Baku Circus, Part II

The Baku Circus featured a lot of animal acts.  Some were entertaining, some ho-hum, and some disturbing.  The most unique for me were the seals, as I don't think I've ever seen them perform live before.  The entire stage was turned into a large slip-and-slide with plastic sheeting and buckets of water.  The seals bounced balls, played music, and mock-tended bar while sliding around the Hawaiian-vacation themed set-up.

Seals balance martini cups on their noses

Less entertaining for me were the dogs.  There were multiple dog acts, ranging from miniature poodles to a Great Dane. Perhaps it's the ubiquity of dogs in American life that made them less exciting to me.  Or that I'm not a natural dog-lover. Either way, I clapped politely for them without having much of a reaction to their antics.

Standard poodles jump over their trainers' legs

I did have trouble watching the duck act.  The trainer did a lot of movements with the duck's neck, including what looked like grabbing the duck's neck roughly and thrusting the duck back-and-forth so that I kept thinking the poor animal would get whiplash.  I have no way of knowing if these actions truly caused pain, but I certainly knew I didn't want the same things being done to my own neck!  I was grateful when the ducks left the stage.

I felt sorry for this ducky and his neck!

Interspersed between animal performances were other familiar circus acts.  I enjoyed the unicyclist riding around in a brightly-colored jacket with huge shoulder pads, unbuttoned to reveal yellow suspenders underneath.  Honestly, I was more intrigued by his outfit than by his unicycling tricks!

Unicyclist with his flashy outfit

There were also a few acrobatic and trapeze acts.  I was pleased to capture the below picture where it appears this artist is balancing solely by her butt on the rung of the the rope ladder!

Impressive gravity-defying acrobatic move

My favorite performer by far was one of the clowns.  He was very tall and thin, not the stature of your typical clown.  And he perfectly played the part of being frustrated by the antics of his clown partner, glaring and scowling across the stage with fabulously mean eyes.

This is not a happy clown!

Overall, the entire circus experience was memorable and entertaining.  Now I just have to learn Russian so I can follow the storyline the next time they're in town!