Gift Idea: Buy Everyone You Know Tickets to the Circus

There are a lot of reasons we’re lucky to live in Vancouver, but one is that once a year we get a chance to say the endearingly old-timey sentence “The circus is in town!” Concord Pacific has given us the greatest Christmas gift of all by refusing to break ground on their False Creek lot and giving Cirque a perpetual space for that sweet, sweet big top.

Cirque’s latest show, Kooza, kicked off a few weeks back and runs through the end of December, making it an ideal holiday gift for that hard-to-shop for person on your list who has everything but also loves extreme contortions and sequins.

I sense your hesitation around giving your cool uncle or intimidating little sister a gift like this. And I get it: it’s easy when something is big and popular and adored by the masses to write it off as uncool or basic. But guess what? The circus features people literally touching their own feet to the top of their heads. These are elite and skilled athletes who deserve the attention of your family or whatever co-worker you got in your office secret santa gift exchange. They have spent their lives on a quest to achieve the pinnacle of human bendiness. They are the very opposite of uncool. They are gods on earth. They risk death nightly in front of crowds of thousands and then probably go get a group dinner at Old Spaghetti Factory afterwards. Go pay your respects.

If you’re wondering if it’ll be difficult to follow along if your giftee hasn’t enjoyed previous Cirque shows, don’t worry: it truly does not matter. I love that the Cirque du Soleil website attempts to answer the question “What is Kooza about?” as if anyone really is interested in the storyline of an acrobat show. No one is leaving Kooza thinking, “that sure was an innovative journey viewed through the perspective of The Innocent, an endearing yet naive clown looking for his place in the world”? They’re debating with their date about how long it would take to learn how to do a backflip if they started tonight.

That’s not a criticism! It’s almost a feature of a Cirque show. It’s downright whimsical to not actually care whether or not this clown-boy with a kite experiences clear emotional growth; so very French to have a character whose job is to just be an “enigmatic trickster” with no particular goals or dreams. There’s plenty of drama to be found on the stage, after all, between the springboard tricks and death-defying unicycling—who has the time to focus on a three-act structure? (Or figure out why there’s a man in a dog costume?)

Amid the tightrope bicycle rides and pretzel-twist acrobatics and terrifying-but-impressive aerial silk stunts, the most remarkable thing about Cirque Du Soleil is how quickly an audience member can become acclimatized to these astounding human feats. By the time the grand finale arrives—a man doing a handstand on a tower of a dozen wooden chairs—you almost forget how risky the act actually is because you’ve just watched someone ride a bicycle on a tightrope. But perhaps this is the greatest part of a circus-ticket gift: reminding your jaded step-mom or mean brother that anything is possible.

Kooza
Concord Pacific Place
Now through December 31, 2023
Tickets here