Circus Review
Zoppe Family Circus
Redwood City, CA November 8
$31 tops at ringside
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.
1 comment:
"Delights in the key of sufficient" is the most wonderful phrase I've read this week!
Post a Comment