Cirque Du Hilarious Review - Blackpool

We were recently invited to see Cirque Du Hilarious in Blackpool. I was really looking forward to a day out with my children. They’ve had a tough time since we moved to live with my Grandma because they are expected to be very quiet. I’ve spent a lot of time keeping them out of the house. A trip to Blackpool was exactly what we needed.

We spent the morning on the beach and then had a picnic lunch. The boy rode a donkey and we headed to Central Pier to try out the rides. The girl’s broken collarbone was my main concern, but we managed to ride only rides which wouldn’t put any strain on it. At £20 for 25 ride tickets it was fairly expensive. Each ride was 2 tickets per person, so £20 got you six rides for two children and one leftover ticket, which you could use to go on a ride again, as long as you didn’t stand up!

After the pier, we headed in to the venue which is at Blackpool Central Pier, to watch Cirque Du Hilarious. A top tip is to get there early. We arrived at 3.05 for a 3.30 show and the seats directly at the front were taken. We sat to the right of the stage at the front. Our viewpoint did mean that we missed some of the visual jokes which were aimed to the front of the stage. We also saw how a few of the magic tricks worked which was slightly disappointing.

I went with my two children, who are three and five. My daughter (the three year old) watched with her hand over her ears the entire time. I think she is particularly sensitive to loud noises though but there were some very loud bangs. My son barely stopped laughing from start to finish and is still repeating the jokes. I thought that the magic was amazing. I have no idea where the doves come from!

The burlesque dancing was possibly a little more than I would like my son to see of women when he is five years old. They were great dancers but I just wasn’t sure about the idea that he might objectify women in that way. In fact, the women in the show didn’t do anything other than dance or be made to disappear. I was disappointed with that. It felt as though they weren’t as important as the male characters, but perhaps I am reading too much into it. I was impressed with the way they danced though and the acts they did were done incredibly well.

There was quite a lot of adult humour which obviously went straight over my son’s head, but it didn’t make me laugh. There were many people in the audience who did laugh, and one woman in particular was howling with laughter, so there clearly was an audience for it, but I felt it was a bit out of place in a show which was aimed at children. I don’t really want to take my children to a show which insinuates that a woman in the audience would fellate the main character. Perhaps I just need to lighten up, but it didn’t sit right with me at all when I was there with my young children. Indeed, I wouldn’t have expected to take my children to a show with such adult humour.

The slapstick comedy on the other hand really did have me laughing out loud and many of the jokes were hilarious. Overall, the show was decent family entertainment. My son adored the clowning around and we were all amazed by the magic. The dancers were fantastic and the catchphrases are still being repeated in our house. I think had I paid for the tickets I would have felt a little disappointed by some of the nature of the show, but overall my children enjoyed it.

Cirque Du Hilarious runs until the 31st of August at Blackpool Central Pier. For more information you can check out their website.

Disclosure: We received a family ticket to Cirque du Hilarious for the purpose of review. This had no impact on my opinion, which is honest and fair.

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