Last Night at Kooza

I have been a long time fan of Cirque du Soleil. I saw my very first show in 1998 and it was Quidam, which remains to be my favorite this day. Cirque du Soleil impresses me in many levels, of course this is not your day to day animal circus for kids. It is more like an adventure, a play, a way to take you from your ordinary life and inject some fascinations and wonders. It satisfies both the adult and the kid in me.

Everytime when I have news that they would come about, I'd usually get tickets to see them a few times. And usually, since I've join the Cirque Club, I can get pretty good seats. During Dralion, I've even got Tapis Rouge tickets which you get there an hour early and they serve you hors d'oeuvre, champagne and ice cream. This year, no willing to spend as much money as before, I only got a pair of tickets but luckily I got to be on the front row although all the way to the side. (I must get some more next time to sell them on ebay)

I always like to arrive early because the clown actually would come out to work the stage a bit before the official showtime and there's a certain advantage to seat near the aisle. the first thing I've noticed is that the clowns converse in English now, unlike the other shows before which they use French or gibberish. The interactions with the audience have increased tremendously, one of the clowns was making balloon animals and giving it to the audience and throughout the show, they invited about 4 people on stage to volunteer for clown acts. And one of the chair in the audience got pumped up 6 feet higher in which the woman seating on it screamed. lol

Kooza is a Sanskrit word Koza which means box or gift, and the first half of the show is decidedly Indian. I've always been impressed of the live music accompanied the show and this first half a beautiful Panjabi singer was up on stage in a white and gold sari. The storyline is very similar to Quidam, in which this time a boy with a flying kite receive a package - a box with a trickster in it. In the trickster's hand is a magic wand which brought forth a magical kingdom with different interesting people performing different interesting acts. Someone brought a baby to the circus and he started crying when the magic started. (That also reminds me that they started to have warnings about people with epilepsy, I wonder what happened?)

The show started with the Charivari act in which a bunch of people started to walk on balls and doing aerial act on firefighter landing mats. And a gold statue came out and unwrapped itself into three little girls doing contortions. (If I do more Capoeira... no, forget it.) The positions they were in were insane. A lady in solo trapeze were swinging right in front of me, I could have grabbed the bar and swung with her, if I reached my hands up. And then a guy came out in an unicycle dancing with a gal. They brought a cannon out shooting confetti all over the place while setting up for the last act before the intermission - highwire. Four guys were walking on the wire, jumping on them, running on them, jumping over each other, biking on it and a guy was sitting on a chair supported by a beam which is supported by two guys riding on two bicycles. That was a bit wild.

After a 30 minute break, We come back to a black girl singing the theme song Kooza in New Orleans big band style while people in skeleton costumes comes out dancing and touching people. (Must get soundtrack...) It started with the always impressive wheel of death, A shorter Asian guy came out wearing a fundoshi was stacking chairs and climbing the tower he's building at the same time, doing acrobatic acts. A juggler came out with his beautiful assistant, the act is always mindblowing. The whole show ends with a teeterboard act, catapulting people up the air and landing on their feet.

It's really worth seeing and it made my night pretty happy. I can't wait to go see Wintuk, and I wish I could travel to Las Vegas and Orlando to see those stationery shows.


They have got to be wearing cups, right? If not, I'm running away with the Cirque!


Would have been a perfect picture, if I had a steady hand.