San Francisco’s Pickle Circus presents “High Water Radio”

A couple of weeks ago I heard about the Circus Center, a school that puts on a show at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre. Coincidentally, a couple of days later I received a flier for their event that was misaddressed to the previous tenant of my apartment. This all felt too much like an omen of my destiny and I felt a need to comply. So I jumped online right after getting the flier and got 4 tickets so that me and Lil’ Pinot could invite a couple of friends to join us. Got a good buddy (formerly co-founder of Impulse! Buy Network, the start-up we sold to Inktomi) and his wife to join us as they have 3 kids and don’t get very many adult nights out. Of course, I was taking them to the circus on their adult night…I’m funny that way.

We enjoyed a wonderful dinner at a lil’ french restaurant in Cow Hollow named Baker Street Bistro, and after some hearty orders of “steak frites” and seafood stew, we made our way to the Palace for an evening of merriment and amazement.

Well, the show did not dissappoint. The contortionist was by far our favorite as this young lady bent and twisted in ways that left one wondering if she had a spine…literally. There was a good balance of off-beat humor to go with the various acrobatic feats to keep the show lively. There was one jump rope interlude that blew me away with how fast and precisely the main character was weaving and bopping her way around the rope. Then the entire production went at it with double and triple ropes going at once. There was also a mesmerizing juggling moment where starting with 2 growing to 5 jugglers, they all began to intertwine their juggling. This was too cool and hard to keep up with but they were flawless. All this gave you the sense of the concentration required to perform these tricks proficiently.

It’s definitely kid friendly, but I would recommend this to adults as well, as it makes for a fun and entertaining evening. This certainly was the feeling shared by the four of us. Now my friends want to go again with their kids. You see what I started.

Here’s a review of the show.

Here’s where you can get tickets.

Another Pincus sighting in the NY Times, but this time with my picture

Mark is always getting reporters calling him about the happenings of Silicon Valley, and on an article about extreme start-up entrepreneurs doing extreme sports, he lead a NY Times reporter to my door. What resulted is a pretty cool feature in the Sunday NY Times (that apparently comes out online on Sat) talking about various professionals in the valley and the games they play. Mark has his usual dead-on snips, but can you guess which sport they identified me with?

Wheels and Deals in Silicon Valley

Note #1: One looming misunderstanding by the reporter is that one can get out kitesurfing 3-6 times per week, but 6 times per day is not very likely nor regular. Another example of things that get lost in translation…doh!

Note #2: You might recognize the 2nd photo down in the article.