Kooza: Cirque Du Soleil

Both William and I LOVE Cirque Du Soleil. I've seen: Mystere, O, Ka, and Corteo and William has seen: Corteo, Allegria, and Varekai. But, we have never seen one together as a couple. So, as an early Valentine's gift, we went on Tuesday night to their traveling production KOOZA in San Jose.

So, what exactly does "Kooza" mean? Even after seeing it, I'm still a little fuzzy on it. But, reading the little blurb on the website did clear some things up about it. It's about a boy named "Innocent" (you don't know his name in the show)- a loner who is trying to find his place in the world. He meets all of these different characters along this journey. There's the very basic synopsis.

Here's William excited to go inside for the show

The performance was held inside this giant circus type tent and I thought that it looked so neat so you can enjoy another photo of it in all its splendor

And just in case you didn't believe it was really Cirque Du Soleil, here's a close up of the name on the tent

We actually had AMAZING seats for the performance- just a few rows back and off to the left side. It really gave a more intimate experience

And I LOVED where they housed the orchestra and was the main entrance for the performers- it kind of reminds me of something that would be in Phantom of the Opera.

The show itself was fairly unique in that it was more in a traditional "circus" style with more emphasis on the clowns and then center performances. I know that I wrote earlier about my dislike of clowns, but these ones weren't too scary. I think it is because these ones actually talked some. They did require a lot of audience participation for the skits. At the beginning, one of th clowns had a leaf blower and was messung up people's hair and he even blew out the full tub of popcorn from one of the people on the front row! That guy just looked so mad that he had lost all of his popcorn. William was just happy that the didn't do that to ours and that we were several rows back. Another clown sketch had a lady come up from the audience and "magically disappear" off stage to later reappear after one of the acts. We though it was kind of unfair that she had to miss one of the acts- hopefully, they let her watch it backstage. One man from the audience came up on stage only to be completely pick pocketed, and he was totally unaware of what went on! And finally, one woman in the audience was taken on the ride of her life when her chair just shot up and down into the air! She had the best reaction- she was just laughing and would make a few scared type noises as it happened- she was even in the middle of the theater. That must have been a shocker to have been airborne.

Speaking of popcorn, we got some and I only had a little because it was so salty, but William ate the rest and so at intermission, he was dying of thirst and of course, no drinking fountains in the tent and so we bought a soda. Its actually a great marketing ploy because they charge so much for each and they probably purposefully make the popcorn so salty that you have to buy a drink to satiate your thirst. Those business people think of everything! The drink made us laugh because as we looked down at our cup, we saw this

Wait- I thought that we were here seeing Kooza. Wasn't Varekai that the LAST show that was on tour??? I guess hat they had a lot of cups left over and so they just decided to be "green" and not let them go to waste. (And save them a few greenbacks as well).

The tricks themselves were incredible, as always. Individuals rolled around on top of giant plastic balls and even added additional people on their shoulders while riding them. A few of the "not as cool" ones was a guy who stacked up about 13 chairs high and did handstands on top of them. It just seemed little too easy as the chairs all fit perfectly. Some of the cooler ones were: the caged hamster like balls that rotated around and 2 guys pushed them and jumped around on top of them (I actually liked the version they have in KA better), the Gumby girls- these 3 girls who are insanely flexible and it is slightly disturbing, yet fascinating at how they move their bodies (probably less disturbing since there is choreography), a guy and girl doing lift and dance moves while he is on a unicycle, 4 trapeze artists who 2 rode bikes while another guy sat on a chair balanced on a rod between them, and my personal favorites- people who were on stilts who would be catapulted while still on the stilts, flip around, and then land ON THEIR STILTS on a soft mat! It was unbelievable! One of the tricks didn't work (they tried it twice) was a guy standing on another guy's shoulder and then a third guy was catapulted up to land on top of them after spinning 3 times in the air. I just think that the angular momentum of the spinning guy is too much to suddenly stop and land perfectly on another guy's shoulders. We enjoyed the show- it wasn't nearly as "odd" or "bizarre" as some of the other performances we have seen. And we are looking forward to the next 2 performances we will see next week!