banana shpeel.

the reason we celebrated tina's bday on friday night was bc she and her hubby had tickets to the opening night of banana shpeel, the newest cirque show. her poor hubby got a migraine and was unable to go and so she asked if i would like to fill in. duh, of course i do!! fun!! i didn't know anything about it or even where it was, but turns out it was at the historic chicago theater downtown which i'd never been in and it was awesome!

the show started and it was a vaudeville-esque shtick. it started fairly amusing... got funnier... then it would drag...then it'd be funny. then they had this guy do a hat act that was very cirque-esque and good. then more comedy. then some dancing. the dancing was super good. lots of tap dancing. however, there was a tinny pre-taped sound of the tapping. b/c we were so close, i could hear both which was annoying. i understand the need to amplify the sound, but tapping just sounds so cool on its own. then there was more shtick and some was funny and some was beyond disturbing! like where a 'pregnant lady' gave birth - it was actually a crazy scary looking man. it was so disturbing....
for the second half, there was some fantastic dancing! and two great acts: a lady twirling napkin-like things on her feet and hands as she lay back and a guy that literally looked like he had zero bones in his body. he was by far my favorite. it was so dreamlike and beautiful and he made the act look so easy when it clearly took so much physical strength. it was unreal!!! he was twirling around and doing handstands and balancing on a rotating pole. and then there was more dancing... and some fantastic tapping. and then it was basically over. it was very un-cirque like and i enjoyed it, but i'd have much rather have seen the circus type acts. the comedy was funny in parts, but it tended to go on and on and on too long and the jokes ended up getting just a little old.

in our 2nd row center seats!


this was the super disturbing part of the show right before the intermission!!


the opening set for the show.

after the show, we went to sushi samba for a late dinner. yum! there weren't many people there and the manager came over and insisted on giving us dessert and patron shots. neither of us wanted the shots tho - tina had to drive and tequila makes me throw up! plus we were tired from the night before and were ready to head home. no need to take a tequila shot just to head home! so very carefully, tina managed to pour her shot in to her water glass and no one saw. then i did, but i didn't get my whole shot in the glass and so there was some left in the bottom of the glass. the waiter gave me crap for that! and ended up taking a picture of it to make fun of me... little did he know that we'd dumped all the patron in the water glasses! i know, i know... it was a shame to waste it...


our 'water' glasses... particularly funny picture since the waiter took it!


at sushi samba: happy birthday tina!!