Cirque Du Soleil – Quidam

I am a huge cirque du soleil fan and have seen somewhere around 8 different cirque performances. This was by far my LEAST favorite! The story line was hard to follow, seemed to have a lot of people on stage at various times doing virtually nothing, and this was «eccentric» to say the least.
This was not the action packed, fast paced, sitting on the edge of your seat type of show I’ve come to expect from Cirque — I found it boring, slow moving, and tortuous at moments. Definitely would not recommend this show.

Art is always open to interpretation, especially DARK arts, and Quidam is no show for kids. (SUICIDE? Too much to grasp at a young age)
The whole show has a dreadful feel to it, which is fine with me. In fact, out of all the Cirque Du Soleil shows I’ve seen, this is one of my favorite storyline. My problem is with the ACTS of the show. Mediocre is an understatement, I was sourly disappointed. Some of the acts were so boring that it made the whole thing slow to me. Too many mistakes. I understand we are all human, I understand we all make mistakes but this is Cirque Du Soleil and I have high expectations, even for a traveling show.

Hubby and I made a pact that we will go to all Cirque shows in SF.
This is probably our 6^th? show.
Quidam is the first SF show we watched that’s out of the tent.
Although I like the feeling that tent gives to the show, the seats were definitely better at the Cow Palace. For the second time (besides «O» in Vegas) I was comfortable watching Cirque.
I’m not sure why the other reviews didn’t give this show a good rating.
It may not be as fancy with the costumes and stage but the show was great. It was entertaining and simple. I actually understood the story line this time. :o)
I do appreciate the stunts and artistic work… just like every Cirque show has.

Quidam is definately on the bottom of my Cirque Du Soleil list.
It was slow, I missed the tent because the cow palace was way too big and it lacked the intimiate ambiance of being engulfed in a tent. The stadium was warm. We bought seats in the side skirt and its true that we get the nosebleed seats but you can relocate yourself if see vacant seats and if the attendants arent watching you closely. We end up sitting in the 2^nd tier (instead of the 3^rd) which was pretty awesome. We thought about sneaking front and center but the side dress seats were just fine with a great view.
Overall, it was a good show and there were a few amazing acts and some acts that were prolonged if not repetetive. The entire show gave a mournful and slow vibe that just dragged on. I thought the audience participation from this particular show was pretty great. The music was also pretty good.
A few tips:
The show is 2.5 hours (including a 20 min intermission), the parking lot is $ 20 for guests that want to park right in the front and $ 15 for parking a little off the the side. There’s plenty of free parking on the streets so I would save my money. They dont allow cameras and bottled water and will check your bags, but not thoroughly. The will call center is to the far left inside the building, so dont be a fool like me and wait in the wrong line. None of the long lines are will call lines.

I’d like to start by clarifying a few points about Quidam as seen in the other reviews.
For starters, Quidam has been reformatted to fit into an arena, as all new Cirque shows are required to do. This enables the crew to travel to smaller areas where a tent show would not sustain a 4+ week run. Of course you lose some of the awe and magic you’d get from seeing this in the grand chapiteau, but that reason is valid. I will say, that a very good show that was produced was Delirium as it was set up for the arenas, and it was magical. Even without the grand chapiteau, this was absolutely amazing, especially considering it was specifically designed for arenas, and not a «convertible» format show for areans and the tent.
Secondly, touring shows can not be compared to resident shows where the theaters are custom-​built for the show – and done so in the millions of dollars. There just isn’t any comparison from a technical perspective.
As for Quidam, this is one of Cirque du Soleil’s darker shows. This was a trend back in the mid-​90s as Alegría is a similarly dark show, but not to the extent of this show. I will say though, that having seen Alegría, I think its format fits slightly better into an arena stage than that of Quidam.
Now, as for the actual review itself of the show. I feel for the team, as having to pick up your life and move every week (or maximum every two weeks) can be very stressful, and you can see how it has certainly taken a toll on some of the performers.
Diabolos: The costumes were somewhat out of place, even though I like them better than the original enfants d’acier. Which is another point, these performers are no longer «enfants» by any means. One artist dropped her spindle twice and didn’t catch the rod another time. The first time was fairly unnoticeable, but the second time when she was performing solo and sent the spindle flying off the stage, albeit humorous to see, did slow the vibe down. I did like how a second artist immediately stepped in and did the trick over and flawlessly I might add. To much surprise, my friends and I enjoyed this act almost most of all.
Cloud Swing: I was completely shocked that the first trick the performer pulled was a complete miss. I was ever so happy she caught the rope, but was wondering how she was going to recover for the rest of the act. Her confidence boosted back up and she performed the rest fairly on point, although I think her best trick was doing a back-​tuck and sticking it cleanly on the rope.
Jump Ropes: I can understand this act not going smoothly because it’s performed by artists from most of the other acts. They aren’t jump rope «experts» if you will, and so I can expect a couple of restarts (3 or 4 actually). It was also sad to see that only one artist was the main performer when I was expecting two. The one disappointing thing that did happen was the trick when there were 3 sets of rope that he was going to be jumping in, yet missed the first step, and so ditched the outer most ropes so only did the trick inside two. I thought why not reset? You guys did before, and it easily would have been the best trick.
Banquine: Flawless. This was my first time seeing Banquine live, but I must say that many of the flyers were really young, and so some of the tricks weren’t as spectacular as what they could be. Watch the Zed routine and you’ll see what I mean. Stunning! That’s what I was expecting… I did, however, still enjoy it.
Sound Technicians: This was rather inexcusable in my eyes, but during the Statue act, the sound technician started the wrong track. I know things happen, but it completely offset the mood of this very slow, breath-​taking act.
Even with the flaws, I still enjoyed this darker side of Cirque. I also loved it that my friend was the one who got whisked away backstage and put into one of the white biohazard suits! For some of you, this isn’t the Cirque du Soleil show you should see. If you have yet to see a show in the grand chapiteau, see that first. (Totem is coming soon!) Even see a show in Vegas, and you’ll understand the skills and management taken to perform these production up to 8 times a week. If you are going to watch Quidam, just take into account the differences of seeing this in an arena versus the grand chapiteau.

My first Cirque Du Soleil Experience.
Overpriced food & Drinks, to be expected.
Snobby couple fighting on our right.
Children yelling and shouting behind us.
Tall guy in front of me. :x
Wish the seating was arranged better, I had boxed seats so the elevation from row to row was not a big enough difference. But there’s not much to be done about that. Viewing was kind of difficult from the side because the stage was so long, and there was a lot going on at once, I wasn’t sure what to look at, so I’d miss a few things here and there. I’m sure the view was spectacular from the front though.
The show started out on time, and there were characters from the show going into the audience to mess around before hand. It was pretty funny. Story line was alright… I caught myself getting bored every now and then. They would start every act and build on it, with the end doing something that wowed the audience. But nothing really blew me away. There was no particular act that amazed me. But I enjoyed the show, but don’t think it was worth getting the box seats, I would have been happy with the seats in the far back, because being up close really didn’t change the experience at all, and actually made me feel like I wasted my money bit, because it wasn’t as spectacular as I thought it’d be. :/

So boring. I dozed off for the first part of the show. The story was laggy, music was dull, and the energy of a Cirque du Soleil show was lacking. The second part of the show had better performances, but by then it was too late.
Cow Palace is too big for this show. Half the sections weren’t even seated.

Just saw Quidam at Cow Palace & this was my 1^st non-​tent show in SF. We’ve been to Vegas & are very familiar w/​theater setups but our SF shows have always been under the Big Top & this has relevance for me.
Have to say the lack of tents made for a not as pleasurable an experience… took the mystery out of going to the performance. For some reason, walking into those blue & yellow swirly tents was like transporting to another dimension & another world & we knew we’d be in for a magical evening
Not so much at the dank, cavernous, concrete Cow Palace. And the vendors at Cow Palace? (that’s another review…)
Pluses for Quidam:
Storyline was easy to follow — a little girl is bored & transports to another world where she encounters tumblers & whatnot
Minimal clown! This is big for me as I come to Cirques to be amazed by death-​defying feats of acrobatics, not see someone get beaten over the head w/​a rubber steak. Props for minimal clown!
Athletes were more of the «core-​strength» variety. You’ll see no Firey Wheel Of Death here but you will see balancing, juggling, and tumbling galore & the muscle it takes to perform these feats — impressive!
Music was Klezmer-​like & we dug it. Costumes were the usual Cirque awesomeness — more minimalistic than other shows we’ve seen but didn’t make them any less impressive
From the people sitting beside us, we learned this show used to be under a Big Top — hopefully it will be again in the future cause I’m a fan!