When I saw the signs all over town advertising the local circus and proclaiming, “Joyful Fun Excited Wonderful,” I figured it was time to re-visit the Big Top.
My previous visit to Hong Kanyasin was stellar, but I hadn’t felt inspired to see it twice. The signs’ claim of “New Update” intrigued me, though. I couldn’t resist checking it out.
Some parts of the show stayed the same: the bizarre snake act to the tune of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” the girls who danced with fire, the contortionist partner stunts, the hula hoop ladies, the tumbling boys, and the bedazzled dogs.
Some parts of the show had been mercifully cut: most notably, the lame fedora juggling act and the insanely safety-free trampoline routine.
Some parts of the show were same same but different: The ribbon acrobatics no longer featured a scared solitary young lady dangling from a rope, who tripped and missed her entry cue last time. Now the act has new bright red ribbons and two performers, who masterfully whipped through the air, twirling and dropping, catching each other, and landing light as feathers back on the ground. The clown act also got a make-over. Same clowns, better costumes, funnier routines. And the tumblers added a bit of successful slapstick to their act.
Some parts of the show comprised the “New Update”: Kudos to the new-and-improved jugglers; daggers are much more entertaining than hats. But, oh, how to adequately describe the pathetic Lao Elvis magician? He wore a black wig with muttonchops, a sparkly black suit, and platform shoes. So wrong. So so so wrong. Most of his tricks involved sleight-of-hand, which we couldn’t really see from the cheap seats. (They’re all cheap seats.) But he performed each trick with ridiculous flair. He had a magic box, from which emerged rabbits and doves and finally, to our great amusement, a couple of chickens. One of the chickens made a break for it, running and squawking and evading the flustered handler. Lao Elvis dramatically levitated a small table while the crowd howled with laughter at the chicken going cock-a-doodle-cuckoo.
I wish I had a better photo of Lao Elvis, but I took this with my phone.
Curiosity satisfied, this sucker likely won’t return to the circus. I encourage everyone to see Hong Kanyasin once. But that ought to do it.
