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Submitted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 5:41 pm
Author: Gwinevere
From: Oklahoma City
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I notice that all the previous reviews were posted in 2005, but from everything I've heard and read this show has undergone significant changes in 2006 - And not for the better.
For one thing, Mr. Popovich appears only breifly in a badly shot video introduction before the show. The emcee is now a mildly amusing comic/musician whose name (and act) are forgettable. He comes out between acts with some hack magic tricks, stunts and a little comedy. To his credit, our kids (ages 6 and 8) thought he was pretty funny.
The show opened with a Russian hula hoop artist - Yes, I said a hula hoop artist. She did some decent tricks, but quickly lost the interest of our children. She was followed by three aging sisters who did some sad magic tricks with a few poodles thrown in, mostly as props - No tricks for the dogs. The "magic" was so bad that our 8-year-old figured out how several of the tricks were done. The good news is that there is a place now for aging magician's assistants to go aside from being greeters at Wal-Mart.
The next act was a husband and wife team with some trained parrots. This act wasn't bad, except for the wife's horrible jokes, but the free "Extreme Parrots" show at Silver Dollar City is ten times better. The birds said a few phrases and did a few tricks, but it was nothing special.
Next, the Russian hula hoop artist returned - This time, with her father. When she came out, I wondered why she looked so much heavier than she did in the first act - I soon found out why. The did a "quick change act" which consisted of the father throwing a curtain, etc. over the daughter for a few seconds, during which she would "magically" change her costume (strip off one costume to reveal another) - Ta da! They did this three or four times, and that was pretty much it. Yawn.
Mercifully, intermission was next - Sadly, it was only fifteen minutes. Then the three sisters and their poodles were back for a poodle fashion show. Yes, a poodle fashion show. The sisters paraded the poodles out one at time in different outfits so they could walk and hop across the stage on their hind legs in a progressively silly array of costumes. The younger kids in the audience found this hilarious, but the older children and adults were obviously bored to death after the first couple of outfits.
Finally, the last act: The mother of the hula hoop artist came out with a group of trained cats. This act wasn't bad, but again wasn't nearly as funny as a free show we saw a couple of years ago at Sea World. The cats walked across tightropes, balanced (or tried to) on a ball while crossing tightropes, etc.. It was the best act of the show, but that's not saying much. A couple of the cats even got into a little tiff when one of them didn't move fast enough across the tightrope for the cats following him. Then, mercifully, it was over.
Fortunately for us, we only paid $30 for the four of us to see both this show and Legends (thanks to spending a couple of hours listening to a sales pitch to buy land near the lake). If we had spent the $100 or so it would have cost for the four of us to see the show at full cost, I'd be bailing my husband out of Branson's jail right now for inciting a riot after the show. If you must see this stinker, don't pay full price for it... |
Phone: (417) 335-2484 
