Good thing I have pants on.
Welcome to The World Of.
Hey Youtubers, I’m Matthew Rodrigues
here for another episode of The World Of.
Last week we went on
an out-of-this-world adventure
with Toruk, The First Flight.
Strap on your old goggles though because today,
we’re going to discover the world of Kurios.
Kurios is like going into the incredible basement
where your grandpa kept all of his coolest things,
call it like a good cabinet of curiosities.
It’s a steampunk inspired show
with a decidedly cirque twist.
We follow a very eccentric inventor
whose world turns upside down
when the clock strikes 11:11.
Trampoline artists,
insane jugglers
and contortionists
performing atop a giant hand
will leave your jaw on the floor.
Oh my God,
that’s incredible.
Our audience and the inventor will never look at life
in the same way.
It’s 11:11,
it means it’s time for Fun Facts.
This is the first time that Cirque du Soleil
presents a welcoming act on top of the Big Top
before the show starts.
Weather permitting,
3 artists climb up the Big Top
and greet the guests from above
while playing music and acting.
To make the accordion man's attire...
so we have, talking about the accordion man,
we have this clip:
at the Cirque du Soleil international headquarters
Oh!
Where does this guy go?
Oh yeah so,
this is part of Kurios basically.
We have a guy called the accordion guy,
he can adjust himself to his counterparts
so if he is talking to you he’ll be your size,
when he’s talking to Mini Louis
he’s about a foot and a half top.
He’s an accordion.
Ok, I got it.
This is actually all pleating done by hand
so we have someone when they start,
they’re gonna start pleating the entire fabric
and sewing it together to create this.
It seems like an insane amount of work.
The costume is about 230 hours in making.
And one person is just sitting there all day making that.
230 hours.
I’m like hello, I’m done.
Now let’s take a look at one of our
favorite acts.
The accro net.
And guess what everybody,
we have an interview
with one of the guys on the trampoline.
- Hi Mathieu. - Hi Matthew.
I’m Matthew.
So tell me about your involvement in the show,
how did you first get the job?
I’m from a background of gymnastics before,
until 2010.
In 2010 I did a casting for Cirque du Soleil in France
and they called me 6 months later.
OK, we would like to have you
for a general formation.
After this formation they gave me a contract
for Saltimbanco
where the show closed in 2012
and they call me after one month later again,
are you interested to do a creation for a new show.
I said oh yeah sure,
the best thing is to do a creation
because you participate to the process to create the show.
So yeah, I signed for Kurios
and I’ve been on Kurios since 3 years.
When you think about day one,
is the show what you imagined it to be
now 3 years later?
Especially our act, I’m gonna be specific on my act
for example it’s a big accro net
like a big trampoline.
Nobody know what we could do with it,
it was the first time we’re doing this you know,
it was like a big trampoline,
nobody been trying before so we went on it
and we tried to bounce by ourselves.
It could go one meter high
so we can’t do much.
We’ve been finding a way
to help each other to go higher.
And now we’re doing an act
we are at 30 feet high
with 6 people pushing around for one guy
bouncing in the middle and we’re flying.
Now I know you’re probably gonna say no
but do you get scared
being 30 feet up in the air?
- Yeah, I do every night. - Oh you do.
And I’m someone very superticious
so I have like people making fun of me
but before to go on stage,
I like to do a little bit of the same routine you know
like you know touch wood.
- Knock on wood. Knock on wood. - Knock on wood,
I develop to find a bit of piece of wood,
touch it and go on stage
and after I’m fine, if I do this I’m fine.
Is the touring ever exhausting for you?
I love it. I love it.
Actually we have two way to travel,
we have the arena tour
or you’re going to
one week you change city,
one week you change city every week,
or Big Top, always takes two months
usually in the cities
so you have more time. I’ve been doing both.
Ok.
When I was younger I was doing arena
every week changing city or country,
it was pow-pow-pow all the time.
Now I’m in Big Top I have time to do this.
You live in the spot for 2 months.
Even when you are in New York or San Francisco
or like Chicago
it’s like they are great cities,
like two months there we live in downtown
usually nice apartment.
I mean I love the discovering new places all the time
and like next year we are going to Japan
for one year and a half,
a completely new country.
Incredible.
New food, new people, new culture
so I’m super excited about this
to go there.
Well cool, well thank you so much Mathieu.
Thank you.
- Nice meeting you. - Nice to meet you too.
Next week we get to have some real fun
and explore the exciting world
of Cirque du Soleil’s newest show Volta.
We’re like BMXing, I’ve got a helmet,
love that.
Oh, it’s 11:11, time for lunch.
Tell me in the comments
if seeing all the clips from Kurios
got you curious about the show.
As a friendly reminder,
click here to see the complete play list
of The World Of series
and there are some very special cool things
down in the description bar,
I don’t really what’s down there, just take a look.
I’m Matthew Rodrigues,
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