the captivating special effects alone may haunt your imagination.   There were a large number of kiddies in the audience who sounded tickled.   I keep thinking movie.  I also keep thinking another cinematic bomb.   Antonioni might get it right.   Is he still alive?

On film, it would certainly be far easier to take in and comprehend.  When Kurios is working its many optical illusions, it is a campaign that demands meticulous attention, which can make being a patron to this party a bit of a workout, doubly so if your view is partially blocked by one of the four imposing tent poles – or if you are not particularly fond of craning your neck to peer deeply into a cosmos through an opening at the top of the tent. Bring binoculars.

Another question mark in my mind is the featured clown, who took up plenty of time with the audience being enormously clever and drawing ample laughter, or so I heard. Yes, it's that kind of a circus, too.

This is the Cirque du Soleil that some of its most devoted critics are calling the “comeback" edition, perhaps responding to Guy Laliberte's promise to return the company to its roots.  Strange, this is hardly a return to the ingenious simplicity that marked the company's first efforts under a smaller tent with virtually no special effects.  Kurios is really an extension of a habit for ever more clever high-tech stage wizardry that the Cirque King can't seem to break himself of.

So as for “comeback,”  I’m not so sure.  And given the swaths of empty chairs under a fairly near-full tent pitched in a city perhaps best suited by liberal bent to embrace what is on parade at the moment — San Francisco may not be so sure, either.

Overall rating (out of 4 stars tops):  3 stars      

First posted: 12.13.14   

1.26,26: Founder and Creative Guide Guy Laliberte (the John Ringling North of his time)  sold 90% of his stock  to TPG Capital and Fosum  in  April, 2015.  And that may have marked a critical turning point in the show's checkered history. Kurios, whose rousing second half still  resonates with me, was probably the last Cirque show I saw.  I remember walking out of the tent in San Francisco, across a cold Giant's baseball parking lot, and quibbling about it, and then asking myself, but how did it make you feel? Yes, yes it did! -- it sent me floating out of the tent. I am reminded of the defining  role the man at the top plays. The last Cirque show I saw may well have been the last one that the Cirque King himself produced.

SHOWBIZ DAVID'S FIRST CIRQUE DU SOLEIL REVIEW

In 1987, I was in good stead with Variety, having been a free-lance contributor to the "bible of showbiz" for fifteen years, filing occasional circus reviews and major state-of-the-circus reports in their annual  January anniversary issues. That year, in the 226 page edition, I profiled three circus producers --- Paul Binder, Kenneth Feld, and Cliff Vargas --- under Variety's heading, Big Tops Back in Form. 

Eight months later came a new circus to Los Angeles from Canada, making its first appearance in the states, in-fact anywhere outside the country.  I watched the show in Japan town, and sent off this notice.  Not a word has been changed here. 

Circus Review          Special for Variety

by David Lewis Hammarstrom

Cirque Du Soleil, Guy Laliberete, President and General Manager Guy Caron, Artistic DirectorRene Dupere, Composer; Benoit Jutras, Music Director Luc Lafortune, Lighting Designer;; Andre Caron, Set Designer Michel, Costume Designer, Richard Bouthillier; Technical Director; Debbie Brown, Choreography Michel Barette, Ringmaster Features Marc Proulx and The Children; Benny Le Grand, Catitan Cactus, Amelie Demay and Eric Varelas, Masha Dimitri, Christopher Suszek, Luc Dagenais, Roch Justrus, Alain Gautheir, Andre St. Jean, Nathalie Sabourin, Nicolas Dupere, The Andrews, The Shao Family, Denis Lacomee ,At the Los Angeles Arts Festival, September 7 (1987). $17.50 top.

 And from so tiny a tent, oh what wonders filled it!

One of the hottest tickets of the Los Angeles Arts Festival, Cirque Du Soleil is a wow of a show and the talk of the town.  The youthful company, based — along with a burgeoning circus school — in Montreal, and sponsored by Canadian Airlines International, offers a revelation of the infinite viability of circus art.  They take it to new heights with deft creative direction incorporating a bold original score played on synthesizer, a sax and drums. Dry ice effects and fine lighting schemes add further to the magic and mystery of the performance.  Unlike some other companies, which have undertaken to “reinvent’ the circus along similar lines but have failed for lack of real talent, this organization has at its core a number of gifted performers.  Together, they make it work, and results are fairly miraculous.  Sometimes she show resembled a stark sensual ballet, other times a hip video in the making

Massive government aid and backing, combined with hefty corporate and private donations, has no doubt helped   So, too, has the extraordinary artistic vision of the company, lead by director Guy Caron.  The program is woven around a scenario of simple charm that has a group of locals — grotesquely masked — wandering into the tent to discover they are at a circus..  They take advantage of the audience by indulging their own amateur antics until, through a misty surface, the actual circus stars emerge. Some of the locals are transformed into participants, one of them becoming the ringmaster, another, the lady on the stack-wire.  When it's over, the ringmaster is turned back to himself, the common man, but given the hat to take with him as a souvenir. He sauntered off enchanted, having lived out a wonderful fantasy.

What happens along the way is a theatrically  wrought circus, the program skillfully assembled so that each act seems to top the previous.   In the first half, Christopher Suszek and his acrobatic associates offer entertaining gymnastics on tables and chairs.  A group of teeterboard tumblers enter dressed as penguins, and effect some novel movements off the springboards, all the while sustaining a sort of penguin strut.  Masha Dimitri wins high plaudits with her work on the slack wire, manipulating an umbrella in the tip of her foot.   Her number is backed by several dancers, and by the enthusiastic antics of Marc Proulx, a magical jester-like character who dances and tumbles through the show, striking poses at the opportune moment to intensify audience reception.

The second half builds further, Eric Varela and Adelie Damay starting off with a head and hand balancing act, marvelously placed in context of a tango production number.  The two demonstrate a finesse and accuracy, not a single motion wasted, normally associated with Chinese artistry.  Show’s one aerial number, presented originally by Andrew Watson and Jacqueline Williams, is a cradle act of spellbinding novelty, only the payoff being a standard cloud swing breakaway.  Then, to whip up a rousing conclusion, come the Zhao Family, trick cycling wizards, augmented effectively by more cyclist from the company at large. The thirteen person pyramid on a moving bicycle is a marvel to behold.

Given the show's remarkable overall standards, one could argue that the mechanics (safety wires) used during the table and chair number are out of place.  And they are.  One could also argue that the clowns, Catitan Cacitus and Benny Le Grand, are only very good, being a mischievous blend in a broad, bawdy way, and delivering some funny enough spoofs of, among others, escape illusionists to Karate Kings. There’s also the hilarious example of Denis LaCombe, satirizing an overly frenetic, half smashed musical conductor at the podium.

The score is a fabulous accomplishment, a rich and varied jazz/rock fusion ever sensitive  to the changing moods. Michel Barrette is a charming ringmaster, unconventional in the sense of not announcing all the acts. That would bot be proper considering the dramatic fluidity of the program. It’s undeniably affecting as an epic entertainment event, and it proves what a superior art form circus can be especially when it draws from other forms to glorify its own essential magic. Cirque du Soleil, which has only been in operation for four mere seasons, is already a company of world class stature that bears watching closely.  It’s likely to have an impact on the way others circuses are produced and directed, and on the way they’re perceived by the public.

                                  End    

 

Variety dd not respond to my submission, and so, after taking in another performance of the show in Santa Monica, I sent them a slightly revised version of the review, toned down a little. Still not even a simple rejection note from their end. My best guess was to wonder if the lavish advertising the Felds were spending on Variety for full-page and gorgeous wrap-a-round ads had anything to do with it.This marked my last submission. The magazine was undergoing management upheavals and would gradually focus in on movies, television, and Broadway. Oh, too have "the bible" back as it once was!

2025 - YEAR OF THE DOG? Random Reflections on a Mediocre Circus Season --- Good, Bad, and Maybe

 Wat exactly should I be reporting on?

“Circus,” as defined by Webster’s 10th: 

An arena often covered with a tent and used for avariety shows including feats of physical skill, wild animal acts and performances by clowns. 

 I wonder if the new 12th edition has been revised to read: 

A word used by a wide variety of traveling acrobatic troupes that sometimes include animals and/or clowns.

Would this not be as accurate as was the older definition? 

We are adrift in a sea of circus show variations, which makes watching and reviewing them a challenge. I see no clear unifying thread relative to the season now ending, so I will asterisk away, first taking the time to thank Don Covington and Alex Smith, on this side of the pond, Douglas McPherson on the other, for helpfully sending me numerous news and feature items through the year. Okay, in no particular order .

* WHO OWNS BIG APPLE CIRCUS? Never in my days of circus going have  I not known the name(s) of those who owned every show I followed or read about.  Paul Binder's gift to New Yorkers seems to have devolved into a tangle of owners and venture capitalists, once if not still Sarasota based,  known as Compass Partners. If only one of them had a compass pointing to successful full season operation.

* A KING DISPOSED? Another dysfunctionally out-of-order curiosity  is the Wisconsin Historical Society, now owner of Circus World Museum. They let CEO Scott McDonnell, above, go, and then to replace him,  hired and, a few months later, fired Julie Parkinson.  When I spoke with Scott, he lent the impression of a conflict with his new overlords at the State Historical Society over future directions and goals for the museum. Why Oh Why?

* BLOOD OVER HUGO; Two tragic deaths in a single season. Traci Byrd allegedly shot dead by her boyfriend, Armando Caceras, he reportedly the prime suspect.  Worse yet, tiger trainer Ryan Easley, only 37, mauled to death by one of his tigers in September. My deepest sympathies to Ryan’s family and to the folks  of Hugo.   

                              
* BAFFLING ZOPPE NO-SHOW.  Little Ilario Zoppe, heretofore a gifted clown, this year not making an appearance until the very end of a so-so show, and not in greasepaint. He’s being trained in hand and foot balancing.  Why oh Why? I waited to see both him and his brother, Julien, and was stood up. Their absence left a hole in  a thin program. Makes no sense whatsoever. 

               
* L0SS OF A WONDERFUL BIG TOP BOSS,  Johnny Pugh,  February 17.   I never met the man, but was lucky to interview him by phone. Talk about warm and caring.  A  swell down-to-earth guy — heck, the nicest guy who ever ran a circus? Born in the Kennington district of London to showman John "Digger" Pugh, John came to the states as an acrobat,  and  would help save the Beatty-Cole show.  He also served as a judge for Prince Rainier's Monte Carlo Circus Festival.  What a pleasure it is to watch YouTubes of Beatty-Cole in the 1980s, during that last great American circus decade.  Even through the gauze of crowds streaming down the track during  the first displays, action in and over the rings keeps  us completely satisfied.  Circus straight ahead. It always starts with and comes from the person at the top.

* FINDING BIG STARS UNDER LITTLE TENTS.  Rarely am I not wowed by one or two.  Happened this past year when You Tube rolled Flip Circus my way, a name new to me.  Two standouts:   A fellow scaling and body-contorting up and down a Chinese pole, so refreshingly novel an attack. And on the same bill, two dashing jugglers working a brilliantly inventive routine — even with too many flubs. I wold gladly pay to see them again.  
 

MAYHEM IN GLOBES OF DEATH, from Rome to America. I’d never known of a single accident over here. But, as scrupulously researched by Douglas McPherson, turns out it can and has happened to motorcycling daredevils madly circling each other. A few riders over time have not come out alive. At least one this past year, in Italy, and four non-fatal crashes in the UK.  Broken bones and dead bodies sustain in the public's mind the element of risk at the circus. And their popularity tells us that the crowds still want risk.

* ONLY IN SAN FRANCISCO   Circus Bella, a free summer show at Bay Area parks featuring local talent, turns into Club Bella in December under a 300 seat designer tent, as suave as what might pass for cinema in space.  How I’d love to experience it, but not at prices ranging from fifty to eighty bucks. I’ll wait for grass. Sadly, the show's exceptionally talented composer and musical director Rob Reich, 47, passed away earlier this year.  He and his band gave the show one undeniably world class attribute. He could have been a giant -- when circuses were giants.

Out, Damn Cirque! 

 * CIRQUE DU MYSTIFY:  Funniest found quote, shuffling through old papers, this from Lyn Gardner of The Guardian, in a 2008 review of OVO:  "I know plenty of people who would quite happily pay me not to sit through a Cirque du Soleil show." (Her one-star review of the exhausting Cirque yawner, Amluna --- I gave it a grudging 2), resulted in the Montreal monster revoking her press pass.)  I myself loved the first CDS shows, but now, a survivor of too many plodding latter-period duds, I have tittle desire to face the dark existential gloom of ECHO, now emoting to the perfect town for such, San Francisco. I suffered through its tyranny on my flat screen. Maybe it's something about the human figure being turned into abstract body parts.  Maybe a primer on group suicide?

 * DANCE ON, ZIPPOS!  Never have I seen hoofers  at a circus carry on as if they were on Broadway and choreographed by the best. In this instance, favoring the contortionesque patterns  of Bob Fosse. What a revelation.  Called  Candyland 2024, from Zippos in the UK.  See for yourself on You Tube.

* DOGS R US.  And never more so than when a circus comes to town.  You can take this sprightly charmer out of the ring, but you'll never take the ring out of its heart.  Even Kenneth Fled couldn't resist himself in a wimpy cave to a robotic mutt he calls Bailey.  The lone figure of real circus was such a hit with customers that  Feld is giving Bailey more to do in New Ringling S2. (see more about this in my post below.)  If  performing dogs can win TV competitions before millions, what's to stop  even our most timidly temporizing owners from granting the audience that which it clearly adores and has few "issues" with? 

 *  DOGS STEAL THE SHOW AT BIG APPLE CIRCUS --- only act on the current bill reviewed by The New York  Times. Yes, true, confirmed and certified by cyber courier  Don Covington.  The honor goes to Olate's capering canines, who had previously won first place --- and one millions dollars ---on America's Got Talent 2019. And what, might I indiscriminately inquire, does this say for the rest?  The Times hates to review circuses in the negative.  Inexplicably, they ignored New Ringling.  

 * FANFARE AND FAREWELL   How sad was I to learn, from Maureen Brunsdale, that she is leaving her post at Illinois State University, where she oversaw their circus holdings.  Health reasons, the cause. So lucky was I when I queried her back in 2011 on taking my papers and interview tapes under he aegis.  She, unlike a number of unmovable others, said yes with a glow on her face (or so that’s how it felt.)  I can’t think of a more stable or appropriate place for my work to reside.  Colleges are not subject to disruptions and fire sales. Maureen landed the Henry Ringling North papers and the massive 250,000-items collection of Herb Ueckert.  She authored the eagerly received bio of Art Concello, In the Shadow of the Big Top, for which, The Circus Historical Society awarded her their Stuart Thayer Prize. I will forever miss her.

* ILLINOIS DAVID?  My first circus review was set into type at the Hohenadel  Print Shop in Rochelle, publisher of The White Tops. In Champaign, the University of Illinois Press published my most successful book,  Big Top Boss: John Ringling North and the Circus.  And now, my papers will reside in Normal. Bless you, Maureen, for taking them in, and may you find rewarding new subjects to write about in the next chapter of your life. 

2808 1.18.26 

DID YOU KNOW?.... A Tragic Loss, Ryan Easley, 37, Fatally Attacked by Tiger in September

A total shocking surprise to me, this happened only two months ago.  

From TMZ 

"An associate of "Tiger King" star Joe Exotic was attacked by a tiger during a show in Oklahoma earlier this year ... and now TMZ has learned the official cause of death.

According to the Tulsa Medical Examiner, Ryan Easley died from blunt force, sharp force, and crushing injuries ... due to tiger mauling."

A tragedy I will long rue, having admired Ryan's work at Kelly-Miller Circus.

HERE'S ONE FOR THE DOGS: They're "Stealing the Show" at Big Apple Circus, Reports The New York Times ... Hey, Ringling! Here's How to Make a Miraculous Trans-Canine Return

Ah,  how I love a good old fashioned real circus. Legit circus. True circus. Circus Circus!

As I have  written here, show me a dog and and I'll call you a  circus.  Well, Big Apple, YOU ARE CIRCUS. May the timid tenters out there, and they know who they are, follow suit and let some of our beloved animals back in.  

Feld of Felds, have you the guts to lead the way? Where is your courage?  Man Up, Circus Up! and let the circus back in the circus.  "Bailey" your bot is a pitiful symbol of self-evisceration.  A sad far cry from robust showmanship the world expected of Ringling .Is this how you want to be remembered?  Here is how to make Bailey the key to a true comeback.

I have the perfect story line, Disney be damned: Bailey accidentally spots some real circus mutts somewhere and is so excited, he longs to be like them.  Barks for his freedom from metal, for a trans-canine makeover.  Lights go dark, drum rolls, crashing symbols, and a great circus parade invades the arena.  Bailey is  leading it!  The excitement is so great, that he is inspired to do more things, more and more and then struggles, apparently up against mechanical restraint. Is he still really?  Miracle of miracles, lights down and up in blazing glory.  Bailey is now a REAL DOG.  

Crowds go wild!  The Gods of Circus sing Hallelujah!  And in parade the five Ringling brothers, John Ringling North and Irvin  Feld. 

WAITING FOR GODOT IN A PUP TENT? ... Celebrating Portable Amusements --- Carnie layouts to Irish Theater Fit-ups ...

              Laying down The Whip, at the fairgrounds in Santa Rosa.  

In my compulsively creative boyhood, the discovery at the county fairgrounds of how Foley & Burk carnival wagons were spotted and unloaded to form midway attractions utterly fascinated me. Rides went up in  portable sections. Wood frames for games were raised, joined together by open hinges, and covered in canvas.

My pet wagon was a quaint little thing when I first laid eyes on it, parked in front of the fairgrounds entrance.  What was it for? A few comical images and a small scrim I could barely see through posed a mystery.  When the wagon was spotted on the midway, its sides raised to form a two story structure, Thimble Theater appeared at the top. I was taken.  Had. Seduced. With the dark walk-through on the top floor, it would become my all  time favorite carnival amusement. 

Actually, Fun on the Farm, its manufactured name at birth, was trans-fashioned by Foley & Burk to feature comics characters out of the 1930s. Working parts powered animated images of them on the front facades, and within, rotating floor sections that produced the most wonderful grinding sounds. 

Infected with wagon-based zeal, I started out with my very portable red Radio Flyer wagon, a Christmas gift.  Once, I turned it into a covered wagon, another time, a cool aid concession .  And I built the portable frame for a fun house in the front yard, under scorching July heat.  Covered it with old rugs my mother had thrown out.  Shortly thereafter, the fire department paid us a courtesy visit. My most formidable creation was condemned before it could even open!

I can't remember what I was trying to bring off here.

Me with Tippy, and Patches our cat, sister Kathy to the left, brother Dick to the right..

Blame this portable blather on an unexpected article, Hollywood on Wheels, by Douglas McPherson in London, writing for The Stage. The subject is Fit-ups, as they were called in the UK, a tradition dating  back to at least 1839.  In a land of playwright giants (Becket, Synge, Shaw, Wilde, O’Casey)  ironically, there were pitifully few stages  upon which to play  Waiting for Godot in a pup tent?   This lead to Fit–up touring troupes that brought their own flats and drops, and proscenium arches, fitted them  in open spaces,  on village and school hall stages, to keep the show going.  Young actors and writers, toiling in Fit-ups (Harold Pinter, one),  were better prepared, I am supposing, to be less critical of “professional theater” working conditions.

My puppet shows went on tour, too. At Luther Burbank Elementary, I was asked to present a  show from from classroom to classroom up and down the halls. This called for the fitting-up genius of my.Uncle Teddy,  who designed and built for me a portable stage. With my record-player sound man, Ross Begley, we loaded it out on my Radio Flyer, and rolled it to school one morning. We were a big hit! 

In the smallest of wee Irish towns, you could watch a different Shakespeare play almost every night, and on Sundays, be tickled by comedies, like The Importance of Being Ernest. On portable screens, flickering images of Rudolph Valentino and Charlie Chaplin charmed the simple masses. These road shows, about 60 in number at their peak, thrived into thee 1960s.  And then came television.  

 

In recent times, reports McPherson,  Fit Ups are making something of a charming little come back.  He quotes Geoff Gould who “was raised on tales of the fit ups by his mother and father,” throwing up his own company, Blood in the Alley (handball games), sixteen years ago.  Still on the road, they are spreading their brand of mayhem in halls, pubs, tents and in the open.

My model building, photo above, honors some of my favorite rides.  

Today’s portable amusements may be better engineered and easier to set up.  I’ll take yesterday’s very visible moving parts.  Their sweaty rise over a dry field of grass and weed. The grinding rumble of the shifting floors in the Thimble Theater. Oh, what a fabulous soundtrack.  What a fun house – human hands all the way!

And that’s a fitting wrap

3390 

Ken Burns on PBS, AD NAUSEAM ...

I have a love-hate relationship with Ken Burns. He can be straight forward. He can be  sanctimonious. I found his Vietnam War to be brilliant through and through. It had narrative thrust.

Now comes, or plods, The American Revolution (or Evolution),  and I am wondering if it took as long to happen as it does here on PBS (Pledge Break Society).  I loved the first episode, and was high and riding high ... Into the second and ... Replay now or later? .. Oh what else is there to watch???  I'm not defaulting yet to the Three Stooges.

I plowed my way through the third,well no, halfway through, and am suddenly suffering from  TMD (TOO MUCH DETAIL) . Maybe that is a good thing for civic-studies classrooms, Siberian shut-ins, or repellent aversion TV therapy.

It's drawing raves. I see the Wall Street Journal called it "static." The understatement of the century. 

Static. I'll give it another chance, I think, I may, I should.  Could get better.  And maybe if I am lucky, the final episodes will be scored by Andrew Lloyd Webber.  

Better yet, maybe Masterpiece will put out their own version of the tumultuous tiff on our side that sent the other side retreating into a very very long Ken Burns night

The Phantom of Plymouth Rock, anyone? 

Who Leads the Parade at Circus World? Here is what AI told me

 "Julie Parkinson was not let go from the Circus World Museum"
 

Oh, no AI?  Please do elaborate for the morons among us: 

 "Instead, she was named the new site director in April 2025, succeeding her father who previously held the position. Parkinson has a long history with the museum, as her grandfather founded its library and research center." 

I have done many searches.  Her firing only a few months into the job seems only to  have been reported by me, following a phone call to CWM, answered by a woman who confirmed that, yes, she was let go.

AI, as I have suggested, not the first to, is essentially stupid.  It grabs snippets out there and rapid fire assembles an answer.

Its most egregious failure, in my old fashioned brain:on.  It has no memory.  Although this could change as competed services race to produce the most intelligent version of AI 

Yes, it can dazzle you with split second answers that seem to reveal deft analysis.  But revise your search and try it another time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bad Day in the Zoppe Bleachers for One Family

Preface:  It is not my policy to favor certain shows by withholding negative feedback  of them, be it a review or comment left  here.  This is a comment that was posted  yesterday at the end of my review of Zoppe's 2024 show, "Send Back the Dogs" I have never sat in the bleachers, so I would be hard pressed to comment myself.     

"We came to the circus yesterday with three families and three young kids (ages 1.5 to 4). We were the first ones to enter the tent. The seating is made of tall bench-style rows with wide gaps and no stairs, so you have to climb up each bench. As we tried to go up, my daughter nearly fell through one of the gaps — it’s genuinely unsafe for small children.

Because of that, we chose to sit together in the middle row, leaving three entire empty rows in front of us. We were sitting tightly together, not taking extra space. Someone from the staff asked us to move up, and we explained that the benches were unsafe for our kids and that adults and older kids should be the ones climbing higher.

Then the person who appeared to be the owner or announcer came over and started shouting at us, saying things like “This is my circus, this is my show,” and threatened to make us leave if we didn’t move. His tone was aggressive and completely uncalled for, especially in front of small children. I honestly started shaking — it was that upsetting. One of the adults in our group asked him to please calm down because of the kids, but he continued.

Ironically, the show wasn’t even full. Many benches stayed empty throughout. There was absolutely no need for the confrontation.

This was supposed to be a fun family outing, and instead it turned into a really frightening and stressful experience. I would never return. The way we were treated was rude, unprofessional, and completely unnecessary, and the seating setup is unsafe for young children."

ZOPPE'S LATEST PARTY A FALTERING AFFAIR: Mediocre Lineup and Superfluous Clowning Miss the Magic Mark.

Circus Review
Zoppe Family Circus
Redwood City, CA November 8
$31 tops at ringside

 

A clown for all rings: Giovanni at the opening number

How to review a circus so less than what it was the last time you saw it?  Had I lived through a two-season long Zoppe golden age?

Full disclosure: I am not a fan of audience participation.   The Zoppe audience laps it up like honey. Maybe because it has special appeal to the kiddies. Go figure, while I lay down some kind of a review.  So, let's start with some feel-good highlights, and work our way down. Feel free to leave at any time.  

Top of the pack, a fellow working from an upright ladder, leans way way  back, lets go and lands on a small  a pad below that springs him somersaulting across the ring.  Daring. Dynamic.  Dashing.   Audience ate it up.

Two robust Cossack trick riders meet our expectations well enough, and a dog act delights in the key of sufficient.  A young juggler takes the ring with such force and authority, it’s a big let down to see so many items dropped.  And my favorite for style and flash —  a fellow working a web more like a single trapeze. Wish he could have given us more.

Impressive new feature: A live three piece band, yes, LIVE,  that wraps the show in festive scoring, maybe a decimal too high. I heard a lyrical passage that calls to mind Fellini.  Kudos to these salty windjammers!

Okay, as for all the rest: In-between the acts, and sometime during them, Giovanni, a gifted creative clown, yet seems always to be there, unable to let go. Always hovering.  And since he is the owner, there is nobody to reign him in from hovering — or invading.

For example, wanting to grab hold of a cloud swing too high to reach,  he takes his sweet time combing the audience for a suitable understander. Takes a heavy set fellow down into the ring, and proceeds to climb aboard the man’s bent backside so that, finally, he can reach up and grab the swing. And show off.  And I am all the while wondering if both have life insurance.  Unless the man was a plant, I find the whole thing highly questionable.  And I can't remember a big giggle payoff, as he has produced in the past. Pointless?

 

           

Critically Missing: Three figures who gave last year’s charmer rare sheen and a Big Heart: Giovanni’s two sons, Julien and Ilario, both missing in action.  Ilario does manage to sneak in at the very end, out of a trunk, but minus clown face, costumed to demonstrate the skills of an equilibrist. All at the age of around four or five.  

The third figure most missed: The mystically wordless  ringmaster, Patrick McGuire, who gave this show such class.  In to replace him, a fellow in black who refers to himself as the manager, and whose sole function is is to eject the ever intrusive Giovanni. They perform a scripted exchange that strains to be funny. 

Too much padding.  Intermission hypes photo ops with one of the dogs and face painting..  As before, you  will not find a single photo of any of them on the website.  I hadn’t the will to try digging beyond.   

Zoppe is catering to adults wishing to take their kids to a real circus.  But the slim crowds suggest either the market – or the show — is limited. Tent, they say, seats 500. There once were two rows around the ring curb. Now, only one.  Of the last three Zoppes I’ve taken in, I’d guess they drew around on average two hundred plus customers. 

They have a special place in the American circus scene. May they endure. All circuses have their ups and downs.  Maybe the best thing about Zoppe is their ability to change.  You can go not exactly knowing what to expect. I will hope that little Ilario comes to his senses and rejoins clown alley.    

2 - ½ stars.  To see my two last reviews of Zoppe, enter "Zoppe" in the search box above  left.