totem

working at the circus has a few perks. i get to treat (mostly) ridiculously fit, (generally) motivated athletes who injure themselves doing things that would hurt mere mortals just thinking about. i get to watch training sessions if/when i have spare time in my schedule. i get to tell people that i'm a carnie... and every now and again, i get to see a show. sure, we had to beg and plead for tickets, but my colleagues and i managed to get to the dress rehearsal of Totem, the current show living at the old port in montreal.

i'm pretty sure that totem tells the story of evolution. there's an "old guy" who plays darwin (who does a nifty juggling act), some monkeys, a few cavemen and nearing the end, some spacemen. i actually felt like i got the gist of this show. which, to be honest, may be a first. not that i've seen that many shows but i don't think i ever really "got" one before. (frankly, i don't think anyone gets them. but i digress)

the show opens with a human water-droplet falling from the sky (until i started writing this, i was convinced they were a disco ball but now that i think about it, it doesn't make sense. water it is). there is a lot of water in the theme- a lot of unnecessarily scantily clad folk (mostly men, so it was fine really) in beach-type scenarios. the monkeys, who bring forth a planet-of-the-apes sub-theme, also reappear often throughout the show. the monkeys are played by humans (because cirque never uses animals) and are incredibly lifelike. a few times during the show, i had to remind myself that they were just men in costumes, not monkeys.

the highlights of totem, in my opinion (without giving away too much) are the duo-trapeze number,  the unicycle act, and last but not least, the russian bar routine.

though, to be honest, the whole thing was just amazing.
xo