I attended 3 shows (blue dots in the map below):
11:48 pm, 25 March 2006 (after my 1st show). I just got home from a Long Beach performance. Overall the experience was out-of-this-world excellent (my first time in the tent); however, I was quite disappointed by the omission of the Statue act. I had also hoped to see the Handbalancing act, but on this date, Zoe's father did Juggling. But since I love the song Rivage (on the CD, but not the video), I was pleasantly surprised to find out this was the Juggling music. Only a few minor glitches in the show: one Diabolos spool was dropped; one Skipping Rope jumper got snagged; Target dropped one of the balls during the Juggling; Cloud Swing lady had a close call (got a little twisted near the end). The clown movie-filming gag went way too long due to the L.A. idiots chosen to participate. The Banquine pinnacle was flawless. So were German Wheel & Silk Contortion. In spite of the Diabolos glitch, it was probably the most impressive act overall.
08:26 pm, 26 March 2006. I just purchased another ticket to give them another chance next month (& hope I'll get to see the Handbalancing &/or Statue). By the way, the crowd let out the loudest gasp of the evening when the Diabolos girl made the mistake, but what was so impressive--& possibly the loudest applause of the performance--was when she repeated the sequence successfully. It was awesome! It was also impressive how the musical director was able to repeat the music as if on cue.
10:56 pm, 2 April 2006. I keep forgetting to mention how neat it is to hear the Diabolos whirring sound; it doesn't come across the Quidam video. I also meant to say how I was struck by how small the Quidam figure was; I expected him to be much taller based on the image projected in the video. Maybe I was conditioned by the bigger-than-life Eddie character at Iron Maiden concerts. Also, the height of the Aerial Silk Contortion lady above the stage--as I approached the tent from outside, I thought, "Wow, that is really high--she's really gonna be up there!" but actually, the scaffolding rails that carry the floating performers out over the stage is itself much lower than the height of the tent. Nonetheless, considering how fast she drops during the strobe-lightning movement, it's quite amazing! And one other tidbit is the excellent sound system, especially effective during the Cloud Swing when the voice says, "Karma ... Karma ... What is right... And what is wrong..." Wild stuff! I'm going again this week & have a front-row seat awaiting!
01:36 am, 6 April 2006 (after my 2nd show). After picking up my ticket at Will Call, I sat in my car not too far from the tent (Grand Chapiteau). Around 6:30, I had the pleasant surprise of getting to hear a live rehearsal of Zoe singing a couple of my favorite songs, "Rivage" & "Seisouso". We've been having rainy/stormy weather earlier in the day, & in spite of a few wind gusts strong enough to shake my car, I was impressed by the absolute stillness of the tent, even as the 4 flags atop were going crazy; it's solid as a rock!
The Saturday show was jam-packed; I couldn't see any empty seats. At tonight's, being a weeknight on an inclement day, sections 203 & 204 (the mid-priced seats) were almost completely empty. Also, there were no vendors outside giving away free Haagen-Dazs ice-cream samples!
Sitting on the front row was like having them perform in my small living room! I was amazed how rapidly Zoe & her parents run out to center stage in nearly pitch-black darkness for the opening. Probably the best thing about being so close was getting to make eye contact only a few feet away from some of the performers (especially Target on several occasions & the Cloud Swing lady during the finale). Seeing the Diabolos spools get tossed around from ground level, as the girls see them, is also spectacular. Feeling the breeze of the Aerial Hoops artists as they soar a few feet over your head is something that can't be experienced by watching a video!
I had wondered if I'd get to see one of the acts omitted from the show a couple weeks earlier, but tonight's set was identical. (I jotted down some notes on run times.) Unlike the other show, this one ran virtually flawless! The only performer who had an obvious glitch was Zoe's father during his juggling. The pinnacle of his performance near the end involves about 5 balls (it's tough to count because they fly through the air so fast), & he kept dropping the 5th one, but got it right on the 3rd attempt.
One minor downer was that Quidam seemed too stoic during John's dance with the coat-rack. On the video, Quidam is slapping his hand to the beat & gettin' into it. However the lead singer in the band was quite vivid throughout the show, especially during Carrousel. I've also been meaning to mention that I'm glad the lyrics followed the foreign-language version in the video during "Let Me Fall" (the English lyrics on the CD are the low-point of the recording, & wouldn't fit well at all with the spectacular, dramatic Silk Contortion act). As for the title song during the finale, it's terrific on the video & CD, & they do the foreign-language version from the video at the show.
09:28 pm, 13 April 2006. I watched the video again today & noticed 2 minor changes. The Aerial Hoops artists balance by a single foot in the video, but in the current tour, they also balance by tilting their heads back & dangle by their skull! You have to see it to believe it! And one of the Banquine girls is lifted up to the 3-man statue in the video, then let down just prior to the pinnacle event when the boy is launched & lands on top of the statue after doing a flip; but in the present show, the girl never goes up. It was interesting to hear the dramatic volume change in the music at key moments like this when the acrobats called out their cues to each other. One other difference I recall between both shows I saw, was that the Saturday March show had 2 different clowns doing the "car-drive date" & "silent-movie" routines; at this Wednesday April show, the same clown performed both.
11:50 pm, 16 April 2006 (after my 3rd show). This was the final show in Long Beach. I arrived early, just as the intermission for the 1:00 show ended. I was thrilled to hear the music (Reveil instead of Rivage) for the Statue act, which had been omitted from the 2 other shows I had seen. If you've seen the video, you know it has the spookiest of all the music, at times fading to complete silence ... except for an occasional double-boom, which thundered all the way out to the parking lot where I was. However, as it turns out, they omitted this act again for the 5:00 performance. What a bummer! So out of all the shows they did here, I randomly selected 3 identical sets. I spoke with an usher after the show who said he had worked about 40 of the performances, & Statue (which he called "Adam & Eve") was actually performed more frequently than the Juggling. He also noted that sometimes the Juggling replaced Aerial Contortion in Silk.
Another minor difference that I noticed at the end of the 1:00 show, was that the singer read the list of all the performers' first-names at the closing. He also did it at this 5:00 show, but at neither of the other 2 shows described above. And tonight there were only 4 instead of 5 veiled ladies doing the strangulation/hanging supplement to Cloud Swing. And the music for Cloud Swing was a bit out of synch with her performance so she didn't get the applause she deserved (in my opinion).
There were a few minor glitches again tonight. I mention these not to degrade the performers; it's actually impressive how professional they are when they recover. Besides, it lets you know they're human, which is hard to fathom at times considering they perform 99.99% flawlessly! A Diabolos girl dropped a spool again during one of the most impressive feats where she tosses the spool, leap-frogs over another girl, flips, & catches it. An audience member returned it, & amazingly, she repeated the entire sequence flawlessly! I leaped out of my seat & gave her a standing ovation (the only one given by anybody during all 3 shows I saw, which surprised me a little). Also, John dropped one of his hoops from his handlebar-head performance when Zoe sings "Marelle". It's OK--she's never impressed by that stunt anyway! Another glitch occurred during the Juggling (something went wrong during all 3 shows I saw). This time he dropped 2 of the 5 balls, but had been working them for several seconds--he was probably just about to toss them to Target--so he did not repeat it.
Banquine was noticeably different--a little shorter. One of the impressive feats early on in the act is when 2 statues are formed by 8 Egares, each statue composed of 2 doing opposing handstands, then another stands with 1 foot on the back of each of their necks straddling them & holding their legs, & 1 other on top who does a 1-armed handstand. One group accomplished this, but the other Egar on top only stood upright. Also omitted from Banquine tonight only, was the spectacular opposing leaps, where one leaps from left-to-right across the stage, & the other leaps in the opposite direction above him while doing mid-air flips. It's amazing how they make so many subtle changes like this; you'd think they'd be identical every time because the choreography is so complex!
I decided to stay afterwards, & was rewarded by the appearance of "John" (Mark Ward, who played the role of Quidam in the video) who came out to greet some friends of his. He was kind enough to autograph my ticket for me! During the Banquine act, one of the red balloons that had been released earlier floated down over the stage. It surprised me that the Egares ignored it, & that no other actors came out to retrieve it. It's here with me now, as a fond memento of an overall incredible experience. Thank you, Quidam! I trust we'll meet again some Grand day!