Zippos Circus
Bravo tour 25
Quarry Park
Shrewsbury
Tuesday 5th -Monday 9th June
So, if ever you have felt you would like to run away and join the circus one could do no better than to run away and join this amazing show! Naturally I gave it thought: But being chained to my PC to write this review was far more pressing, oh and the strength and dedication one needs to join this elite would be just too great a call for me.
Elite? Yes, this show one believes is elite as there wasn’t one bad player, not one. It is the most professional and family orientated circus show one has ever had the fortune to visit. I may run short of superlatives as I write. This Bravo tour that you may have seen resident in the Quarry for the last few days, is one of the greatest planned, assembled, and directed circuses that one has ever seen and reviewed.
It is always a delight on entry to the big top, to see the performers involved in other jobs. Selling, candy floss, the ubiquitous flashing toys and popcorn. One could be chatting away to one and ten minutes later you are bending your neck backwards to watch them performing 40 foot in the air on a rope, or limbo’ing under a flaming stick balanced on two bottles or maybe even flying around on a motorcycle in the steel globe.
The motorcycles went up to make one of the greatest last acts you may ever see. Defying all gravity their motorcycles three in number, careered and screamed their way arong the inside of this steel globe. Hats off to Jackie Louise being brave enough to get into the globe and have the motorcycles whizzing around, just above her head. Literally terrifying. More of her later.
Zippos are delighted and proud to boast having the smallest Showman in the world. At 3ft 6” they are probably right. However, what Paulo Dos Santos lacked in height he makes up for with pure strength, agility, nimbleness and pure talented. One imagines there isn’t an act he couldn’t master. A true showman! He delighted the audience with his comedic timing, his strength and mostly when he did his own act of performing on the tapes. They are ropes that hang from the top of the tent and give an amazing swinging arc; which Paulo performed amazingly well in. Swinging high above the heads of the audience, his spins and turns were remarkable. Even his floor acrobatics were akin to any Olympian. If ever there was a man born to perform Paulo Dos Santos is that man.
There was a welcome bevvy of Ukrainian performers too, which in these troubled times was great to see. Three incidental dancers delighted all with their movements and the four balancers that seemed to make a man fly certainly represented the Country well and I was proud to see them.
Jackie Louise when not selling fluorescent Minnie Mouse ears, was way up in the top of the circus ready to perform on here single rope. Thrilling everybody with her suspended daredevilry she simply amazed the crowd. She also appeared later in the Phoenix Rebels, Crossbow shooters extraordinaire. Another great act.
Again Zippos challenge the traditional ring master role. Instead, their twixt act links were performed by the hilarious Mr. Lorenze Carnivale. He was a modern-day Italian clown and held the show together well often ably assisted by Paulo Dos Santos. One did point earlier that it seems everyone can do everything. Not to steal the thunder of the individual performers as they were all a little higher than the top of their game. And it showed!
The delightful thing one get from a Zippo’s Circus is a sense of pure professionality. The work schedule to achieve such a smooth-running event and well directed show must take months of meticulous planning, logistical headaches, and rehearsals and then some more rehearsals too. The result of such hard work will makes Zippos a must see in any town. There will be many towns as they tour the Bravo show from the South English coast all the way to Scotland’s Northwestern shore. That will be a lot of shows and a lot of hard work.
This is a show with literally has something for everyone. With acts as diverse as Juggling to Motorcycle daredevilry, to handstands and flying people , It has everything. This reviewer is challenging you to go to Zippos circus and try not to laugh, it isn’t easy in fact, one might say its impossible. This Big Top Label show (equivalent in the circus world to Michelin stars) is as good as a circus as you may ever see on UK soil. This reviewer’s advice is for goodness’ sake don’t miss it.
This is a Five Star Review.
Sofia Lewis
Photograph…Lottie Lewis
Sofia is a successful playwright living in Shrewsbury. After graduating from Wolverhampton University in theatre. Sofia went on to become an actor and film maker. Her first play was published in 2015 and her plays have been seen all around the world. She is also the instigator of the popular concerts, The Sound Of Shrewsbury Folk. She has been writing with loveshrewsbury for 13 years and loves Theatre Severn and all she sees there.
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