Having worked on Cirque du Soleil's Wintuk, my wonderful, wonderful production friends with both Cirque and Madison Square Garden allowed me to shoot the company's winter show.

My favorite part of the show?

Simply the fact that you must put yourself in the mindframe of a child in order for this to make any sense whatsoever. Not following? Well, let's take into consideration that this is a show geared toward children. It's not Alegria, O or Dralion. It's an adventure story about a little dude who wants to find some snow.

Simple? Simple. Now, this kid needs to go through some pretty complicated things to get to aforementioned snow. You know, singing street lamps, ice giants, ridiculously large birds, bendy hula-hoop ice princesses, tumbling tribesman and a pair of ambiguously homosexual robbers. I think somewhere in there, adults get lost:

"Seems like a lot of work for some frozen precipitation."
"What do you mean, Honey?"
"Battling ice giants for some snow?"
"Wait, what ice giants?"
"Those big lantern-like rock things with the strobes?"
"Those were ice giants?"
"I guess."

When you see Wintuk, you have to watch it as you would watch The Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular. You have to appreciate Wintuk's characters as you would the Rockettes - for what they are, rather than for what they're not. In the Rockette's case, if you try to place the creme de la creme of entertainment in the 1930s in 2008, you end up wondering why you just spent 200 bucks per seat to see a bunch of skinny girls with pretty teeth and long legs tap and kick their little hearts out to basically the same routines for 90 minutes... with no intermission.

Watching the Rockettes, however, as a historic look back to what once was a fabulously grand spectacle is a totally different experience. I've seen it twice and done it both ways. First time? Bored out of my mind. Second time? Had a ball. It's as simple as a tiny change in perspective. You still might not be ok with the price on the ticket, but you can now pleasantly cross it off your "To Do" list. Or if you're me, cross off the "change attitude on Rockettes" line.

Wintuk is the same. Through the eyes of a kid, the show is cool. Through the eyes of an adult, it's a confusing labrynth of storyline holes, physical tricks and special effects. If adults can avoid being adults through the duration of the show, therein should lie the entertainment value. I guess my point is to flick off your "you" switch every once in awhile and have the will to suspend your disbelief in entertainment, or like I do every day, for better or for worse. That's the trick to living a cinematic reality, I think. Life is just as much about perspectives and illusions as theater is, be it acting like a kid to enjoy Wintuk, or hopping back to 1937 to catch the hottest show in the town, oorrrr being a popstar every Saturday night, live in New York City.

If someone tries to tell you that you can't live your life that way, just say, "Try it sometime," faintly smile and hope for the best. For them and for you.

I also fully recognize that anyone who may be reading this at any point probably thinks I'm nuts, but all I have to say is, "Try it sometime."

And umm, now, if you don't mind, I'm going to go look for some snow.