iTunes Exclusive Episode Circus 1903

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time for another.
Number 292.
So close to a major milestone.
And I'm going to make a prediction.
We're going to hit that milestone before the end of season 7.
I'm just going to say it.
My name is Rob.
I'm the executive producer of the clubhouse podcast and when I was younger, I enjoyed
circus peanuts.
Now, not so much.
My palate has gotten a bit more refined.
Plus I can't have the sugar, so it's not only a matter.
I'm not alone for this particular episode.
Joining me across the desk is my co-host and a man whose life has resembled a circus
more than once.
He has chatted.
Welcome, sir.
Okay.
I think we can all say that in this room.
And next to him is the official fact checker of the show and a man who once tried to run
away to the circus until the circus ran away from him.
You may know him as fun, don, go, but his mom and even don Ford, I'm going to call him
Don Ford.
Welcome, sir.
Forget, I'm not going to give you a clown, Joe.
I'm not going to give you a clown, Joe.
But you know what?
Yeah.
If you read the review that Don wrote, what we're about to review at www.theclubhousepodcast.com,
which is our website.
He has a distinct honor that neither one of us have, and we're going to talk about it
here in a minute.
That's called the teeth.
Oh, right.
Whatever we do one of these things, it is to review something.
This is no exception.
A brand new production has hit town as is a stage production.
It is called Circus 1903.
From a start to a whole thing.
We got to think the man, no matter what it is, go!
That was some of musicals.
We're such a fan.
He's called 477.
Next, a lot of shows.
And we're such fans of those guys that get to let us come see productions and review
them for you.
I feel like I've seen Francisco more in the last couple of weeks than, you know, that
I've seen most of my friends, which he is amongst those ranks, by the way, but that's
a good thing.
Francisco and the people with down some of musicals are so awesome to us, but they let
us do cool stuff.
Like, reviews stuff like this.
This is from the people that brought you the illusionists and the puppeteers who brought
you warhorse.
So that's a pretty powerhouse combination, sir.
Yes, it is.
Here's the deal.
It is, it is the traditional two act production, but it's not a musical.
There's music, but it's not a musical.
Because nobody's singing.
It's not.
Welcome to the circus.
Nothing like that.
No.
It's for lack of a better term.
It's an old school circus.
Yeah.
I mean, I wouldn't even go so far as to call it a, a, it totally breaks the mold for things
that are usually seen in that building.
I liked it.
Oh, why?
I'm just going to read it.
Yeah.
But it's kind of cool because the first act is kind of the things you do before you go
to the circus.
As usual, acrobatics going on outside, there's a side show, and there's other little
things.
And then at the end of act one, we reveal that it's time for the circus and then act
two is the circus itself.
I guess the only thing I have to say is, I love this show.
I had a pretty rough afternoon going into this thing.
And this thing was the perfect remedy.
I felt so good for two and a half hours.
It's with a 20 minute admission, by the way.
I was seven again.
Now that does not mean I was seven in 1903.
And I'm not going to say that about you either.
Sir, I'm going to spare you this.
I appreciate that.
But I come from a simple time.
Now I am the only one in this studio who has never gotten to see the show that I'll
never get to see.
It was just closed, like within days of us recording.
Sunday, yeah, this Sunday this week, yeah.
But I just, you know, we got to, we weren't that rich.
But we got to see some of the traveling circuses that would come to town.
And I was a big fan of the circus as a kid.
There's just something about that atmosphere that captivates you and holds you.
And this show was a really good representation of that.
Oh, absolutely.
From contortionists to acrobatts to jugglers to a tight wire axe.
And we haven't even gotten to the puppeteerie.
I know.
It's a good mix of that comedy crowd interaction.
The only thing that's missing from any kind of circus that you know, even had popcorn.
Even had popcorn.
Get it.
It didn't have clowns.
When I think of a circus, I'm sorry.
Kind of okay with that.
Okay.
Pulter guys.
Oh, no, just some people are, the crowns, the clowns didn't have to be creepy.
There are just clowns just kind of, there was a clown.
But I was a kid they did, but there was a clown there of sorts.
I mean, I was in the audience.
So I don't know.
I wasn't going to say it.
Yeah, but, but you know, even the register had clowns, properties to him.
Yes.
He did a lot of slide of hand.
He was, he was incredibly talented.
David Williamson plays, plays Ringmaster, Willie Whipsnode.
He had that down.
He was great.
He was absolutely amazing.
He had me laughing out loud more than once in this deal.
Right off the bat.
Yeah.
I mean, that was, again, you were in a really bad place when you walked into that room.
Oh, yeah.
It took no time at all for your frown to vanish.
I was great.
Yeah.
It just, there's nothing that this production didn't do right.
All of the performers were amazing doing things that there's no way I would ever be able
to do.
Oh, I can do half that stuff.
Well, I can do it.
But I'm not you.
Yeah.
Yeah, again, you could be in the juggling act if you were one of the balls.
Yeah, yeah.
But no, I mean, the way I kind of look at this and I put my written via www.cobas.com.com.
That is our website.
It was a circus with elegance.
That's a boy.
That's a boy.
That's a boy.
When you really think about it, because they had so many South Acts, but it wasn't the
big circus atmosphere, and it didn't have, it was elegant.
The music, like the scene with the lady in the hoop from the air, the aerialist, the
aerialist.
She, that music in the background was, even the intro with the ringmaster talking.
I mean, she was like in her little dressing room, which I can get from the fold out.
That made me emotional.
I'm not going to lie.
Yeah, I got emotional.
She was a kid at the team.
You know what I'm saying?
But it was a lot of those great circus acts, and it was a mix.
I would call it a mix in a way between something you'd see at ringling brothers and a mix
of circus.
That's what Cirque de Soleil is.
It's based on the French circus, but it's that kind of mix of that contortionist
stuff you'd never see, but a circus style atmosphere put together once with elegance.
I mean, I'd say right now, faith.
She loved this.
You're a lady friend.
Yeah, I mean, faith should turn become a, you know what's to it.
Well, if we may have new listeners, then you know, if it's my girlfriend, you know, from
another continent, literally, but no, she loved this thing.
Saw stuff, and she was just smiling.
You don't love this.
You're a communist.
I'm just going to say it.
I mean, even with a crowded action, what he did with those four kids.
It just start the second act.
Yes.
Sorry, you want to say something.
Oh, no, go, go.
Oh, go ahead.
Oh, I'll have to show you something you want to say.
There's just nothing I didn't love about this.
Nothing at all.
And let's even get into the full size elephant puppets.
Oh, my God.
But I say full size.
I mean, full freaking size puppets of elephants and your mother and her baby.
You want to talk about something that will make you emotional.
Wow.
My eyes literally just teared up.
I couldn't believe what I saw.
Again, kind of similar with the day with the aerialist with the music.
It's like they knew they were pulling at your heartstrings in the most exquisite way.
And it didn't get away because they had some great balancing thing like the guy with
the boards and the round things.
And that always freaks me out.
Yeah.
But that's the beauty of a show like this and of the circus is these people are doing
you know, they do these things every day.
But there's always the margin for error that scares the crap out of you.
But it's delicious tension.
But I want to say how it could do something where it's kind of that exciting bouncing,
whatever then there's something where it's that.
Sit back emotional watch.
So it's not like it's something happy.
Well, you know, somebody's who's doing this moving a lot versus the elegance,
something that's still erinotic, but it's elegant.
Then it's something with the kids or some laughter.
Then it's something that's real juggling.
Then it's that.
It's a really good balance.
It takes you on a really good journey.
It looks circuses.
It builds up tension and then you get like this quiet emotional release.
Yes.
And then it has to be uploaded and just.
I mean, the start-up when that box card comes out in the beard of lady.
And all that stuff with the side show.
Yeah.
Then all of a sudden here comes the lady from Ethiopia who I don't know how.
I don't know if she has any bones in her body.
I think she's made him jealous.
Yeah, she's made to jealous.
But it was just that great feel.
But I have to give it to the set with simple.
There was two sets.
Yeah.
It was the box card the whole time through the show.
Sometimes he used to lie.
Sometimes it just sit in the back.
But the first half is like you see the wires.
You see everything.
The second half here comes the tent with lights.
That's the set.
And they get anything else.
They have to.
The lighting's very simple.
The lighting though was what made with the music something is things so emotional.
But it was still simple and it wasn't real work.
It worked up lighting.
I agree with you.
Absolutely.
There were so many scenes with the lighting and the music that made that scene even
better.
Yeah.
It was it was incredible atmosphere.
But you know what I would and I thought about this on the way home as great as this
was how amazing would this be if they did this in the round.
All on Peter Pan 360.
I don't know that you can pull it off that way just given the nature of what it
is.
It would be amazing if they could pull it off.
There would be some exit probably wouldn't be able to do.
Yeah, because there's just a lot of things that need to be stationary and you can't
really transition well between them.
But if they could pull this off, yeah, it would be you would be going to the circuit.
Yeah.
I mean, that's all I could think of.
Yeah.
It was there's I guess there's nothing about this production.
I did not know that.
Three six you'd work because of certain scenes where they need the lighting.
That's what I'm saying.
There's certain aspects they'd have to alter.
Yeah, if they could do a version of this where it literally was a traveling tint, I think
it would be one of the greatest things in the history of ever.
The one that absolutely just I could not take my eyes off of was the man and woman that
we're doing basically the human trapeze.
No joke.
So he was from Belarus.
He was from Canada.
Los, listen.
Critical.
Listen.
Holy cow.
I was like, dude, if you drop her, this is going to get really, really bad.
And you know they do it every day, probably two or three hours a day.
But there's always that margin for error.
There was a level of commitment in that performance that was daddy.
Absolutely not.
But there's nothing about this production.
I did not love and we really didn't know what to expect, walking in the door.
No door.
We didn't know if this was some kind of musical because we looked before the thing in the
play bill and say, no play right?
I mean, no lyricists.
From the show from see like, you know, gotty, he, we talked to him in that.
Big fan of gotty.
He was saying, I don't know what this thing is about either, but he and I were talking
to do when we were at that pirate time before and he was like, I'm excited.
I'm really excited.
I said, so am I, I just don't know what I'm excited about.
And now I know what I'm excited about and I had every reason to be excited.
I did not disappoint.
This was wonderful.
And it's good for the entire family.
That was what I love the most about it.
I mean, you saw we did those kids.
And those kids became the shining stars of one thing for about 10 minutes.
I mean, I, and I'm telling you, I could not stop laughing through that entire section.
Okay.
Sandals, stripes.
I thought you were going to hurt your shoulder, laugh.
I was getting kind of nervous actually.
Go post.
I was waiting for the, I was waiting the entire time for the miscue.
Because you know that.
You know what was coming.
Well, the card at the, like, the, that's why he was saying it so much was he was trying
to get her to get the miscue.
And then when she finally hit it, then we were okay.
But this show, even the raccoon, yeah, the raccoon.
This was so, so good.
I mean, do we need to say anything else?
We're going to get to the final.
I'll say this that, honestly, I've never seen faith, smile and laugh so much, which was huge.
You know, you know, how he talked about sound and music for your wife.
Oh, absolutely.
And he had said, you looked at, you know, made you happy.
And I'm my wife on a duck this, too.
Yeah.
This made her happy.
This is, there's something in this for everybody, literally.
No matter who you are, there is something about this production that will impress you.
It definitely embraces your internet.
And here's the thing that worried me.
It would, it would, it would, says something about this production.
There were a lot of kids around us and before this thing started, we heard a lot of
us on a jump and a talk and after about two minutes, oh, yeah, even on this, on this
scenes, it was totally captivated, even when it was quiet scenes.
And you had how many kids in that place who were quiet and having a blast and laughing
where they were supposed to laugh and clapping where they were supposed to clap, they're,
I just, oh, let's just get to the final analysis.
Yeah.
It's a foregone conclusion, but we do it for the kids.
Final analysis.
There's two questions involved in this deal.
This question is, would you see this again?
If the answer is no, then we're done here.
Good luck with that, actually.
I think we know where this is going.
The answer is yes, then since this is a stage production, the second question is a
little bit different.
The stage production, we're going to ask instead of how far are you willing to go?
Where do you want to sit?
Because of course, the closer you sit, the higher the ticket prices and the more committed
you are.
Chad will start with you.
Would you see this again?
God, yes.
Where are you paying?
I'd sell the farm to go see this.
I mean, one of the greatest things I've seen in that building.
It's one of the best times I've had.
Anyway, the best part about that is you don't really have to.
Because ticket prices for this are not going to break the bank.
It's one thing we love about Dallas, some are musicals.
The tickets for their shows are fairly affordable.
Even if you're in the balcony, you still have a great view of the whole thing.
Don, see you again?
Definitely.
Where yet?
I'm going to give it what we call the coveted, get into the building.
No matter what.
I'm not going to disagree with that.
But I think I would kind of like to sit a little bit more centered than we were
and a little bit farther back so I can take everything in it.
But we're not complaining.
Not complaining at all.
But I think from that, if I were going to go again, that's right.
I want to sit.
You can really take everything in.
We love what Dallas summer musicals does for us.
I don't care if I'm sitting in the rafters.
I'm just happy to be in the building.
It's worth every penny.
You pay if you go see this thing.
Yeah, absolutely.
And take the family, you know, there was a string quintet or something out in the lobby
playing circus music before the, the thing that's during the exhibition.
It was awesome.
You know, that kind of juppety band like you hear in the New Orleans street.
Right.
Yeah, yeah.
It was a rag ticket.
There wasn't a piano involved.
Oh, I'm just saying.
But it was like a string quintet basically.
The atmosphere is great.
Thank you Dallas summer musicals for, not only everything you do for us, but for this
production specifically.
This one is a home run.
And if you don't see it, you're going to regret not doing so if it hits your neck of
the woods.
Absolutely.
It's going to be here in Dallas through June the 4th.
You can go to their website.
I'm sure.
Find out where all the upcoming dates are.
It is Circus 1903.
Before we understand, we got to take the mandum at the legend.
Francis.
Go.
Thank you so much, buddy.
For such a fan of everybody at Dallas summer musicals.
Thank you so much for everything you do for this show.
That being said, let's do the plugs.
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We've talked about it in a couple of times, www.theclubhousepodcast.com by that everything
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and you get all the cool stuff like this by the way, and Don doesn't know this.
You know, you know, Don doesn't this is the last show we're going to do with the studio
can figure the way it is.
There's some upgrades coming this weekend.
Oh, you forgot about the teaser.
What about the end that has this.
Oh, Don's been in Ringling Brothers when I was five years old.
Yes, on the floor.
I even got the he got to be in the little car.
Oh, wow.
Coolness.
Yeah, when I was in LA with my so Uncle Bob, until next time for Don, for Chad for the
Empire.
I'm Rob clubhouse is closed and we're running out of music and I don't care because we're
going to put a Brittany Palmer plugin.
You can have her help the Ringmaster out.
Come on.
Seriously.
Do I have to think of everything for you people?