A typical circus includes a menagerie of elephants, tigers and clowns performing acrobatic feats, but for Gregory Popovich, acrobatic cats and dogs on scooters are the only things you need to put on an animal show.
The Comedy Pet Theater brings an artful combination of animal entertainment and skilled
juggling, without the mess and smell of a tented circus.
The Popovich Comedy Pet Theater will perform at the Hult Center for Performing Arts Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Student and youth discounts are available.
Libby Tower, public relations manager for the Hult Center, explained that the growing number of wild entertainers makes the show increasingly captivating.
“The show includes a variety of acts with little vignettes within. The cats were kind of the stars of the show, but now they have brought in dogs, mice, ferrets and even doves,” Tower said.
The all-ages show uses rescue pets and recruits talent from humane societies around the country.
“It’s a great family show because they work with rescue pets, and it has a great story behind it,” Tower said.
Popovich and his rescue animals have been featured on national television shows such as “Late Night with David Letterman” and “The Tonight Show.” After originally using a kitten in one of his circus acts in Las Vegas, Popovich decided to scout for more talent at a local animal shelter.
The animals of the Popovich Comedy Pet Theater receive high quality treatment, including a special trailer designed for maximum animal comfort when touring the country.
“The dogs will ride on scooters during the show, and the tricks aren’t meant to belittle or make a joke of trained pets; Popovich really loves pets and always does what’s best for the animals,” Tower said.
In a Hult Center press release, Popovich was adamant about how well he treats the animals of the show.
“It’s a variety show, and I want the whole thing to be entertaining for the families in the audience and for the animals on stage. I saved the animals, but it’s important to keep them happy too. If an animal is unhappy, it looks unhappy. None of mine look unhappy,” Popovich said.
The Hult Center has partnered with the Greenhill Humane Society for the Popovich Comedy Pet Theater performance.
Colleen Kimball, who has been the community outreach coordinator at the Greenhill Humane Society for two years, said the show benefits all the animals involved.
“It’s a good opportunity to show that there are no problems with animals that come from shelters, they just came upon some bad luck,” Kimball said. “They are great pets, they can be trained and are great examples of the animals that come from shelters.”
Kimball said the show includes a total of 15 cats and 10 dogs, and all of them are strays from animal shelters.
“That’s one of the reasons we were really excited to team up with the Hult Center on this because it promotes adoption,” she said.
Although some critics do not approve of the comical way the show portrays animals, others applaud Popovich’s efforts.
“I don’t think the way he uses the animals is demeaning; they are all treated well and it’s a great opportunity for them to get out of a shelter and into a great experience,” Kimball said.
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