Check out this snippet of “Volta,” at the Del Mar Fairgrounds April 3 to May 5; tickets $54.

How’s San Diego treating you?

It’s my fourth time here. It’s one of my favorite places in the U.S.—I love this town!

Good answer! So, this is the first Cirque du Soleil show to feature extreme sports, right?

Exactly. We have BMX freestyle and flatland, rope skipping. It’s one of the main reasons this show is different. People are going to notice that right away.

How did this unique show come together?

All of the riders come from the competition world. I’ve been competing for eight years. Another guy on the team has been in it for 15 years. I’m from Montreal so of course I knew about Cirque. One day they contacted me saying they wanted to put together a show with street sports. Three years ago we had a one-week workshop to see if BMXing would fit into the Cirque world. For six months we had training and rehearsal six days a week, putting the show together act by act, bit by bit.

It was a huge learning experience getting to know how to deal with all of these elements together on the stage, learning to trust each other. There are parts when a few of us are riding at the same time so we have to go the right speed, drop in at the same time, and make sure everyone knows what they’re doing. It was tough but so worth it.

What is it like to fuse BMX with more traditional Cirque elements?

So many people are so talented, there’s no way it wouldn’t work. The crowd will be really surprised, it’s not what they’re used to seeing—we go fast, we go high, there’s moving ramps, people hanging from the roof by ropes. It’s totally different from any other show. It’s such a different way of showing our sport to the world. It feels great to perform it.

Did you and the other BMX riders have trouble adapting to circus performing?

Makeup was a tough one for us. We never put on makeup for any events. It was really hard for us to accept it and learn. It took me over two hours to do my makeup. That was so weird for us, but you get used to it.

Five Questions with Cirque du Soleil Performer Jeffrey Whaley

Photo courtesy of Cirque du Soleil

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Last night I attended La Jolla Playhouse’s ACCOMPLICE: SAN DIEGO, part of their Without Walls series. It was the most unique theater experience I’ve ever had.

There were about 12 audience members total. A few days prior, each of us had been phoned by an actor—in character—from a blocked number, telling us where and when to meet.

An actor found us at the appointed time on a corner in Little Italy and the journey began. I won’t give away the locations or the plot, but basically it followed an ex-criminal in hiding who needed our help connecting with other ex-cons.

Actors were planted throughout Little Italy—on the streets but also in businesses and restaurants. The acting was really good—more than once, I couldn’t tell who was in the play and who was just a man on the street. It was interesting how the lines between reality and fiction blurred.

There were times Accomplice was more of a scavenger hunt than a play. The actors would give the audience clues and an assignment and then we would essentially exit the performance. Suddenly, we were part of the play!

I went with a friend and that might have been distracting because we weren’t always 100 percent engaged in the action. But several of us had clues or props to hold—or a line to read—and we did participate most of the time.

It was cool to see a few restaurants’ secret nooks and private patios I’d never noticed before. It was good exposure for the businesses, too. (The play was interesting on so many levels…as a business model, marketing strategy…) Appetizers and wine/beer were also offered along the way and were certainly welcome with this critic.

Another cool perk of Accomplice: the exercise. Normally when you plan to see a play or musical, you sit all day at your office desk, and then you sit in your car and drive to the theater where you sit for two to three hours more. But hey, it’s really true that physical inactivity is the number one cause of health problems—more so than cigarettes or sleep loss—so this type of theater falls right in line with the needs of the day. (Dork that I am, I set the pedometer on my iPhone and found that during the course of the show I walked about 4,000 of the recommended 10,000 steps a day. Not bad! Thanks, Accomplice.)

Round of applause!

See the show in Little Italy. For more info, click here.

A Review of Accomplice: San Diego

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