I just caught the last twenty minutes or so of this wild show on Bravo and it had me strangely hypnotized. Looking at their web site, it seems they won’t be in my neck o’ the woods until Fall of 2001, so I’m going to have to go to Tower Video and see if they have anything for me to get a bigger bite than I had this morning.
Tickets $155 for VIP seats- critiques revues anyone?
Manual sig line #27
Sure, it sounds like a circus. But there are no tigers or peanuts or cotton candy, or smelly carnies named Hank with small hands. You’re better off investing that $155 into the IPO of my company, Breckinshire Industries. We make transparent plastic toilet seats.
I’ve seen two of their shows live (Mystere and Quidam, which is the one you just saw on Bravo), plus have three shows on tape and one on DVD. My wall is festooned with Cirque posters. I’m a bit of a fan.
The shows are well worth the ticket price, although I’ve never heard of them being as expensive as you list…their touring shows are usually in the $45 range for the best seats. Whaddaya get for a ‘VIP’ ticket? Oh, and, based as they are in Quebec, their operators have the sexiest accents when you call about tickets…
Cirque du Soleil is absolutely amazing, and each new show is better than the last. I eagerly await the chance (and the funding) to return to Vegas and catch O, their show at Bellagio. O uses a massive 1.5 million gallon water tank; all performances are in or above the water (on a barge or up near the ceiling; you know circus folks).
I know for sure that three shows are out on videotape, Cirque Reinvente, Nouvelle Expérience, and Saltimbanco. Quidam is out on DVD, but I don’t know if it can be bought on VHS, although I’d imagine so. Cirque Reinvente is the oldest and most primitive of the shows; they really hadn’t found their voice yet, although the performances are still pretty good, especially the Mad Conductor.
The music is mighty good, too. Think about getting some CDs. The CD from Quidam is an enhanced CD, so you’ll get pictures, video, and the like if you put it in a CD-ROM drive.
And, in visiting their website, I see that the DVD for the movie Alegría is available…time to order. hehehe. I’m such a pathetic addict…
I caught part of their show on a canadian special one night. I was mesmerized. I can only imagine what it would be like to see it in real life.
Forget Breckenshire’s transparant toilet seats, buy my IPO of Ujest Inc, we manufacture the Emperor’s Clothing.
The Dralion VIP Package includes:
•One of the best seats in the house (Section 100, 101 or 102).
•Complimentary preferred parking
•Personalized will-call service and a warm Cirque du Soleil welcome
•Access to the comfortable Lincoln Suite via an exclusive entrance. Your experience begins one hour before the show
•An array of gourmet horse doovers 
and variety of refreshments
•Beverages and an assortment of desserts during the intermission
•A closer look at Cirque du Soleil, provided by our entertaining hosts and a unique exhibit
•Priority purchasing from the vast selection of Cirque du Soleil merchandise. No line-ups here
•A complimentary souvenir program. Take the experience home with you
•An exclusive Dralion gift
I figure if I’m gonna go, I’m gonna go.
Manual sig line #28
And monkeys. They got no monkeys!
<about to be shot with a tranquilizer dart by several art lovers>
That’s kind of the reason I don’t go to the traditional circus any more. I’ve been twice in my life and each time I was not amused by the enslaved animals. If I want monkeys, I’ll go to the zoo- at least there, the animals have a reasonable facsimile of a home & don’t live out their lives in leg chains.
Oh, and it just plain stunk.
Manual sig line #29
Sorry for being a bit offtopic, but do any of the circus lovers here know if/when the acrobats of the Peking Circus (Not the “Peking Acrobats” - who are now the New Shanghai Acrobats, anyway) are touring abroad again?
I have a firm certainty that I’ll find about about it after they return home
I once flew to Ottawa to see Saltimbanco.
I am a fan. 
there is an IMAX movie coming out that features Cirque du Soleil… looks interesting.
[hijack]
Opus, I agree wholeheartedly with you about the way animals are treated in a circus environment, and also prefer the zoo. Thankfully, circuses aren’t really popular anymore, and I haven’t heard of one coming to my area in years.
[/hijack]
Well you can call me the crazy guy who got the VIP package. I bought the tickets for my SO for her birthday and it was AWESOME. I had seen Saltimbanco years ago and I loved it and wanted to go back, my girlfriend had seen the ads on TV and thought it would be really cool, and her birthday was coming up so…voila!
The gifts they give you are a free program and a cool little CD holder, with Dralion stamped on the cover. It has a weird shimmery blue look to it. Also free beer, wine and soda, and TONS of little snacks. You also got to meet some of the preformers and buy merchandise with no line. Plus it just makes you feel cool. We had our own entrance to the main tent, so we did not have to stand outside in the rain waiting to get in. We also got parking about 10 feet from the entrace. To get to the VIP parking you have to cut in line and drive off to the side and show your tickets to some guy. About 10 cars saw me move over to the side of the line and followed me. Then when the guy told them this was for VIPs only they had to turn around and get back in at the end of the line. It was pretty funny.
I personally thought it was worth it and so did my SO. She is still rewarding me for that present.
-N
Normal circuses are very lame because of their high animal-abuse factor. But Cirque du Soleil strikes me as a bunch of holier-than-thou, Euro-foofoo artistes … if I wanted to see a bunch of fancy-pants mimes, I’d - oh wait, I never want to see a bunch of fancy-pants mimes!
But I HAVE seen the Chinese acrobats, and as far as I could tell they are little more than abused animals themselves.
I saw the Cirque du Soleil show Quidam when it came to Atlanta a year or so ago. It was terrific.
On Valentine’s Day of this year I saw the Cirque du Soleil IMAX movie, Journey of Man. Ho hum, I say, ho hum! The sensawonda of the circus did not transfer to the screen, unfortunately.
Then, when I was in Las Vegas earlier this year I saw Mystere, which is CdS’s resident show at the Treasure Island casino. It was even better than Quidam.
Then, two nights later and still in Vegas, I saw O, the CdS resident show at the Bellagio. It was easily five times better than Mystere! The water tank seemed to add so many possibilities to the production, while removing none that the other shows had. If you’re ever in Vegas, even at $100 a ticket, this is a no-misser.
I understand there are resident shows at Beau Rivage in Biloxi and Disney World in Florida (Allegria and La Nouba, respectively. If you get near either of those places, check 'em out.
The resident shows have an advantage over the touring shows like Quidam, because they can use permanent and therefore more elaborate fixtures for the acts (like water tanks, for example).
I am |–| <---- That close to buying tickets right now.
Somebody stop me!
::sound of me nudging Mr. Cynical that last millimeter::
Go for it, you’ll never regret it!!
The decline of the Big Top constitutes one of the major cultural advances of the late 20th century.
I hate Cirque de Soleil, too. The irritating animal abuse is absent, true, but the vague uneasy and spooky feeling a Sensitive Aesthete like myself always experiences at the circus is cranked up to an unbearable degree.
Contortionists and evil clowns and Kurt Weill-type music…I’ll just stay home and have my nightmares, thank you.
“Contortionists and evil clowns and Kurt Weill-type music.”
—Now, if THAT’S what SD get-togethers were like, I’d start goin’ again!
I bought Quidam a few days ago & have watched it every day since. The other’s don’t seem to be available on VHS. Now I have to buy a damn DVD player :mad:
Manual sig line #51
Hey, I like my circus scary and depressing, I’ve been to the Great Circus of Moscow! Besides, all clowns are evil, you know that!
BTW, thank you for your book recommendation (Donald Westlake). And sorry I’m late, but I didn’t have the heart to drag the old thread up.