Tacos, Trapezes, and a Little White Magic

Saturday was quite an eventful day. About three months ago, in my efforts to discover new things to do and see, I discovered that a traveling version of Cirque du Soleil would be coming to Salt Lake City on the weekend of the 22nd of May. My roommates and I rushed out to buy tickets, deciding that this would be our cultural event of the spring, full of high flying flips and swinging trapezes.

And so, finally after months of anticipation, the day of the circus rolled around. To my added good fortune, I was accompanied by the lovely and exquisite Aubrey Potter. (Sidenote, when I invited her to come with me she didn’t know if I was joking or not. For the record, I NEVER joke about such things. In fact, I hardly ever joke.) We decided that we would go get lunch before the matinee show, but rather than going to any standard restaurant, we decided to do as the local Provoites do and go to the farmers market. For those of you who don’t know, the title “farmers market” is a bit of a misnomer. I don’t think there were really any farmers there. The closest thing was probably the lady selling potted plants. I almost bought one of the tomato plants, but decided to wait on it. Maybe next Saturday. Anyways, instead of farmers there are artists, craftsmen, bakers, popcorn dealers, goats-milk soap peddlers, barbecuers, and taco makers. There was even a live band called “White Magic: a traveling country band.”

After going around and looking at all the different stands and eating some banana flavored popcorn (which was delicious, by the way. It tasted like runts candies.) we decided to try the tacos from the taco cart, they having been recommended previously. When we got to the ordering window, the sign advertised something called the “super burrito.” I wanted that. But unfortunately they were sold out of the giant tortillas that are used in the construction of the super burrito. In fact all they had were mini tortillas, so I had to settle for four tacos. (The tacos were really good, very tender meat. It must have to do with being cooked in the back of an unhitched trailer.) We took our tacos over to where the band was playing and enjoyed our food as White Magic serenaded us. Now, when I say band, I use the term rather loosely. In fact, it was a really cute old couple, probably in their 60’s, the husband playing the guitar and singing while the wife did percussions (bongos and tambourine mostly) and sang back-ups on a few songs. She did take lead vocals for what was Aubrey’s favorite song: “I’m not messing around unless you want to marry me.” It was a classic ditty about a girl “making eyes” with a boy in a band. Unfortunately we cannot remember how the tune goes, so we have to sing the few lines we know to whatever notes pop into our heads.

With our ears now tickled by the sounds of White Magic, we got back in the car and headed up to salt lake to see the circus. The show itself is called “Alegria.” Alegria is a Spanish word meaning ‘jubilation’ and the show is described as “a baroque ode to the energy, grace and power of youth.” It sure did take me back to my youthful days of being a contortionist, juggling fire, and doing flips on a 2x4. Seriously, I did not have the same kind of youth that these people did, and frankly I’m a bit jealous of their experience. Watch the trailer here for some insights into what we saw.


My favorite was the board flips, followed by the swinging trapeze where the guys threw each other around in the air. It was ridiculous. There were also these two clowns that would come on in between acts, but their funny to boring ratio wasn’t that high. However, the lady sitting behind us thought they were hilarious, so I would always end up laughing because the lady behind me was laughing so hard. Also funny was watching Aubrey anytime someone did something dangerous on stage. Each time, she would make the sound of a chipmunk gasping for air and by the end of the show, her palms were sweaty from worrying about the performers' safety.

I will now finish this post with a joke I thought of. I was recently told that Cirque du Soleil is a Canadian company, so wouldn’t it make more sense if they called it Cirque du Soul-eh? HA! I do crack myself up.