Cirque du SohMiFuckinGod!!!

I honestly do not think I can gush enough about this show.  Truly amazing.  Breathtaking.  Nervewracking.  Beautiful.  And thoroughly exceeding all expectations.

Better than Drum Corps even… (Gasp!  I KNOW!)

I’ve never been to a Cirque show before, and it was just… beyond.  And I love the whole tent aspect.  This was happening under the Grand Chapiteau… constructed in a parking lot… IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD!  Honestly, the experience has spoiled me; I never want to see one of their shows in a permanent venue now.  I love the travelling circus ‘temporary’ feel- it lends a certain amount of exoticness that I just don’t think could be reproduced in, say, the Xcel Center.

We had spectacular seats, too– front of the second tier of seats, right on the main aisle.  Perfect view of the stage, no people obstructing our views, and tons of legroom.  And its not like its a huge space.  We could see faces and sweat.  And we saw the bit acts in profile… like the high wire and the wheel of death.

(Kyle and Matt, preparing to enjoy Kooza)

First, people who know me know that I hate clowns.  I’m not terrified of them, I just find them to be creepy.  All the baggy clothes and painted on expressions make me wonder what they are hiding.  Like having knives for fingers or something.

But these clowns are more like drag clowns.  Just some exaggerated features painted on for a performance aspect.  So it wasn’t terrible at all.

Except for the beginning of the show when they were wandering about through the audience and came very close to us.  And the short, squeeky one felt up Kyle’s head (they shared a shaved head moment), and this was right next to me!

And then the show began…

Overall, I was absolutely floored by the staging and set and the music and the costumes and… everything!  It was quite overwhelming.

Naturally it has a “theme”– albeit a loose one.  Kooza is taken from the sanskrit word Koza, meaning treasure box.  And as usual, it started with a lost child/clown with a kite taking some sort of magical journey.  And then the “leader” person danced and used a “magic wand” to illuminate everything and then called forth the bandstand/gazebo structure.

As the music cranks, the multi-tier bandstand unwraps from a shroud and unfolds like sails on a ship and moves majestically forward and reveals the band and artists (which emerge from a tunnel through the bandstand) and it was purely magical.  Seriously, I think I welled up a bit.

I honestly thought the music was going to be all prerecorded.  I don’t know why, but I did.  The band was phenomenal and so was the music!  And the trombone player… my god!  So good!  I was instantly in love with the music, and bought the CD at intermission. 

And now for the acts:

These contortionists were amazing.  We only had two… which I think I liked better.  It was like some crazy pas de deux.  What they could do and how they could bend was not to be believed.

This was one of my favorite things of the night– a gorgeous pas de deux involving a guy on a unicycle and a dancer.  He lifted her and swooped her all around his body while continually wheeling about and spinning.  It was incredible.  And at one point, he got off the unicycle briefly to dance with her.  And then to get back on the bike (which was laying fully on the ground) he lept at it, and pop!  Miraculously he was back on the thing… not a hand used.

The “wheel of death” was probably THE biggest showstopper of the evening.  These guys– I think I held my breath the entire time.  Naturally they start by being in the inner diameter of the little cages.  Doing flips and tricks while it’s spinning madly around.  But then one… and then the other, move to the OUTSIDE of the fucking things.  And they’re jumping rope and leaping and falling and being all kinds of crazy on it.  At one point I was shouting that they needed to stop, because I didn’t think my heart could take anymore.  Seriously!  I was cringing with each jump.

Another showstopper was this guy and his chair stacking/balancing gymnastics.  He probably stacked up 12 or more chairs and did crazy moves like this.  And at the top he had one of the chairs tipped at an angle and was doing this move and he had to be 30 feet in the air.  It was insane.  (Behind him you can see the bandstand/gazebo thing).

Also featured in the evening (and truly one of my favorite moments) was the best damn juggler I have ever seen in my life!  He juggled so many rings, clubs, balls, mixtures of clubs and balls… it was the definition of awesome.  The clubs were brilliant… he spun and flipped them between his legs, off his feet, around his forehead… it was unfathomable.  And then he balanced tall metal stands on his forehead and caught his juggling balls in pockets on it.  He also managed to bounce a ball on his forehead while juggling other balls.  Pure insanity.

There was also a highwire act that had me clawing my seat.  For part of it, they had no net.  And one guy did this trick where he jumped over another guy and landed on the wire… well he missed the first time and ended up dangling from the topmost wire.  But they repeated the trick and he nailed it the second time.  I think my heart was in my throat the entire time.

And of course there were the acrobats who use the boards to flip people in the air and catch them on their shoulders, etc.  They even did tricks where they flipped people wearing STILTS through the air… and they managed to land WHILE WEARING FUCKING STILTS!!!  One girl just had ONE stilt on even… both legs strapped and tied to ONE FUCKING STILT.  The timing.  The balance.  The ohmigod factor.  Oh, and one dude did like a million somersaults in the air during one of the insanely high flip sequences.

(Here’s one of the techs climbing up the tent at intermission… with the moon in the background.  It was just a little added show to the show).

Le sigh.

Cirque du Soleil was pure magic and I think I would classify THIS circus as “the greatest show on earth”.    I am SOOOOO glad that Kyle managed to get tickets and dragged my ass to it.  I will now seek them out whenever they come to town.