Unrefined Awesome

Update 23/5/09: I’ve been informed that a number of the performers we saw are no longer with Circus Latino.  It is therefore likely that the following review may not reflect any future performances of the circus.

For our weekly tradition of not-so-random-Wednesday the girls and I visited “Circus Latino”, a circus we’d spotted setting up last week next to the fire station in Frankston.  While a night at the circus was a nice change and gave us something different to do for the week I could not recommend this particular circus to others at present; Silver’s Circus is apparently also in the area and — in spite of not having seen them for several years — given the good experiences I’ve had with their shows in the past would guess they may be worth a look instead.  (EDIT: For an alternative point of view you can also find a more positive review of an older Circus Latino performance linked by one of my commenters here.  Note that the current performance sounds significantly different to that described in the linked review.) So, why wasn’t I impressed with Circus Latino’s current act?

1. Entry was a bit costly for my liking at $25 for a general-admission adult ticket.  I havn’t visited a circus in several years and so have no idea of the average pricing but had been expecting cheaper.  Although unexpectedly high I might have considered the fee worth it if the show itself had been better.  Family and concession (with a fairly limited definition of concession) discounts were available but not relevant to us.
2. The performance was a little clown-heavy for my liking.  This particular circus had only a single clown — I don’t personally particularly enjoy clowns other than in smaller doses, your opinion may differ — but still had almost every second act on stage some sort of caper involving him.  I also use the word “act” in the case of the clown particularly loosely; he twice came out  with nothing but a large ball which he repeatedly threw into the crowd and made people bounce it back — a trick which doesn’t work particularly well when most of the seats are empty (but admittedly may have been better with a fuller crowd) — once was fine, but twice simply seemed uneccesary.  These acts may have been more popular with children, although my friend Heather tells me the girls she looks after for work would have been terrified of the act with the ball.
3. The audio was terrible.  The Ringmaster’s (note there is a stage rather than a traditional ring at Circus Latino) microphone failed to work numerous times, and the music distorted and/or suffered from random interference sounds throughout the show.  This is unfortunate given an excellent choice of music to support the performance and the fact that this was probably beyond the control of the circus; if however this is a regular occurance and not a one-off something should be done about it.
4. Only one of the three people who attempted juggling as part of their act actually succeeded.  He still dropped a couple of things, but I personally think that’s fine as long as it happens less than the actual succesful juggling, and his act was otherwise quite well performed and entertaining.  The other two performers who attempted to juggle however didn’t succeed at all and ended up simply giving up on it.
5. At one point a performer came out with bubble mix and various rings and pieces of equipment for making bubbles.  They failed to make any however, and after several failed attempts and much apologetic shrugging the performer simply gave up and left.  This may have been less of a problem if the performer had given up sooner when it became obvious the trick wasn’t working, but rather than doing so they proceeded to attempt the entire act, including calling a little girl from the audience on stage to help with yet another failed trick.  This potentially cool act was unfortunately one of the biggest negatives of the performance.
6. Some of the costumes were incredibly inappropriate for the body-types of the performers wearing them.

All that being said, there were some impressive acts and if you happen to particularly like clowns you might enjoy the show more.  Definitely don’t let this review stop you from giving this circus a chance if you happen to stumble upon it at a later date, they definitely had the potential to put on a much better act with some more work.