My Cirque du Soleil Weekend
Well, what can I say about this weekend but WOW!!
It has truly been the Cirque du Soleil weekend for me and my husband.
I just love the REAL WORLD!!!! You can not get this type of experience sitting behind your computer screen, I can promise you that!
Remember when I said my real life was pretty freaking spectacular??...well this is one of those weekends that makes me getting back into my real life so wonderful.
This weekend we got comp tickets for not just one Cirque show but TWO!!! Delirium and Zumanity. Not only did we get to see two fantastic shows, but we got to see them for free...I can't think of how it could have been any better and both times our seats were fabulous.
Now, the first show I ever saw by Cirque du Soleil was "Nouvelle Experience" when they had it at the Mirage. I never got the fat lady with her weird spikey hair and the costumes. I was a little taken aback by it.
Then I saw "Mystere" over at Treasure Island, I never understood why there was a guy in a bird costume throwing breadcrumbs at me....
Eight years later, I moved to Montreal. I got a face full of Quebecois culture, and understood much better why Cirque was the way it was...here is how my husband explained it to me...
"Cirque really started in the streets of Montreal. They were comprised of street performers. It was their goal to make the humans the animals in the show. If you really sit down and think about it, in a land with 6 months of winter, you have a lot of time to dream. That is what Cirque is based around, dreams and fantasy."
I can now say after I have lived in Montreal, the birthplace of Cirque, and come back to Vegas, that I can now say that I "get" Cirque. Before, it didn't make sense. Now that I have lived in the culture that it was borne from and embraced the French artistic style, it is now absolutely beautiful. I have a new perspective on it, a more worldly one. So if you look at Cirque from a "worldly" perspective, it makes perfect sense. I even told my husband after Delirium, I would have preferred that the voice overs were done in French...because French is such a wonderfully florid, expressive and descriptive language. It's beautiful to listen to even if you don't understand it and it brings more beauty and expressiveness to the Cirque shows.
Look at it now...you can't go into a casino on the strip without seeing a billboard for a Cirque du Soleil show. I don't mind at all...in fact, I love it. It made me want to fly up to Montreal and go eat. Montreal is home of some of the most stupendous food I've ever eaten. I miss Montreal for a lot of reasons, the culture, the architecture, and the feel of the city, but the minute the snow starts to fall, I want the hell out of there. Now that I've experienced 3 Canadian winters, I'll be damned if I ever do it again. Nonetheless, Cirque reminds me why Montreal is such a special place. I love the fact that they've taken the Circus to a higher art form. They have done away with the trained animals and replaced it with the ULITMATE trained animal, the human body. They celebrate humanity and I believe that the performers coupled with Guy Laliberte's vision make for spectacular shows.
Now, my mother...she doesn't get Cirque, she hated Nouvelle Experience, she was OK with Mystere, but she loved O. The two shows I saw this weekend, Delirium and Zumanity...well, let's just put it this way, she would have possibly liked Delirium, but she outright told me that she had seen Zumanity and hated it.
My mother called Zumanity "filth". I thought exactly the opposite...I thought that Zumanity was an exploration into sensuality and sexuality...or to put it the way my husband does so beautifully in French, "sexualite". It summed up all of the different parts of sexuality and sensuality, whether your taste be for straight "Vanilla" sex, gay/lesbian, BDSM...you name it and it was a part of Zumanity. They call the cast "The Human Zoo". Let me tell you this, if you don't have a good grip on your sexuality, then this might not be the show for you to see, but if you have a firm grip on it, then Zumanity is AWESOME.
And I just found out...well, you know me, I'm a fan of Jean-Paul Gaultier, John Galliano, etc...well, the costumes for Zumanity, well they were done by the one and only Theirry Mugler.
The show was kicked off by a couple, she was your typical, loud mouthed American, but the guy, well, I called him Monsueuir Phallus because he had a very Quebec French accent, so in a way he reminded me of me and my husband, me with my American accent and him with his french accent. Every couple of minutes Monsueir Phallus was pulling un phallus out of his pocket. Yes, they were dildos, but it was hysterical...I prefer to call it "un phallus" it doesn't sound so dirty. LOL.
The Mistress of Ceremonies...well she was a he, but we couldn't tell until he dropped his voice towards the end of the show...to make it even funnier, he looked almost IDENTICALLY to one of our friends in Montreal...a dominatrix named Fetisha. So we just kept calling Her...um...him...Fetisha...LOL. What was so cool, and I found out later, his name is Joey...Joey's microphone was always some sort of BDSM instrument...first it was a bullwhip, then it became a horsehair flogger...Joey was absolutely awesome. He pulled off being a woman so well, and between his wit and his ability to think on his feet, he really made the show special.
All in all, it was your standard Cirque show, with the scarf acrobats, the hula-hoop girl, the contortionists...ok, stop...the first set of contortionists was amazing, it was a pair of girls that were doing their act coming in and out of a crystal bowl filled with water. The second contortionist act was just one guy. Now what he did with his body, part of it, I couldn't watch because it freaked me out...but you could hear that the rest of the audience was doing the exact same thing I was because you could hear them gasp and go UGH...so the girls in the crystal bowl, awesome, the guy, gross. But it's the circus, so you have to expect that some things just won't agree with you.
The highlight of it for my husband and I both was the girl in latex doing her leather/rope bondage routine. Holy cow. It was awesome. They had a mic on her so you could hear all of what she was doing, the struggle, the muffled cries, oh man, she knew what she was talking about, that's all I'm going to say about it.
In all, I would go see Zumanity again and again. It was just so wonderful. I haven't had laughs like that in years. I would never think I would get that big of a kick out of a Vegas show...but it's Cirque, it's from Montreal...they don't abide by the Cookie Cutter Status Quo of the Las Vegas Strip...THANK GOD.
Now, that was tonight...let's talk about LAST night...Delirium.
Delirium is Cirque du Soleil live in concert. They bring the musicians to center stage. Usually, when you see a show by Cirque, the musicians are hidden...not in Delirium...the musicians and vocalists are the feature, the circus happens around them and accentuates them. All of the music in Delirium were actually revamped from songs that were taken from Cirque shows done in the past.
Zumanity was presented on more of a circular stage in their own theatre in the New York New York...Delirium was presented in the MGM Grand Garden Arena, because it is a travelling show. Delirium actually divided the Grand Garden in half and the stage ran through the middle of the audience. I can't really describe Delirium...it was music, but it was music that was expressed through the body. The story is that the main character is asleep and he floats around attached to balloon high above everyone below him. It is the story of his dreams or his "Delirium". I can't really describe it...it was beautiful. My advice, go see it when it comes to your town.
But all in all, if you ever get the chance...GO TO MONTREAL. Experience the culture, embrace the unique qualities of it's people, listen to the beauty of the French heritage and of its melodic language, walk down Ste. Catherine, Ste. Denis, go eat the rich and fabulous foods, and most of all take away with you the understanding and beauty of a rich and dynamic culture.
I've done it, and I can definitely say, I appreciate my husband and his culture much more now than ever. Having a little bit of Montreal in Las Vegas is a treat for me.
If you ever have time and the opportunity to see a Cirque show, just do it. You'll thank me for it!
Oh and...I loved it so much, I'm giving links on this one....
http://www.zumanity.com
http://www.cirquedusoleil.com
It has truly been the Cirque du Soleil weekend for me and my husband.
I just love the REAL WORLD!!!! You can not get this type of experience sitting behind your computer screen, I can promise you that!
Remember when I said my real life was pretty freaking spectacular??...well this is one of those weekends that makes me getting back into my real life so wonderful.
This weekend we got comp tickets for not just one Cirque show but TWO!!! Delirium and Zumanity. Not only did we get to see two fantastic shows, but we got to see them for free...I can't think of how it could have been any better and both times our seats were fabulous.
Now, the first show I ever saw by Cirque du Soleil was "Nouvelle Experience" when they had it at the Mirage. I never got the fat lady with her weird spikey hair and the costumes. I was a little taken aback by it.
Then I saw "Mystere" over at Treasure Island, I never understood why there was a guy in a bird costume throwing breadcrumbs at me....
Eight years later, I moved to Montreal. I got a face full of Quebecois culture, and understood much better why Cirque was the way it was...here is how my husband explained it to me...
"Cirque really started in the streets of Montreal. They were comprised of street performers. It was their goal to make the humans the animals in the show. If you really sit down and think about it, in a land with 6 months of winter, you have a lot of time to dream. That is what Cirque is based around, dreams and fantasy."
I can now say after I have lived in Montreal, the birthplace of Cirque, and come back to Vegas, that I can now say that I "get" Cirque. Before, it didn't make sense. Now that I have lived in the culture that it was borne from and embraced the French artistic style, it is now absolutely beautiful. I have a new perspective on it, a more worldly one. So if you look at Cirque from a "worldly" perspective, it makes perfect sense. I even told my husband after Delirium, I would have preferred that the voice overs were done in French...because French is such a wonderfully florid, expressive and descriptive language. It's beautiful to listen to even if you don't understand it and it brings more beauty and expressiveness to the Cirque shows.
Look at it now...you can't go into a casino on the strip without seeing a billboard for a Cirque du Soleil show. I don't mind at all...in fact, I love it. It made me want to fly up to Montreal and go eat. Montreal is home of some of the most stupendous food I've ever eaten. I miss Montreal for a lot of reasons, the culture, the architecture, and the feel of the city, but the minute the snow starts to fall, I want the hell out of there. Now that I've experienced 3 Canadian winters, I'll be damned if I ever do it again. Nonetheless, Cirque reminds me why Montreal is such a special place. I love the fact that they've taken the Circus to a higher art form. They have done away with the trained animals and replaced it with the ULITMATE trained animal, the human body. They celebrate humanity and I believe that the performers coupled with Guy Laliberte's vision make for spectacular shows.
Now, my mother...she doesn't get Cirque, she hated Nouvelle Experience, she was OK with Mystere, but she loved O. The two shows I saw this weekend, Delirium and Zumanity...well, let's just put it this way, she would have possibly liked Delirium, but she outright told me that she had seen Zumanity and hated it.
My mother called Zumanity "filth". I thought exactly the opposite...I thought that Zumanity was an exploration into sensuality and sexuality...or to put it the way my husband does so beautifully in French, "sexualite". It summed up all of the different parts of sexuality and sensuality, whether your taste be for straight "Vanilla" sex, gay/lesbian, BDSM...you name it and it was a part of Zumanity. They call the cast "The Human Zoo". Let me tell you this, if you don't have a good grip on your sexuality, then this might not be the show for you to see, but if you have a firm grip on it, then Zumanity is AWESOME.
And I just found out...well, you know me, I'm a fan of Jean-Paul Gaultier, John Galliano, etc...well, the costumes for Zumanity, well they were done by the one and only Theirry Mugler.
The show was kicked off by a couple, she was your typical, loud mouthed American, but the guy, well, I called him Monsueuir Phallus because he had a very Quebec French accent, so in a way he reminded me of me and my husband, me with my American accent and him with his french accent. Every couple of minutes Monsueir Phallus was pulling un phallus out of his pocket. Yes, they were dildos, but it was hysterical...I prefer to call it "un phallus" it doesn't sound so dirty. LOL.
The Mistress of Ceremonies...well she was a he, but we couldn't tell until he dropped his voice towards the end of the show...to make it even funnier, he looked almost IDENTICALLY to one of our friends in Montreal...a dominatrix named Fetisha. So we just kept calling Her...um...him...Fetisha...LOL. What was so cool, and I found out later, his name is Joey...Joey's microphone was always some sort of BDSM instrument...first it was a bullwhip, then it became a horsehair flogger...Joey was absolutely awesome. He pulled off being a woman so well, and between his wit and his ability to think on his feet, he really made the show special.
All in all, it was your standard Cirque show, with the scarf acrobats, the hula-hoop girl, the contortionists...ok, stop...the first set of contortionists was amazing, it was a pair of girls that were doing their act coming in and out of a crystal bowl filled with water. The second contortionist act was just one guy. Now what he did with his body, part of it, I couldn't watch because it freaked me out...but you could hear that the rest of the audience was doing the exact same thing I was because you could hear them gasp and go UGH...so the girls in the crystal bowl, awesome, the guy, gross. But it's the circus, so you have to expect that some things just won't agree with you.
The highlight of it for my husband and I both was the girl in latex doing her leather/rope bondage routine. Holy cow. It was awesome. They had a mic on her so you could hear all of what she was doing, the struggle, the muffled cries, oh man, she knew what she was talking about, that's all I'm going to say about it.
In all, I would go see Zumanity again and again. It was just so wonderful. I haven't had laughs like that in years. I would never think I would get that big of a kick out of a Vegas show...but it's Cirque, it's from Montreal...they don't abide by the Cookie Cutter Status Quo of the Las Vegas Strip...THANK GOD.
Now, that was tonight...let's talk about LAST night...Delirium.
Delirium is Cirque du Soleil live in concert. They bring the musicians to center stage. Usually, when you see a show by Cirque, the musicians are hidden...not in Delirium...the musicians and vocalists are the feature, the circus happens around them and accentuates them. All of the music in Delirium were actually revamped from songs that were taken from Cirque shows done in the past.
Zumanity was presented on more of a circular stage in their own theatre in the New York New York...Delirium was presented in the MGM Grand Garden Arena, because it is a travelling show. Delirium actually divided the Grand Garden in half and the stage ran through the middle of the audience. I can't really describe Delirium...it was music, but it was music that was expressed through the body. The story is that the main character is asleep and he floats around attached to balloon high above everyone below him. It is the story of his dreams or his "Delirium". I can't really describe it...it was beautiful. My advice, go see it when it comes to your town.
But all in all, if you ever get the chance...GO TO MONTREAL. Experience the culture, embrace the unique qualities of it's people, listen to the beauty of the French heritage and of its melodic language, walk down Ste. Catherine, Ste. Denis, go eat the rich and fabulous foods, and most of all take away with you the understanding and beauty of a rich and dynamic culture.
I've done it, and I can definitely say, I appreciate my husband and his culture much more now than ever. Having a little bit of Montreal in Las Vegas is a treat for me.
If you ever have time and the opportunity to see a Cirque show, just do it. You'll thank me for it!
Oh and...I loved it so much, I'm giving links on this one....
http://www.zumanity.com
http://www.cirquedusoleil.com
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