Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Animals Get The Applause
Popovich and pets entertain at Walton Arts Center
In the newspaper business, we have a saying that dogs and babies sell papers. Turns out it works in show biz as well. Gregory Popovich brings his top-rated Las Vegas show, Popovich Comedy Pet Theater, to the Walton Arts Center at 7 p.m. April 28. The Ukrainianborn, former Moscow Circus performer and “America’s Got Talent” finalist trains and works with more than 30 rescue cats, dogs, geese, ponies, goats and parrots to create a comedy show for both young and old.
The show does feature human performers as well.
“I have talented acrobats from different countries. We have physical comedy acts, variety acts,” he explains. “During the show we try to present human talents and pet talents, but the audience has to decide by applause who is more talented — humans or pets. Pets always have more applause than humans. For me, it’s easier to work with pets. They are your friends. They are, in fact, part of my family.” He hopes that after watching his show people will adopt animals from their local shelter.
After being off stage for a year due to the pandemic, Popovich says that the humans, himself included, had to learn their performances again, but the pets remembered their parts. “The pets don’t make mistakes. Only humans make mistakes.”
He uses positive reinforcement with the pets, all of whom are rescued from animal shelters. When he brings an animal home for training, he tries to work with the animal’s natural abilities. “I’m always trying to build communication with the pets, see their natural habits.” He cites cats for an example, saying “each cat has some trick that is sitting inside of their body.” From there, he lets the cat show him what tricks it would like to do rather than try to force it to do a trick. “You cannot push kitty cats to do what they don’t like to do,” he adds. For the show, he says he has more than one cat for each of their tricks because they sometimes get distracted by a fly or new lights or just don’t want to perform.
As a fourth generation circus performer, Popovich watched his parents work with dogs. He says they were “natural communicators” with the animals, a trait that he picked up himself. He says it was difficult to make friends with other kids because he and his family traveled so often. Naturally he found it easier to get along with the dogs than other children.
As a juggler on the freestanding ladder, he began to win competitions and was eventually invited to join The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, which brought him to the United States. After working with the famous circus for a while, he began to think of ideas for his own show. He remembered the techniques that he learned with his parents’ pets, so he adopted a cat and a dog and began to create a show. From there, it began to grow, he added more animals, more people and eventually found himself a finalist on “America’s Got Talent.” Now his Comedy Pet Theater has been voted the “Best Family Show in Vegas.”
When asked if he wants to speak about Ukraine, Popovich struggles to find the words. He is saddened by what is happening. He was born in Kyiv, which has suffered more than 900 civilian causalities at the hand of the Russian army. Popovich calls the situation in Ukraine a tragedy.
“We circus performers or artists” usually say we don’t “have a nationality,” he explains. Show business doesn’t pay attention to where one is from. “It’s our dream to work on the stage,” he says, in essence creating their own global community. “I’m part Ukrainian and part Russian. I pray that this will be finished as soon as possible.” His show has cast and crew from both Russia and Ukraine. Fortunately his family no longer lives in Ukraine — most are in the U.S. — but he still worries for people in the region. Overall, he says, they are shocked at the recent events. “We all cannot believe this is happening,” he adds sorrowfully.