Monday, October 10, 2011

It's a dog meet dog show

Rescued pets recruited to perform skits with geese, mice and slapstick humans


The Popovich Comedy Pet Theatre menagerie performs Wednesday at Hutchins Street Square in Lodi.

By Tony SauroRecord Staff Writer


October 10, 2011

The playful pets rule. Always.
"We have human talents," Gregory Popovich said. "We have pets' talents. The audience judges who has more talents. The pets always win."
Popovich's popular pets - most of them given reprieves after being abandoned - perpetuate his perspective just by acting like themselves in his Las Vegas-based Popovich Comedy Pet Theatre.Dogs are attentive geography students. Geese gaggle nicely as farmers fleeing a fire. Mice ("they're pretty smart") respond as playful passengers on an "animal choo-choo."
"It's in the slapstick tradition," Popovich said. "Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Charlie Chaplin. The silent-movie comedians."
So, the 30 pets - cats, dogs, geese, doves, a parrot and some mice - won't be talking to their eight human companions when the Popovich Comedy Pet Theatre menagerie performs Wednesday at Hutchins Street Square in Lodi.
They'll do what nature designed them to do.
There's also an altruistic aspect to the show. The 25 cats and dogs all were rescued from animal shelters.
"There are some wonderful, wonderful shelters," said Popovich, 47, who developed his affection for pets as a young juggler in the Moscow Circus. "But it won't be enough if society doesn't change its mind a little bit. People don't want to read about it, but they've got to fix (neuter or spay) their pets. One cat can have 14 kittens."
Wherever his show travels, Popovich scouts animal shelters for perky new puppy and kitty talent.READ MORE:
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20111010/A_LIFE/110080309

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