Kid’s Show: Tchoui fait son spectacle (Tchoupi does his show)

Tchoui Poster

As promised, here is a quick review of the kid’s show Tchoupi fait son spectacle currently at the Casino of Paris on rue de Clichy. For the kids, it was a great show full of songs and lights and colors. As I expected, from an adult point of view, it was pretty insipid. I guess what I found irritating is that it was so one-dimensional – what I mean is that there was no second- or third-degree to the story. Tchoupi plans a birthday party for his mom with his friends Filou and Loulou complete with flowers, balloons, a chocolate cake, and music for dancing (“Mama loves to dance!”). Unlike Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Lorax,  even Cat in the Hat, there is no moral here whatsoever. And yet those other stories have kid’s appeal as well as reasonable depth for adults to enjoy. With Tchoupi, it is just always some lame slice of life: this birthday party, the cat making a mess in the house, a visit to a farm…Perhaps kid’s lit has become shallower over the years and I am feeling all nostalgic or something. Or perhaps, I am just not 2 years old anymore and can’t appreciate the same things as my daughter. Oh, the sacrifices we make for those little monsters, right? The show itself was really expensive (€28.50 with no kids prices!) and relatively short with a ripoff break – what I mean is that the show went for about 45 minutes or so, took a 15 minute break ostensibly so we’d spend money on popcorn or soda pop or some Tchoupi crapola and then back for a 15-minute finale. They could easily have cut out a scene out and kept the show at 1h00 in length which would have been preferable IMHO.  I think your money on kid’s entertainment is better spent elsewhere to be honest. There are plenty of smaller theaters that are cheaper and have more interesting pieces of theatre.

The wonderful Chaptal Library - a must for kids!

Here’s another tip – at the Biblioteque Chaptal in the upper part of the 9th, there is a wonderful story time – for free! – every Sunday morning at 11am. We went twice – once was a duet in sign language and spoken French. The other time was in French and featured some wonderful books by Katsumi Komagata that I have been unable to find in print anywhere. They were really simple baby books but with wonderful colors and textures and open-ended messages that allowed for lots of parental storytelling creativity. But, as I mentioned, very, very, very hard to find…in fact I am still looking…

Ok, so only two more episodes in Sons of Anarchy S01 so that I can write a more fun review of that 🙂