Out of the Past: Sex & Sizzle: Cirque du Soleil's 'Homoerotic' Hollywood ... Ringling's Never Fully Charged Without a Fire ... Well, Have You Anything Better?

Originally published June 19, 2011 


Covington Cornered (by incoming news flashes), let's have at some of 'em, starting off with a juicy preview, brief but (?) ominous, as to that Hollywood opus from Cirque du Soleil at the Kodak Theatre, soon to test its juice on locals and far away sight seekers, assuming the latter will climb all the way up the stairs to the Kodak at Hollywood and Highland (other efforts at the same venue having, so far, failed to catch showbiz fire). Here's the L.A. Press reporting on a sneak look at Iris: A Journey Through the World of Cinema. Story gives prime focus to Iris composer, Danny Elfman, whose credits include Big Top Pee Wee. As I hazily recall, Elfman infused the Pee Wee flick with a beguiling and delightful quasi-Fellini Clowns treatment ...

As for Iris itself, seen by a privileged few, the writer, L.J. Williamson, sounds not too impressed by segments that come "dangerously close to trite and hackneyed Universal Studio Tour-style depictions of 'movie magic.'" Nor does he seem thrilled with the "wide-eyed, in-over-his-head character that stumbles awestruck through the action as a stand-in for the audience." But L.J.W concedes (making the report sound all-too-familiar), "it's tough to feel jaded" over the high-flying acrobats, who, during one sequence, work a trampoline depicting cops and robbers to music "evoking" West Side Story. "If only the Sharks and the Jets could have bounced so high." ... My two cents worth? The Vegas Cirque shows backed with music by pop icons likely click because the music and circus compliment each other; how well the circus in Cirque can work with film imagery may be something else ...

Let's go blazingly mad! Not exactly celebrated for French subtleties in its staging bluster, Ringling-Barnum is this year touring the Human Fuse (love the name!), Mr. Spark Plug being ex-cannon performer Brian Miser (his protege, Evel Knievel), who produces good press copy. You see him up there on fire doing a PR tease in Vegas during a Ringling date. His suit is composed, so goes the spin, of fireproof Carbonex, and his trajectory covers 110 feet at 65 mph in just two seconds from a 20-foot-tall crossbow. Sounds sensational to me. "You get one chance to get all the settings right," says he, "because once you're flying through the air, you can't change anything. If you're going too far, you can't slow down." And might that mean, while in flight, no texting or sexting? Just wondering ...

Heck, let's go back up there to the Kodak. I promised you a little heat, and here it is: An Iris act that did rouse LJW to purring prose are two guys who fondle each other flying back and forth on webs. "A pleasantly homoerotic aerial routine" in which the duo can be observed "folding, wrapping and spinning their muscled bodies around each other like airborne eels, making up for that hot imaginary circus sex that Zuamanity promised but failed to deliver. More please." Let's see, we are across the street from Disney's family movie house the El Capitan in ostensibly squeaky clean, trans-Asian touristy Hollywood. How much do you want to bet the fondling duo don't end up going at it on the cutting room floor? ...


End Ringers: Circus posters as great art? That's a message coming out of the Cincinnati Art Museum, hosting the "Amazing American Circus Poster" (80 gems in all) from the famed Strobridge company. You won't talk me out of my high regard for the art in many of these strikingly composed images. What still tops my memory is the first time I laid eyes on one of Unus. Exhibit continues through July 10, then heads down to Sarasota at the Ringling Museum, September 17-January 29 ... Kelly-Miller Circus thrills Manhattan's KLS Dad, who, following my example of moving myself from Gotham by train to the Cole show in NJ, found rails up to Kelly-Miller's Cortland Manor appearance in upstate New York. Despite rainy day delays, KLS loved the show. Among his accolades, "Casey McCoy and his tigers did CIRCUS proud!" ... Clowns Steven and Ryan were "exceptionally gifted." Tickled was he by the "talented yelping dogs," by "THREE WONDERFUL ELEPHANTS," and by that charming Poema kid who "brought down the house!" (I can vouch for that) ... Ah, now for printing this, maybe the Big Top Brethren will grant me a brief parole off their black list; so lonely there, the only name being mine ...

6.19.2011