As discussed with my circus friends, there are four types of circus, c, q, k and x:

1. Circus, with a ‘c’: Family circus. Happy frowns, dancing clowns, screaming sounds, flying hounds. Examples: Big Apple Circus, or clowns that visit your school.
2. Cirque, with a ‘q’: Artsy circus. Costumee di elaborato, musique de fancie, dancez with Buton, and no animal cruelty. Examples: Cirque du Soleil, Spiegeltent, cabarets.
3. Cirkus, with a ‘k’: Freak circus. Nails through the nose, swords through the throat, fire strikes the pose, pinbed without clothese. Examples: Coney Island Sideshow, 999 Eyes.
4. Circux, with an ‘x’: Adult circus. Ooo, it’s a pole. There, it’s a hole. Aaah, it’s a whip. Yeaaah, it’s a nip. Examples: The Moulin Rouge (back in the days), or pole dancers in your New Orleans neighborhood speakeasy.

I watched quite a few this year. I played in one. Here are my short reviews.

Modern Gypsies

Circus with a ‘c’ and a ‘k’, and a bit of ‘q’.

Michael Saab and Rudi Macaggi are both amazing artists that can do the whole show all by himself. Michael had performed on David Letterman (twice), while Rudi won an award on America’s Got Talent. They both travelled around the world, and were hired by many venues to perform their best acts.

What if these two great talents come together to produce a show?

The result was the first-ever full show of “Modern Gypsies”, at the Sage Theatre in Times Square.

Despite its single run, the show was arranged very well. One thing for sure, the kids love it. Balloons and confetti bounced around the whole venue, while waves of silk flew above our heads. The show began with Rudi, stepping ‘accidentally’ into the stage, found himself a magic plunger (haha) that sucked him into a whirlpool of wilderness. The scene was completed with violinist Irene Fong, in her beautiful avian outfit, came out behind the audience, jumped into the staged, and faded into darkness along with the music.

Overall, the show is focused on one-man acts, as, of course, all these acrobats can pretty much do the whole show themselves. And yes they do. It was fantastic to see how simply one performer can capture the attention of all the audiences, and it was simply fantastic to see how much one man can do: Rudi could dance, tap dance, swirl around, carry bodies around, elegantly, and be comical, exuberant at the same time, while Michael could eat fire, step on blades, put himself in a giant balloon, and be magical, and humorous at the same time as well.

You can also find Michael performing from time to time around the city, check out his schedules to catch a show. He is also doing his Circus Skillshare sessions at Henry Fernandez Park in Brooklyn, every second Sunday of the months during summer, where you can learn a trick or two from this talented man.

Kooza
by Cirque du Soleil

Circus with a ‘q’, a bit of ‘c’ and a bit of ‘x’.

I do believe that Cirque du Soleil revived circus culture in the 21st century. At least in my part, I was inspired by Cirque du Soleil to free my life in the United States, and found my circle of circus friends. Every time I watched a Cirque show I came out with a smile, inspired and astounded.

Kooza is a Cirque du Soleil show on A.D.D. What I saw was unarguably the fastest-paced show by the circus ever. For the first hour and a half up till intermission, there was not one single second I did not hold my breath:

The protagonist, the Innocent, received and opened up the package… bang! The Trickster came up, swirling around the stage, zoom! lights shone up line by line with its magic wand, as he orchestrated the band, the ship at the back of the stage opened up into 4 times its size, moved out, opened its doors, lights flashing, a whole troupe of dancers came out in the most elaborate costumes you would never imagine, contortionists bended their backs while dancers did the swirls… you get the idea.

The show, surprisingly, has more ‘x’ element that I anticipated. In fact, there were loads of dirty jokes: A giant Bad Dog humping on audiences, as well as the King sneaking gay sex jokes between him and his jokers. There were also a few noticeable glitches, but I probably would not notice if not because I regard them as the best.

The acts do not disappoint in any way: despite I had seen similar acts many times, I appreciate them now even more as I realized their difficulties, especially in front a huge crowd of 3000. My favorite act was the Wheel of Death, preceded by a fancy parade of skeletons reminiscent of Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas. The two daredevils jumped inside and outside of the giant spinning wheel the shape of Trillian’s logo, complete with well-synchronized live music. The music slowed and stopped time with windpipes on reverb, as the acrobats jumped into the sky 5 stories above ground, pending its fall back down on the spinning wheel.

I also like the poignant ending of the show, but I don’t want to spoil it for you! You have to watch it yourself. For the production of such size, it was a brave attempt to bring ‘heartfelt emotions’ to a circus show.

Kooza is currently on show in New York City, and is touring in the United States. Despite its high price, it is surely on par with all major Broadway shows with its big crew of talents. Visit the official web site of Cirque du Soleil for more information.

Cirque du Quoi? (Circus of What?)
by Lady Circus and FUCT

Circus with an ‘x’, a ‘k’ and a ‘q’.

Lady Circus by itself is a circus with a ‘q’. While their previous two self-directed productions, Rusted Gun Saloon and AHOY 2.0, had been astounding by the neighborhood’s standards, their collaboration with FUCT, while I was suspicious at first, takes the troop many steps further to qualify as an ‘off-Broadway’ show.

The show was tight. While they did not have the manpower and space to create an all-out attack like Kooza, they strategized on the intimacy of the space instead – having only a couple artists on stage at one time for individual acts. Though stages need to be cleared out for the next act from one to another, they always managed to fill the gap with some shorter acts, just to make you hold your pee for 1.5 hours wanting to see what’s next.

One good example was when Quoi, the MC of the show, came out from behind the audiences laughing nefariously just to sing us an off-key song about his deli cashier job in Chicago, while the stage behind him evolves as silk and chairs get moved around. A great script and a fine attention to details keeps the audience focused to the stage, not their iPhones.

The show started with absurd dialogs and got deeper over its course. With its resounding theme on sex frustrations, nudity was inevitable. In fact, there was so much nudity, one nudity builds up on another, all the way up to the great climax (pun) that the force of sex was so tremendous the whole world of the protagonist blew up from physical to metaphysical, momentarily touching the ‘face of God’.

Fans of Lady Circus would also enjoy the inside jokes, including my favorite scene, the self-deprecating humor where the ‘founder’ of the Lady Circus became an old sulking lady, insulting Kae for eating too many cheeseburgers, harassing Jordann for being a whore, and insulting Anya for being dumb and dumped by her family.

For $20, with the great acting, great acts and great sacts, I mean, sex, this show is a steal. The show is currently running at the House of Yes, with 6 shows remaining on 28th, 29th, 30th of May and 4th, 5th and 6th of June. Visit the FUCT web site for more information.

Now… what?

With the digitalization of music, television and movies, circus seems to be coming back big time, and is poised to take over as the premier form of entertainment in the next decade.

Though computers can replicate music and movies perfectly, the tactile and physical experience is something that no digital form of entertainment can replicate. As the new generation is finally tired of the stereotypical and sterile emotions of mainstream media, it is time to bring back the soil, the dirt, and the rawness of our own bodies.