Champagne and Popcorn

A Sweet Mélange from the Ridiculous to the Sublime

 

Hamburger Cat Cabaret

July 1, 2017

Great Star Theatre, 636 Jackson St., Chinatown, San Francisco

At last! After many months of agonizing, teeth-gnashing anguish, I found the perfect fix for my circus jones! I didn't know how much I needed to laugh until I saw this inspired, completely unpretentious, and captivating show!

Leading this cast of feline fanciers is Fleeky Flanco, equilibrist extraordinaire. Whether it’s hand-balancing or klishnig contortion, Fleeky regularly pushes the boundaries of circus technique and theatrics as he challenges himself to exceed his physical limits. With this intimate show he reaches a new depth of audience connection, scoring big with his selection of the perfect song to accompany his barrel act, infusing it with a light-hearted sex appeal, and giving him space to revel in the audience’s enthusiastic response. His genuine surprise made it that much more effective.

 

 

“So You Think You Can Dance” alumnus Darius Drooh, dynamic dancer and storyteller, goes full confessional about an “Ideal” relationship poisoned by Grindr, and displays his formidable physical fluidity while discovering his inner resiliency. Throughout his routine, his dance moves magnify the impact of his story.

 

It used to be true in vaudeville that attempting a solo acrobatic act is impossible.  A notable exception is Lou Wills, Jr., who, in his youth, performed a kick-ass solo acrobatic turn as a jack-in-the-box.  Yuko Hata has created a new way to present a solo acrobatic act, combining old acrobatic tricks with new, slow-motion balletic touches. Yuko can be said to be a female counterpoint to acrobatic dancer extraordinaire Micah Walters, as both Micah and Yuko evince a post-post-modern sensibility. Her incorporation of a tinsica, a move seldom seen today, but with a controlled, slow-motion presentation, makes the trick look contemporary. Yuko also presents an aerial tissu act that displays a meditative, inner-directed style that deeply effective.
 
Stefania Devire’s alternative chanteuse can be smoky and sultry or cool and intimate, depending upon the requirements of her choice of song. She can sing to the entire audience or make it sound like she is singing only to you.  This works well in a cabaret setting. She can play an effective alterna-folk singer with acoustic guitar and then contrast that with a classic cabaret rendition of Roy Orbison’s classic “Only the Lonely.”

Street performers can be marvelous of course but all too often I see a lot of replication of tricks and lines. These lines are lines to increase the amount of money made passing the hat, or to humorously or seriously make the audience believe that what they are about to see is extremely dangerous. I enjoy seeing street performers without predictable or hackneyed or familiar lines. So I was delighted to watch Kevin Armour’s new wave street act. Kevin is solid with his extensive variety of tricks. He is nimble and enjoys toying with his audience, especially the volunteers. His act culminates with him standing on high pedestals, juggling, but unable to reach forward, backward or very far to either side or he would lose his balance. He doesn’t need to artificially amp-up or exaggerate the risk, because it’s palpable. He closes with a crisp power-tumbling run performed with panache and technical brilliance.

 

When I first saw Paul Nathan, he instantly conjured images of all those 1930s movies set during the British Raj, which invariably starred middle-aged aristocrats sitting around in men’s clubs in Rangoon or Bombay and discussing their military exploits in “In-jah!” Paul is a veteran magician who exhibits great timing, and relishes teasing his audience. By transferring his material to the past he makes it appear fresh.  Using sleights of hand, he confuses the audience, delight them once they finally catch on.

 

And yes, there really is a hamburger (eating) cat!

Hamburger Cat Cabaret fulfilled its objective of cleansing the mind of all troublesome logic. You can’t beat that!

 

Photos by Gary Thomsen

 

 

"Take the Cannoli ... "

Flynn Creek Circus: A Show You Can’t Refuse

This past Saturday I saw the 2017’s Flynn Creek Circus across the Bay in Sausalito on a day that can charitably be described as an outdoor sauna. Fortunately, this irresistible circus provided the perfect distraction from the crispy afternoon. In this new show "Inter-Active," Flynn Creek ventures into improv territory as it as it plays with audience volunteers and allows the audience to choose the acts it wants to see. The cast has commandeered the show, taking it into the realm of the imagination in which the worlds of the circus and “The Sopranos” collide.

Presiding over these mixed (and very talented) nuts is Amelia Van Brunt as the Dick Tracy style Detective Kachinko, as well as Pesto, an immense henchman who also has curiously tiny hands; and Ross Travis as a supposedly bubble-headed blonde reminiscent of Blanche Dubois, and Riggy Rigatoni, the dreaded mob boss. And if you ask what the Mafia and the circus have in common – you haven’t been paying attention. That’s exactly the point: when you experiment, you take audiences to places they’ve never been before.

Featured is Duo Have a Ball, a wildly inventive and sexy ball-bouncing/passing duo, Clementine Stadler Bert as the (dancing) Entertainer, and Mike Leclair as the flirtatious Bartender. These two play with the nature of the five ball bouncing and cascading patterns, displaying a disarming ambidexterity in a complex array of permutations and body positions (Clementine even bounces balls in Chinese splits!). They conclude bounce passing ten and eleven balls and tossing away their high level skill with lighthearted abandon.

 

Jan Damm is the comic Other Bartender who, with Leclair, astounds in a rapid-fire diabolo passing duet in which the diabolos are blindly snatched out of thin air only to be rebounded into their orderly patterns. Their mood is fun and they belie the effort an act such as this takes. They can keep two diabolos apiece going and we are also treated to Mr. Damm’s successful three diabolo pattern.

Ariele Ebacher, as the Boss's Daughter, who has done a classic tight-wire dancer act, thrills here with a wire act in which she walks the wire in brilliant red heels. As a prelude to the wire act she walks on wine bottle tops. Once on the wire, where she is completely at home, she displays fluidity with a dancer’s grace, leaping over the wire and flexibility in the form of splits on the thin strand and once again effortlessly.

As a fitting Ninja legend, Miles Stapp performs an intriguingly mysterious acrobatic act, outmaneuvering his foes in a graceful, but deadly battle. Miles was trained by Master Lu Yi and appeared in his company, Acrosanct. His acrobatics are beautiful to see and possess that Chinese quality that enables the acrobat to suspend time and space in the middle of a trick.

Shem Biggie, playing "the bad boy from a good family," has matured into a full-fledged rope aerialist, integrating both depth and technique into a unified performance. Shem injects an impressive display of strength and power, performing an original sequence of moves, including atypical mid-sequence body tableaus. I look forward to following his continued development as an artist.

Exhibiting impressive leg-flexibility, Maya deLoche as the Gushy Secretary delivers a classic aerial hoop act. Maya exhibits an elegant array of splits that exceed accustomed hip flexibility. Her glowing smile melts the audience’s collective hearts as she smoothly transitions into and out of her aerial voyage.   

 

Passion 2 Balance’s Goulia Rozyeva (absent her hand-to-hand partner, Nelson Pivaral), as a doddering elderly woman, performed solo hand-balancing on her walker. Her believable character elicits a mixture of empathy and laughter.   

 

Goulia and Nelson’s daughter, Sasha Pivaral, as the Mob’s Hitwoman, incorporates the bow-and-arrow trick shot with her feet from a contortion handstand, shooting the arrow to a bull’s-eye. Her dramatic contortion handstands and splits are the essence of cantilevered body poetry. Her enigmatic smile and rockstar charisma elevate her performance to crystalline art.

 

Kicking the show through the roof is the magnificent Duo Daring Jones, David Jones and Blaze Rose Birge, has garnered accolades across the globe. The term “world-class act” has been promiscuously overused by reviewers, but is a perfectly accurate fit for these superb artists who are quite simply the best in this genre. Keeping their act fresh, Blaze and David have added astounding new moves and increased speed to their already supersonic aerial drops, slides, twists, and spins. They absolutely must be seen to be believed!

 

Not to be missed is their latest reinterpretation of the classic knife-throwing act, reversing traditional roles, and eschewing the sinister for the light-hearted.   

 

 

Bravo! to Flynn Creek Circus for having the audacity to re-envision the circus audience’s expectations and giving this assemblage of zanies and virtuosos a sphere in which to radiate.     

 

 

 

 

Photographs by Gary G. Thomsen

Echo's Reach Review

By Judy Finelli and Justin LaneLutter

Echo’s Reach Reaches New Heights

An urban landscape atop a city building with disembodied tree branches and monolithic towers set the tone for this years’ City Circus. The best thing about the show is the driving pace and abundant energy, which never lag for even a nanosecond. It is performed by an enthusiastic, sincere and animated group of young people alongside a talented live band, a virtuoso beatboxer, Carlos Aguirre, and a mellifluous spoken word narrator, Delina Brooks.
This aspires to be a circus with a message, actually three messages, all intertwined. Here is a circus that sets out to change the world. The narrator and some of the cast convey the themes of the show: conquer internal limitations, build communication within society and that freedom without love is worthless.
The show centers on Echo, whose toughness belies her vulnerability, and is a penniless artist that excels as a circus performer. Echo is played touchingly by Chloe Bowie, who brings vitality and an ironic twist to the role. She displays a plethora of skills – aerially, as a juggler and as a silent actor. In keeping with its urban circus sensibility, the show encompasses breakdancing and parkour, although their parkour star was out with a back injury the afternoon I saw the show. Parkour is a newer form of acrobatics that consists of performing athletic stunts in urban environments.
The two breakdancers pop. B-Boy Black and B-Boy Iron Monkey (Ed Johnson and Shawn Hallman) are dynamic performers. They are among the best I’ve ever seen. One does a seemingly endless, eye-popping, hands-free head-spin that must be seen to be believed. In addition, they have many repeating asymmetrical, complex twisting moves. As if that wasn’t enough, they executed those moves effortlessly and flawlessly. These movers and shakers choose to cover their faces, emphasizing the spiritual nature of their Shaolin monk connections. These breakers are, at once, physical and mystical.
Jan Damm and Olivia Weinstein share a successful clown partnership that really adds to the show. These two have enough energy to be plugged into the PG&E grid. They are never on too long and seem to intuit exactly what the show needs. They use their formidable acrobatic skills to advantage in a knock-about, break-neck style. The words “Clown Transaction” are projected on the backdrop whenever they appear. One even “murders” the other and performs an impromptu Latin gibberish in an attempt at a funeral service. Olivia performs once again with her uncooperative tire, but this time they have obviously had some couples counseling and seem to communicate better.
Olivia will be attending the National Circus School of Canada in Montreal this fall as a clown student. What a coup for AcroSports! Jan also returns with a rola bola board/bucket stack that is well played and well-presented. He has tremendous potential. I would be glad to see what else he is capable of.
The aerial work is inventive and well executed with some new twists. Aerialists include Chloe Gordon-Murer, Chloe Bowie, Sasha Harrington, Chris Lee and Stephanie Haber. They did duo and solo work on circeau, tissu and rope. The aerial action is sometimes performed above the breakdancers.
The contortionists have also grown in skill, namely Nancy Kate Siefker, Nicolas Torres-Labarca, Wren Aubry and Allton Vogel-Denebeim. Joining them unexpectedly is Fleeky Flux from Circus Center. He single-handedly boosts the level of the act, literally. His act now features three one-arms: one on each arm and another in piked position.
Echo somehow manages to fall in love with Glass Slipper, the daughter of a high society couple who do not appreciate Echo’s advances. However, her sincere circus artistry wins them over. Echo and Glass Slipper unite at last and true love triumphs against all odds.
Circuses, in my experience, can easily drag or become bogged down in spots. However, City Circus has found the key to keeping the action bouncing and the audience entertained. A nod must go to director Tim Barsky and choreographer Shannon Gaines for their achievements. Weaving traditional circus acts together with modern elements is no mean feat, but what makes Echo’s Reach so successful is that it has something to say.

Jane's Hula Hoop Act

A student of mine turned me on to Circus Guide Entertainment, an agency that books high end circus acts. I found this little gem on their youtube channel. Jane is a hula hoop juggler who also toss juggles the hoops and rolls them across her back a la Nichols, etc. The act looks original and is brimming with creative ideas. Since she is restricted to a tiny pedestal, her throws need to be perfect, and they are!
I did not understand the ripped out heart, but I'm sure she did.

Jen Slaw

I came across Jen today and wanted to post her on this blog. She is a good illustration of a fine commercial act with great movement, a sense of fun, originality (incorporating contact, club swinging, toss juggling, and moves with single objects.) Her act is very enjoyable to watch and I wish her great success. She has the skill to juggle five balls, but that just serves to make her that much more confident. She is a juggler who is really able to deliver the goods.

Les Kiriki Acrobates Japonais

This is a very interesting idea.
We are looking down on the acrobats as they lie on the floor and go into what looks like multiple, impossible acrobatic poses. Very inventive. Very engaging and entertaining. Only on film, though.
Lovely body configurations. I haven't seen this before.

Solid Potato Salad

Here are some tricks that aren't being done anymore. The Mystic Pixies do the running around the circle on chest. However, the three person pull from back bend is not done. It is only done with two people. The fact that they sing like the Andrew Sisters AND do acrobatics is unusual. It is usually either one or the other. So, they are new circus in feel and temperament. There are many acrobatic vaudeville tricks that used to be done by female acrobats or "close-benders," as they were called in vaudeville.
Illusions, changing walk-overs, swing-throughs, tinsicas, walking in splits and changing legs with each step (very difficult) and aerial forwards (or walk-overs) done in place is another great trick.