While in Vegas, I did not attend any of the ninety-seven thousand productions of Cirque du Soleil currently playing in that town. That had to wait 'til my return to Los Angeles.
Woke up at 9:30. Caught the shuttle to the airport at 11:30. The plane took off at 1:20 and landed a bit ahead of schedule at 2:12. Carolyn met me at the airport and we went for a late lunch, then out to Santa Monica Pier where a Cirque show called Kooza is currently packin' 'em in. This one is different from the others because…well, I guess it isn't. You've got your haunting music, your colorful (but sometimes bizarre) costumes, your incomprehensible and ignorable plot line, your intermittent clowns and your people doing physically impossible feats.
There are three women who bend and balance with amazing poise and flexibility. There's an amazing juggler. There are four tightrope walkers who'll have you holding your breath. There's a lady who flies about via trapeze. There's a gentleman who balances on a precarious perch, a dozen chairs high and does one-handed handstands. There's a pickpocket. There's a unicyclist who balances a lady all over his body while unicycling. There are people who leap on a teeter-totter and send others hurtling through the air. Then there's this thing, which they call The Wheel of Death…
I dunno. Even if I were a trained athlete with the physical prowess of those two guys, I'm not sure I'd want to make my weekly paycheck by being in or on something called The Wheel of Death. Carolyn had a better name for it. She called it The Double Hamster.
In person, of course, it's even scarier than it is in a teensy YouTube embed. During an act like that (or the tightrope daredevils who close Act One), I find myself reminding myself: These folks do this eight to nine times a week on stage and goodness-knows-how-many-more in rehearsal. Just because it's the first time I've seen it doesn't mean it's the first time they've attempted it. Still, there are moments — including one "slip" I suspect was planned — when you find yourself wondering if you're about to see a human being maim themselves before your very eyes.
I was a bit disappointed by the last Cirque troupe that made its way through Southern California. That show, which is now in Tokyo, was called Corteo and it wasn't quite as jaw-dropping as some others I've seen. Kooza is a lot more fun. It goes from here to Irvine, San Diego, Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, Houston and Miami — in that order.
Now to go unpack…