I heart Tina Belcher.

From illustrator S. J. Miller

The Amazing Acro-Cats in Denver!

The Rock Cats rocking out.

Have you ever seen a cat circus? Well, you should, immediately. The Amazing Acro-Cats are in Colorado for the next several weeks and I caught their show on Thursday night at The Bug Theatre in Denver.  It's kitschy and hilarious and adorable.  What a fun evening!

My dear friend Arlene chose this for her birthday outing and I had never even heard about it but I said, CIRCUS CATS?! Count me in!  Prior to the show we had dinner at Uncle, a ramen restaurant in the hip Lower Highlands neighborhood.  The food there was great.  Hipster wait staff, the men with majestic beards.

I had a delightful cocktail, the Modern Whiskey, which was Whipper Snapper whiskey topped with a honey lemon foam.  The sweet foam really set off the whiskey... I love a good bourbon Old Fashioned and this was nice in the same way.  I took a photo because I loved the pretty Asian can that my friend's Oolong iced tea came in.

For appetizers, we had the chilled tofu, poke (which is raw tuna mixed with seasonings and vegetables), pork belly steamed bun, and soft-shell crab steamed bun.  The chilled tofu was my favorite.  Silky soft and smooth, topped with crispy bits (possibly shiso leaves?) and with a light savory, umami sauce that was absolutely delicious.  The poke was very good too and I liked that it wasn't too salty as other poke I've had in the past was.  The steamed buns were "deconstructed"... the filling was wrapped in a soft steamed-bun wrapper sort of like a pita or a gordita.  Both were very good... the pork belly was crisp and soft and rich, and the soft-shell crabs were meaty and not too heavily breaded.

For my entree I had the spicy chicken ramen.  It has bean sprouts, a "confit" chicken, a soft egg, and ramen in a creamy tahini-based broth.  Wow, it was so good.  Spicy but not overly so.  The chicken was tender and rich, and browned so the edges were crispy.  Good, firm ramen noodles and the broth was luscious.  I wouldn't have expected tahini in a ramen broth but it really was perfect.

After dinner we went to Highlands Cork & Coffee for an iced coffee while we waited for the show to start.  I do love that Highlands neighborhood, it's very hipster and cute.  This cafe is in an old house, and was very low-key, with plenty of seating and a nice porch patio.  We sat in the front window and enjoyed our coffee.  I just got a black iced coffee and it was smooth and not too acidic.  They don't do cold brew there and that's just fine--those places are often a little too precious for me.  I liked the atmosphere and it wasn't crowded at all.

Thinking we'd be fine, we got to the venue about a half hour before show start and there was already a big line outside!  But the best part was the Acro-Cats van and tour bus.  The bus has a cat face painted on the front.  It was literally a cat bus (not quite as good as Totoro's cat bus, but close)!

When we got in, we went through the merch area and were ushered into the venue, and a young woman in cat ears (who I later learned was Polly, the assistant) complimented me on my Torrid leopard tank dress.  I knew it was the perfect thing to wear!  The Bug Theatre holds, I would guess about 200 people, a fairly small venue, cozy and nice with movie-theatre style seats.  It was already getting very crowded so we got a seat about 1/3 back from the stage. If you're going to go see the show, don't be like us and get coffee beforehand, you should get there early enough to get close seats!  We could still see but I'd have liked to have been closer.

Polly came through the crowd selling cat ear headbands and I was quite pleased because I'd meant to bring my clip-in ears for myself and Arlene to wear but I'd forgotten them.  So we each bought one so we could look awesome and fully embrace the catness of the evening. They were playing kitschy cat-themed music like "Year of the Cat".  The excitement was in the air.  It was magical.    

Then the show started! Samantha, the human star of the show, is a cat trainer and leads the Acro-Cats troupe.  She is very witty and engaging throughout the whole show.  Since she is working with cats, of course they aren't 100% compliant, but their training is really quite impressive.  They also sell a training kit so that you can train your cats at home, and they described how they clicker-train the cats.  Samantha is joined on stage by two assistants, Polly and another adorable young woman whose name I can't remember.  They help with directing the cats, holding up signs and just being animated and hilarious.  The whole thing was so cute.  

One of the first parts of the show is when Samantha and the gang brought out three adoptable rescue kittens

 that were travelling in Colorado with them.  Samantha showed these kittens doing a trick and talked about the Fort Collins Cat Rescue and asked anyone in the audience to come and ask for info if they'd like to adopt the cats.  I was very happy with the pro-rescue message in the show.  Nearly all the cats were rescues and had some very sad stories of abandonment--but are now living happy lives as famous Acro-Cats!

The cats did some cute tricks, accompanied by campy cat-themed music and "boing" type sound effects.  They walked on balance beams, one even balanced on a ball and rolled it across the beam. They had jumping tricks, and climbing tricks.  One of our favorite parts was when one of the cats pushed another one in a toddler walker.  

Then the Rock Cats band played some instruments for three songs.  As you can imagine, the music was very Avant Garde.  Reminded me of the early Yoko Ono stuff.  ;) 

At the end of the show, everyone can go up on stage, meet the cats, and pet one of them who is on board with that sort of thing. (No touching the rest of the cats)!  Throughout the show, flash photography is encouraged! That makes it even more fun.  

I stopped by the merch area as we were leaving and got a Rock Cats tee.  I wore it the next day and when I popped into a store on my way home a girl recognized it and had seen the show in Boulder.  Rock Cats bringing people together.  It's all about love and fun! :)

You should definitely go see the the Amazing Acro-Cats. It's a fun, funky, kitschy and adorable show and your life will be improved by the experience.  They will be in Colorado Springs after their Denver stint and then continue to tour the country.  See their website for show schedule. 

After the show, Arlene's boyfriend, Chris had a surprise: a creme brulee birthday cake for her from Das Meyer.  We didn't have plates or spoons so we went to Sweet Cow Ice Cream and got some vanilla to share, and got spoons and parchment on which to eat our cake.  It was eyes-roll-back-in-your-head delicious.  And we saw an adorable Shiba Inu doge there.  Perfect end to a perfect evening.