It works like clockwork.

When the circus march sounds, the audience reliably claps along, one, two, three, four - only there is no sensation.

Nothing happens.

The artist keeps a straight face and it seems as if the audience is clapping all the harder to finally see a smile from him.

The Ukrainian Mikhail Usov has it inimitable. As a mixture of clown, failed magician and juggler, he makes fun of the mechanisms of the circus and vaudeville and at the same time uses them confidently.

Eva Maria Magel

Senior cultural editor of the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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He is so devoted to the audience and his art that you can't help but smile.

It's hard to imagine that those whom he quietly imitates with irony, such as the Swiss tempo juggler Claudius Specht, could be angry with him for his pastiche of their art.

The Tigerpalast is entering a new season

The Tigerpalast is entering a new season, for the second time without the glamorous premiere with political celebrities of the past.

The fact that the legendary Nockherberg-like evenings with politicians no longer exist should not only have something to do with Corona, but also with the fact that there are politicians who fight bitterly, but still put on a show and the annual satire of the landlord Johnny in bourgeois agreement enjoy latch, no longer exists.

On the other hand, the hall is filled with regular visitors, artist friends have come, the legendary Bouglione family celebrates the birthday of their boss Sandrine, who once caused a sensation with the tigers in the Tigerpalast, the Tigerpalast band plays "Happy Birthday" and mixes the artists' desired music fine jazz from Jobim to Brubeck.

In between a few guests who look as if they had asked their hotel where one could experience something nice in Frankfurt, alone in one evening.

And of course we were told: "Tiger Palace." They look very satisfied, because that's still true.

The charm and the unwavering attention of the staff contribute enormously to the artists on the stage, even more so that the landlady Margareta Dillinger selected and partly supervised the development of new numbers.

Like the emcees, they change over the course of the season in part because they have assignments elsewhere and because many guests come to see the show more often.

The jack-of-all-trades Usov with his plastic bag tricks will be there until Christmas, Valerie Inertie in her big Cyr hoop, Diane-Renée Rodriguez with the Boleadoras, which are otherwise known from Argentine male dancers, and the contortionist Alexander Mitin remain as constants.

And like this season's other enduring performers, most notably Mitin in stark black, these younger ones are no longer interested in the number style of frozen poses that simply call for applause.

Their processes are choreographed, the costumes and attitudes move away from the overwrought glitter of artistry formed by male gazes on female bodies, a different artistic self-confidence appears.

A generational change, as with Selyna Bogino, who succeeds her mother Consuelo Reyes as a foot or “antipode” juggler.

It is a touching moment that conférencière Alix Dudel can still remember how she once announced this in the Tigerpalast.

The tried and tested Kraft Dudel, who gallops a little too hastily through the chanson classic “Neanderthaler” and recites poems by Friedhelm Kändler, will alternate with Anna Krämer and Marcus Jeroch over the course of the autumn and winter season.

With new splendor into the future

In the past show, which was still severely impaired due to Corona, it was the local strap artist Darkan who embodied this new type of artistry.

It picks up speed.

That's why numbers like the roller skate duo Giurintano, who rely entirely on celebrating a spectacular individual stunt with long poses, seem a bit out of date, and the brilliant vertical trapeze artist Kristina Bautina, hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the room, covers with a bright red, black-laced skate Maid corsage has the touch of eroticism that many associate with vaudeville.

It just depends on what you make of it in the future.

The Tigerpalast has done a lot for this, also with all the training opportunities in the lockdowns.

The audience celebrates that too. And in the end Mikhail Usov sends a smile to the audience after all – and a kiss.

Tigerpalast, Heiligkreuzgasse 16, two shows every evening from Thursday to Sunday.