When the lights dimmed on April 2 and spotlights began to swirl over a small stage, the old-timey music that had been playing fell away and was replaced by \u201cThunder and Blazes,\u201d the jaunty tune that has become synonymous with circuses. Almost immediately, the crowd began a steady, synchronized clap.<\/p>\n
The show opened with a dance number. A performer disguised as an audience member leaped onto the stage and transformed into a clown, complete with a striped shirt, suspenders, beret, oversized red shoes and foam nose.<\/p>\n
The show alternated between silliness and suspense throughout the night. Laughter rang out during a skit in which Morales, a clown, invited audience members to throw potatoes at him. During a balance act atop a piano, a little girl covered her eyes.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ivo Manfredo attempts to keep his balance as the tower of items sways back and forth during the Cirque de Paris show beside The Citadel Mall, Thursday, April 2, 2026, in Charleston.<\/p>\n
Gavin McIntyre\/Staff<\/p>\n
Awe rippled over the audience when an aerial dancer in a pink rhinestone leotard ended her performance by spinning rapidly upside down, giving the appearance of a glittery cocoon caught in a cyclone.<\/p>\n
A high-heeled hula-hooper at one point gyrated at least 10 neon yellow hoops around her torso.<\/p>\n
A few minutes later, one of the clowns balanced an audience member\u2019s popcorn on his forehead before showering the family with the bag\u2019s contents.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Clown Pedro ‘Rampin’ Santos Jr.\u00a0runs as a broom he throws falls to the stage floor during the Cirque de Paris show beside The Citadel Mall, Thursday, April 2, 2026, in Charleston.<\/p>\n
Gavin McIntyre\/Staff<\/p>\n
During an intermission, Grahl admitted that although the show wasn\u2019t quite Cirque du Soleil, she was enjoying it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very entertaining,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd the kids are loving it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tony Acuti, who sat in the front row, said the show filled him with a sense of nostalgia.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a real throwback,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s honest entertainment.\u201d<\/p>\n
When the show returned after intermission, the audience was treated to a solo performance that blended juggling and dance, a brief trumpet performance, an aerial dance duet and a skit where five people were pulled from the audience for a fake boxing match.<\/p>\n
Cirque de Paris closed with a bicycle stunt performance and a laser show reminiscent of a \u201cStar Wars\u201d light saber battle set to a pulsing techno beat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the lights dimmed on April 2 and spotlights began to swirl over a small stage, the old-timey…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4124,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3926,3925,3928,3927,30],"class_list":["post-4123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-paris","tag-charleston","tag-circus","tag-cirque-de-paris","tag-citadel-mall","tag-paris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}