Immediately after a VIP experience watching Mystère at Treasure Island—one that included a backstage tour—four Weekly writers went to a nearby bar to talk about what they’d just experienced. Geoff Carter, who once watched all six Cirque du Soleil shows in just five nights, particularly wanted to know what the others—two Cirque dabblers and one first timer—thought about the show. What ensued was a conversation about the humor, art, talent, dedication and legacy all packed into Cirque’s first-ever resident production in Las Vegas.

Shannon Miller: We never found out what the standalone nipples were.

Gabriela Rodriguez: The ones that were hanging upside down?

Amber Sampson: It was like a nipple keychain, or something like that.

SM: We never got to see them be used.

Geoff Carter: My guess is it was related to the baby nursing … I believe the show is supposed to be about the journey of life, from childhood to adulthood. Although, the baby’s around pretty much the entire time.

AS: That’s one thing I thought was gonna happen—that we were going to see the baby in the beginning, from bassinet or crib or stroller to baby and then to adult. I don’t think we ever saw that full circle of life.

GC: Shannon, Amber, you’ve seen Cirque shows before. Gabriela, this was your first time. What did you think?

GR: I was confused, but so impressed. The thing I thought about Cirque shows was that it was corny clowns, with no backbone to the story. And then I saw it, and I appreciate the work they put behind this. I can’t imagine doing that five days a week. I want to see it again to truly understand what the heck was happening.

AS: I feel like you need to see it more than one time to really grasp the nature of what the hell you just saw.

GR: When the baby finds his “papa” in the crowd … do you think there’s ever someone in the audience that’s too macho to play along with that? Obviously, if the audience doesn’t play along and push the ball back, you have to have a plan B.

GC: Oh yeah, Bébé François can work with that. He’s a professional.

Sometimes I blow my own mind when considering Cirque. It’s influenced the way action is staged in movies and television; it’s influenced costuming and ... it’s changed the culture here in Vegas. These performers come in from different cultures—from Russia, from Mexico, from the U.K., from Montreal. And when they’re not working, they go out in our community, and they do cool sh*t. They create art, they produce other shows.

GR: My sister and I argue all the time about there being no culture in the city, no art. I want to argue this is art to see once in a while.

AS: It’s like a living canvas. You have your main setup of what’s happening right in front of you—the main scene. But then in the background, everybody is having their own little vignettes of their own stories playing out. All these beautiful little touches and accents of character and personality are all going on in the background.

GC: I can tell you that with some exceptions, some of the music and maybe one or two of the acts, this show is largely similar to what I saw in ‘94.

AS: That’s one of the things I was very impressed by. This [show has] a live band and live musicians. I thought that was awesome. The drumming scenes just had my heart racing. It was so powerful.

GR: That giant drum coming down!

AS: Yeah. That’s when you’re really in it, too. Like, this is their world now. They’re basically heralding the introduction of their characters and their world. That’s one thing I really love about Cirque, is they do introductions well. They’re pulling the curtain back, they’re banging on the drums, they’re introducing their world to you in such a cool, majestic, interesting way.

SM: I liked that they gave attention to the dance elements, the transitions with the Red Bird, especially. I appreciated that they had some beautiful choreography in there.

I also loved that entire seesaw trampoline section. And I love that as they were flipping on the trampoline doing their flips that it was timed to the music. All the acrobatics were tied to the music, and it wasn’t just for the hell of it. It was all driving the story and music forward.

AS: Being the kickoff point for all the other casino residency shows—looking at it from that angle—I feel like you can see little bits and pieces of the groundwork that it laid for the other shows. The world building, you see a little bit more of that in O. The playfulness, you feel a little bit more of that in The Beatles Love. All those things are offshoots in all these different shows. This is really the ground zero of it all, and I think that’s why it remains unchanged.

GR: You don’t think the acts get tired of doing it all the time?

AS: You don’t get tired of falling through the air!

GC: Imagine that’s your job, you know? And the show is different, every night. The audience brings something different. One thing we don’t get in our profession is an immediate, “Oh my god, Gabriela, you were incredible. That article was fantastic.” … Imagine getting that kind of dopamine hit twice a night.

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