On Wednesday night, we headed out to Carnivale Lune Bleue, a supposed recreation of 1930s style amusement parks with shows, rides and all that jazz. I ended up winning a pair of tickets from Chez (thanks Chez!) so we headed out with Karilee and Matt on Wednesday evening.
When we arrived, I must admit I was left with an underwhelming feeling. It was quite sparse, with a 1930s carousel and a Ferris wheel from 1917. Those were the only two rides that the eye could see and there were tents all around the area. We decided to get a bite to eat at the dining area which seemed neat. A tent with nice tables with black tablecloths and wine glasses. I ordered the squash/ravioli combination and while it was decent, I think I would have been more satisfied with hitting up the snack counter where I could get a pulled-pork sandwich (but we all know my love for sandwiches!).
We took a ride on the Ferris wheel (which Vero and I ended up sitting on the top for awhile which didn’t do too well for my fear of heights!). The carny was heckling us once in awhile and one time he said “You’re supposed to be cuddling with her, not holding on for dear life!” so I managed to throw one arm around Vero.
After the ferris wheel we perused the Congress of Wonder which is a museum of old carnival artifacts but then we quickly left to go to our Big Top Adventure. We had no idea what would be happening inside the big tent.
I was pleasantly surprised to see a high caliber production of acrobatics! It turns out that Cirque Maroc is the big tent feature. The tent itself was the tent used in the first Cirque du Soleil production years ago. The production was spectacular. There was comic relief by two clown-like guys and then the ladies came out in full force! The ladies were dressed in 1930’s style outfits (hearkening back to a Moulin Rouge style of dress) and they performed amazing acrobatics for us…hula hoop spinning, tightrope walking and one woman was on the ‘German Wheel’ (look this up on the Internet to see what it’s all about! It was incredible!). Then at the end they had a trapeze act which was freaking crazy. It was amazing to see how people can move like this. This is the first time I had ever seen an acrobatic show so I was astounded. Vero was laughing her head off at the clowns and I’m wondering if her voice will be on the laugh track of the portion that was filmed. I can honestly say that this show alone would have been worth the sixty bucks for the ticket.
But it didn’t end there. As soon as we were done that, carnies outside the tent motioned us towards the ‘Tropic Terrors of the World’ show where a man and a woman dressed in jungle gear talked about the various creatures they had captured (tarantulas, scorpions, various types of snakes). The best part happened right at the beginning where he pulled his machete out and did a swiping motion and Vero burst out laughing! The guy stopped and said “You’re going to pay for that in about 30 seconds.” Sure enough, when the tarantula came out, he put it on top of Vero’s head! I definitely had to move out of the way as I am not a fan of the tarantulas. It was quite intense to see a spider on top of Vero’s head!
The show consisted of bringing out various types of snakes and showing them off while telling incredulous stories of how they captured it (usually involving limbs dismembered or teeth stuck in their scalp, or even saying they had a colleague who was eaten whole and had to cut his way out of the snake!) and it was quite funny overall.
We had planned to take a look at the rest of the carnival but we were asked to go see a special show (not appearing in the regular schedule) of a fire juggler named Cory. This guy was quite hilarious performing rope tricks, balancing acts and eventually fire juggling. He was taunting the crowd ferociously; putting down people’s kids, spraying water at old ladies…it was amazing to think that perhaps the carnies of old were actually like this. I really enjoyed his act as he held nothing back.
Next up was Carnivale Diablo which I was looking forward to as Leviticus the Strong Man was part of this show! Rumours of electric chairs and swallowing razor blades were abound and I knew this show wouldn’t disappoint. Like something out of the Hilarious House of Frightenstein, Nikolai Diablo took the stage and talked about the oddities in this world and how people can perform extraordinary acts…he then proceeded to swallow razorblades, drink boiling water and lift large objects from a hook in his tongue! At various points Leviticus came out and did strong man acts like bending steel in his teeth, taking darts to his back, putting his hand in a bear trap and getting electrocuted! They then had the only Canadian sword-swallower come out and swallow three different swords! It was insane. Quite the show!
Once this show was over it was already 11:20PM…5 1/2 hours that zoomed by! It was pretty cold out in Kars at that point at a cold mist was descending so we quickly perused the rest of the Congress of Wonders and I bought a poster of the Conklin Brothers original amusement parks (I guess the Conklin Brothers were a couple of Canadians back in the 1930s who had a traveling circus) and then we all went on the carousel for a ride.
All in all, this was BEYOND my expectations and I would say it was my favourite event of the year so far. It was just so different from what I’ve ever been to and it was entertaining throughout the entire night. Vero was in stitches the entire night and Matt and Karilee also had a grand old time. At $60 a ticket, I would still say it is well worth it…heck, I would have paid that just to see the Big Top Cirque du Soleil show.
Do yourself a favour and check it out! Only outside of Ottawa for now I hope it becomes a traveling circus in the future!