Cirque Eloize's "Nomade"
We went to see Cirque Eloize's "Nomade" (At night, the sky is endless) to celebrate my birthday.
The show started fashionably late, but I was pretensious enough to be okay with that. For the first half an hour, it had the feel of a darkened strip club.
First up, appropriately enough, was the introduction. It set the tune for the rest of the crap that tried to pass as comic relief. I didn't notice the crapiness at first as this segment was short enough that it was forgivable. I just hate comedy involving people who interrupt others, and at least half of the comedy in the comic relief segments were the two hosts (and/or other members of the troupe) interrupting each other. The one comic relief segment that didn't have these interruptions were quite well done, but more on that later.
The first act had a giant stripper pole in it. The unfortunate part was that it was a man sliding up and down the stripper pole. The fortunate part was that he remained clothed and he was quite good, climbing up and then sliding down the pole quickly upside down, stopping inches from turning his head into mush. He did this several times, much to the delight of the audience.
I'm not sure what came directly after that, but then came the contortionist. There was lots of moaning and groaning from the audience as she twisted herself into impossible positions. There was a muscular, half-naked black man playing some sort of percussion instrument and singing. There were also four guys just sitting and watching. And nothing could disturb them from their evening of pleasure, not even the rain that started to fall about halfway through the act. Speaking of disturbing, the whole act had this sort of creepy feel to it. It was like watching the guys in "pervert's row" at a strip club. It wouldn't have surprised me if one of the guys tried to give stuff a $20 bill down the contortionist's top. Don't get me wrong. I thoroughly enjoyed this act, but I think it would have been better without the distractions.
And that's another bad thing about the whole show. There was usually too much going on, and sometimes the main act on the stage was being upstaged by all the "comic relief" that was happening at the same time. At least twice, I almost missed some amazing feat of acrobatics because the "idiot" host was running around at the front of the stage.
In what was the best comic relief segment, the two hosts combined to do a fake contortionist act, by having the two of them act as one body. The segment moved quickly, didn't rely on interruptions to create humour, and was genuinely funny.
Another quirk about this show is the costumes. All the men looked like they had just finished a day of raising barns, with their simple outfits of a white shirt, black suspenders, and dark pants. Either that, or they were dressed in their undergarments of wife beater shirts and boxers. Most of the time, the women worn similar outfits, or worn dresses (even wedding dresses) that looked like they just wrapped themselves in the nearest bed sheets. My wife attributed this to the fact that it was supposed to be night time and they were getting ready for bed, but the show is supposed to be about dreams, and the costumes just didn't do anything to further that. In fact, not much in the show did anything to further that theme.
The first time I truly realized that the comic relief was a pile of steaming something was when the hosts came back and attempted to do some sort of song, but there were lots of interruptions and quickly my thoughts turned to "When is this pain going to stop?" It was truly an SNL skit gone too long, and that's saying a lot. Actually, it might be more accurate to say it was a worse version of the Mad TV crumping clowns, and that is definitely saying a lot. It was comic relief that was neither comical nor a relief, except when it ended.
Some of the brain cells that I lost waiting for that skit to be over probably contained memories of good parts of the show (people doing flips off a teeter-tooter maybe). I truly don't remember anything until two groups of barn-raising men and women showed up in what I thought was going to be some Amish version of West Side Story. There were confrontations, and push and shoving, and then someone brought out the really big sticks. From where I was sitting, they were probably about 4 inches wide and 15 feet long. Women from each side of the fight climbed onto the sticks and were flung into the air, flipping and then landing back on the stick. Excellent showcase of the skills of this troupe.
The intermission came and went pretty quickly. Immediately after the intermission was the most memorable and best act of the evening. It had it all - hot chick with a French accent, exceptional skill on a trapeze, and humour. Right in the middle of the act as the trapeze artist was talking about how she was waiting for 'er lover on a white 'orse, and naming the different stunts she was showing, she let out a scream worthy of any B-movie queen, and the audience gasped in unison. Of course, she didn't really slip off the trapeze, and shyly she asked, "Did I scare you?" This act had no interruptions until it was almost over, so we were able to focus entirely on the main event.
What I remember coming next was another useless comic relief act, that cost me more brain cells (because I know something interesting came after the trapeze act, but I can't remember what - juggling maybe). It had me thinking, "These are 10 minutes of my life that I will never get back". It had something to do with the orchestra coming out to perform as part of a wedding march, but not the whole troupe was there and the "ringmaster" had to go looking for them. As the troupe members started to show up, they were still doing up the buttons of their shirts or tucking their shirts into their pants, or wearing only their wife beater shirts. The impression I got was that they were all having sex in the back, some sort of circus orgy.
Then came the big wedding banquet, which was the ultimate demonstration of why you shouldn't have too many things happening on the stage. You had people stacking chairs and forcing others to climb them, while in the background there was flips being done on the banquet table, people dancing on the banquet table, and someone juggling balls off the banquet table.
Even the finale was strange. It gave everyone a chance to do their flips and such, but after it was all over, they started doing more stuff, including dancing in the rain, and then they all abruptly left the stage. For 10 seconds, no one knew if it was over or what, until the house lights came on.
All in all, I would give it a 3.5 out of 5. There's a lot of potential here, but it was all flushed down the toilet by distractions and a very feeble attempt at comic relief.
The show started fashionably late, but I was pretensious enough to be okay with that. For the first half an hour, it had the feel of a darkened strip club.
First up, appropriately enough, was the introduction. It set the tune for the rest of the crap that tried to pass as comic relief. I didn't notice the crapiness at first as this segment was short enough that it was forgivable. I just hate comedy involving people who interrupt others, and at least half of the comedy in the comic relief segments were the two hosts (and/or other members of the troupe) interrupting each other. The one comic relief segment that didn't have these interruptions were quite well done, but more on that later.
The first act had a giant stripper pole in it. The unfortunate part was that it was a man sliding up and down the stripper pole. The fortunate part was that he remained clothed and he was quite good, climbing up and then sliding down the pole quickly upside down, stopping inches from turning his head into mush. He did this several times, much to the delight of the audience.
I'm not sure what came directly after that, but then came the contortionist. There was lots of moaning and groaning from the audience as she twisted herself into impossible positions. There was a muscular, half-naked black man playing some sort of percussion instrument and singing. There were also four guys just sitting and watching. And nothing could disturb them from their evening of pleasure, not even the rain that started to fall about halfway through the act. Speaking of disturbing, the whole act had this sort of creepy feel to it. It was like watching the guys in "pervert's row" at a strip club. It wouldn't have surprised me if one of the guys tried to give stuff a $20 bill down the contortionist's top. Don't get me wrong. I thoroughly enjoyed this act, but I think it would have been better without the distractions.
And that's another bad thing about the whole show. There was usually too much going on, and sometimes the main act on the stage was being upstaged by all the "comic relief" that was happening at the same time. At least twice, I almost missed some amazing feat of acrobatics because the "idiot" host was running around at the front of the stage.
In what was the best comic relief segment, the two hosts combined to do a fake contortionist act, by having the two of them act as one body. The segment moved quickly, didn't rely on interruptions to create humour, and was genuinely funny.
Another quirk about this show is the costumes. All the men looked like they had just finished a day of raising barns, with their simple outfits of a white shirt, black suspenders, and dark pants. Either that, or they were dressed in their undergarments of wife beater shirts and boxers. Most of the time, the women worn similar outfits, or worn dresses (even wedding dresses) that looked like they just wrapped themselves in the nearest bed sheets. My wife attributed this to the fact that it was supposed to be night time and they were getting ready for bed, but the show is supposed to be about dreams, and the costumes just didn't do anything to further that. In fact, not much in the show did anything to further that theme.
The first time I truly realized that the comic relief was a pile of steaming something was when the hosts came back and attempted to do some sort of song, but there were lots of interruptions and quickly my thoughts turned to "When is this pain going to stop?" It was truly an SNL skit gone too long, and that's saying a lot. Actually, it might be more accurate to say it was a worse version of the Mad TV crumping clowns, and that is definitely saying a lot. It was comic relief that was neither comical nor a relief, except when it ended.
Some of the brain cells that I lost waiting for that skit to be over probably contained memories of good parts of the show (people doing flips off a teeter-tooter maybe). I truly don't remember anything until two groups of barn-raising men and women showed up in what I thought was going to be some Amish version of West Side Story. There were confrontations, and push and shoving, and then someone brought out the really big sticks. From where I was sitting, they were probably about 4 inches wide and 15 feet long. Women from each side of the fight climbed onto the sticks and were flung into the air, flipping and then landing back on the stick. Excellent showcase of the skills of this troupe.
The intermission came and went pretty quickly. Immediately after the intermission was the most memorable and best act of the evening. It had it all - hot chick with a French accent, exceptional skill on a trapeze, and humour. Right in the middle of the act as the trapeze artist was talking about how she was waiting for 'er lover on a white 'orse, and naming the different stunts she was showing, she let out a scream worthy of any B-movie queen, and the audience gasped in unison. Of course, she didn't really slip off the trapeze, and shyly she asked, "Did I scare you?" This act had no interruptions until it was almost over, so we were able to focus entirely on the main event.
What I remember coming next was another useless comic relief act, that cost me more brain cells (because I know something interesting came after the trapeze act, but I can't remember what - juggling maybe). It had me thinking, "These are 10 minutes of my life that I will never get back". It had something to do with the orchestra coming out to perform as part of a wedding march, but not the whole troupe was there and the "ringmaster" had to go looking for them. As the troupe members started to show up, they were still doing up the buttons of their shirts or tucking their shirts into their pants, or wearing only their wife beater shirts. The impression I got was that they were all having sex in the back, some sort of circus orgy.
Then came the big wedding banquet, which was the ultimate demonstration of why you shouldn't have too many things happening on the stage. You had people stacking chairs and forcing others to climb them, while in the background there was flips being done on the banquet table, people dancing on the banquet table, and someone juggling balls off the banquet table.
Even the finale was strange. It gave everyone a chance to do their flips and such, but after it was all over, they started doing more stuff, including dancing in the rain, and then they all abruptly left the stage. For 10 seconds, no one knew if it was over or what, until the house lights came on.
All in all, I would give it a 3.5 out of 5. There's a lot of potential here, but it was all flushed down the toilet by distractions and a very feeble attempt at comic relief.
posted by Frank Yao | 4:53 PM
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