My Life in the Kazakhstan Circus! - by McP

For weeks I have been looking forward to taking Alison, Alina and Mac to the Kazakh Circus in Almaty. Liza was generous to volunteer to keep Cal, and since she is leaving Monday night we realized this is our last real opportunity to get out, as Alina puts it: “without that little stinker.” I bought the tickets last week.

We left the apartment when Emil came for us, and he walked with us around the outside of the circular permanent building that is the home of the Kazakh Circus. There, we encountered several horses, llamas, and a camel. The kids got to sit on the camel for a photo (see previous entry).

The circus was a pleasant surprise, consisting of mostly human acts. The only animals in the entire show were three bears, a dozen horses, a standard poodle and several house cats! But it was a great show with acrobats, trapeze artists, dancers and clowns.

The clown act consisted of the same three clowns, wearing standard clown clothing but very little of the face paint that we are used to with American clowns (if I may declare them as a demographic group). This trio appeared to us to be a family act, with an older man they called “Papa” and a young woman and a young man who played like sister and brother.

The clowns had several performances, more than any other act. On one performance, the young man clown brought in a small trampoline and then went to the audience and selected a man about my age to come to the floor to participate in the stunt. "Oh, they are picking old people!" Alina said, I think a bit disappointed that they were not selecting children.

A minute later the young clown was in front of our section! We froze as he gazed up into the audience. He and Papa Clown came up to our row, pointed to me and started clapping! I leaned over toward him and said "No Ya Ne Ponemyo Pa Roosky!!!" which directly translates to "But I don't understand Russian!!!" I did not want to participate and miss some key bit of information, thereby causing the death of the other spectator or one of the clowns. The young clown replied "It's o.k., I speak English!"

I went on down with him to the center of the stage, and he played around at the expense of myself and the other "old man." Eventually, he had us dancing and playing air guitar to "Tutti-Frutti," to the sheer horror of Alina and Mac! Alison told me that at one point they had buried their heads into the back of their seats.

Eventually, he lined us up as if he were preparing to jump on the mini-trampoline and over the row of us. On all fours, we were then forced to raise one hand up, and then the opposite foot! It was extremely difficult to keep my balance. The gag played out, and Alison got it on video. Fortunately, and to my children's great relief, she accidentally deleted the dance segment.

As the young clown walked me back off the stage, he said "You are now a performer in the Kazakhstan Circus!" As the father of three Kazakhstan-born children, I must admit I felt a bit of pride.

For all of the humiliation I got a clown poster/calendar. While Alison and I could not stop laughing, Alina and Mac did eventually recover enough to enjoy the rest of the show! - McP