Jamie Fehr

Last Thursday (July 6th, 2006), I went to see Cirque de Soleil live in Málaga. And while the show was pretty exciting, you really need to hear the whole story.

It all started with some posters downtown that piqued my interest and led me to query my co-workers on their stance about seeing the show.

Beth and Kirsten agreed to go with me, we determined that it had to be during the week and that it had to be thursday night, because all the other evenings had world cup soccer. The next step was to order tickets, and I thought the internet would be a great place to do that.

I found the website for the show, and on the site was a little bitty that said something like for english customers in Spain call +34 602 252 263 to order tickets (oh yes, the site was in english). So I called the number and no one there spoke english. I understood that there would be someone tomorrow who would be able to help me, but I am North American and I wanted tickets now.

So I found a site that would do the booking online. It was all in Spanish, but that was okay, reading is easier than listening, and every one here has a thick Andulucian accent. And to clarify, I have never had a bad experience buying something online, but this time, when all was said and done, I did not have a receipt, and I had no instructions on how to redeem these expensive tickets I had just boughten. All I had was a phone number, great …

Oh yeah, this all happened late on the Tuesday before the show.

So on the Wednesday before the show, I was surfing the net and found that the site mails goods that are purchased. This was terrible news because we only get mail on Mondays (it’s the summer and everyone is on vacation). So I had one of my more affluent co-workers call the phone number that I had. They told me that I could pick up my tickets at the circus grounds a half-hour before the show. I was still nervous about the whole deal, as I had spent nearly $300 (I bought tickets for Beth and Kirsten as well) and I had nothing to show for it.

Thursday

Work ended for the day, as it usually does, around Seven. I never leave at seven though, I guess I like it here. At any rate, Beth, Kirsten, and I, all got on a bus downtown, at which point we all realized that we were hungry. Fast food seemed in order because we only had 40 minutes to get to the Circus grounds and we had to catch another bus to get there.

Nothing is Fast in Spain, it took 13 minutes to order a burger and fires at Burger King and when I finally got the food, the portions were tiny. But it was tasty and it was my first fast food in Spain. Maybe one day I will write about the frustrating, patience testing experiences that the spaniards here have put me through.

So without further delay, we caught a bus to the circus grounds. I mean it went close to the circus grounds. Close is a relative term to me now, a walk of only one or two kilometers is close, a walk of six or more is still reasonable, therefore we were close, but we were bordering on late, and I still didn’t have tickets for the show. We didn’t run, because that wouldn’t be very spanish, but we made haste for the show, and when we got there we had covered a kilometer on foot in something like eight minutes to make us a mere 16 minutes late from my desired ETA, how very spanish of us.

Anticipating a line up and a serious hassle/run-around in redeeming my tickets I approached the gates agitated and apprehensive. But there was no line up at the ticket booth. And when I showed the kind lady in the ticket booth a printout from online purchase, a printout that had nothing but my name, the seats I had purchased and absolutely no confirmation number, she promptly passed my tickets and requested I initial a document. We were in!

The Cirque De Soleil

The circus was awesome. Drallion, the specific performance we went to see, was funny, colorful, and indescribably (oh yeah, indescribably is a word) awesome. I am pretty sure that I could of done half of the trampoline act, but the parts I couldn’t/wouldn’t do were really cool and amazing. And the act with the ring stacks was really impressive, even though one guy did drop a ring.

Like I said the circus was more or less indescribable, which makes it really hard to share with you using only text (they didn’t allow camera’s and were really sharp with shutting that kind of activity down). Even still, there are some things that I can share with you.

• I saw a guy do a flip through a ring that was 2 feet in diameter and 7.5 feet off the ground.
• I saw a girl do a one-handed handstand, and then start doing the splits in ways I never dreamed possible.
• I saw a little chinese kid standing on one guy’s shoulders, who was standing on another guy’s shoulders. Thus creating a three man tall, free-standing, unsupported, human structure. Then this little chinese kid jumped and flipped at the same time as the second guy jumped, and the second guy landed on the ground and the kid landed on the shoulders of the first guy, it was really awesome
• Also there was a song and dance routine that really rocked, the color and choreography was beautiful.

After the Circus

The circus eventually ended. All good things do. And the three of us were a really long way from home, they was no more public transportation and a taxi had to be at least thirty seconds out of the way. So we walked about 6 kilometers from the Feria to the Media Center. We started at 12:40am and finished around two in the morning, or as the spanish here might say, en la madrugada. We got a little lost, and it was a long way, and apparently it was a little foolish, but that is what happened and I am only including it because Beth told me too.

All told it was an awesome experience. I would recomend seeing the Cirque de Soleil at least once during your natural born life.