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Cat trainer Samantha Martin, who travels the nation with her Amazing Acro-Cats trained-cat act, is the first to admit that there’s truth to the cliché about herding cats: “The cats, they’ll mess with you a little bit,” she told Westword before a 2011 performance. “They’ll switch up a trick or decide they want to do a different one, or they’ll just amble over to the merchandise tables. They’re really unprofessional, actually.”
But Martin somehow manages to spin gold out of her wily feline charges, who ride little skateboards, balance on balls, jump through hoops and even play kitty guitars in a rock band, and her shows are crowd-pleasers for all ages. Many of Martin’s trainees started out life as rescues and strays before hitting the limelight. “Who’d get rid of a cat who high-fives you?” she notes, adding that any cat can learn simple tricks, just like dogs.
The Amazing Acro-Cats return to Denver for a series of shows beginning at 8 p.m. tonight at the Bug Theatre, 3654 Navajo Street; performances run Thursdays through Sundays through August 10. Admission is $18 for adults and $15 for children; reserve tickets at circuscats.com.
Thursdays-Sundays. Starts: July 31. Continues through Aug. 10, 2014
