Lots of videos have been made in Key West, but
few have the unique story and extraordinary professionalism of Dominique
and His Flying House Cats.
This is a new, multi-thousand dollar work directed by Miami’s Patric
Bateaux and produced with the help of Key West’s Pixel Logic.
It is 30 minutes of brilliance shot at Sunset Pier, where Dominique
Lefort’s daring cats leap through hoops of fire.
The gunius of this video, made by a French director responsible for the
L’Oreal ads, is in the way it reveals Dominique’s unfolding schtick.
It begins with the cats not being able to do the tricks. Dominique can
stride and whirl about all he wants, but the felines are just not
interested. When he starts talking in cat talk, all of a sudden all of the
cats can do everything.
"I’m so in loooooove!" croons the cat man, bending over
backwards, stroking Sara on her stool as he goes. Dominique found Sara at
a truck stop and he trained her in only days. In fact, reports Dominique
in the video, every sunset performance is a training session.
He works with eight cats these days, having lost three to theft and one
killed by a dog. Sharky, Piggy, Oscar and Cossette have been joined by
Chopin, Mandarin, and George, who were strays following Hurricane Georges.
(His cat show, he told Paradise this week, is licensed by USDA for the
ethical treatment of its animals and is inspected annually.)
The act is unique in the world, only the Moscow Circus and one other
show in the U.S. being anywhere near comparable. Since arriving at Mallory
Square in 1984, Dominique Lefort has perfected a routine with his cats
that gives audiences and the cats- and Dominique- a really good time at a
lovely hour of the day in a very interesting place. It can’t be beat.
Born in Brittany, Dominique spent 15 years as a clown "European
style," he informed us. "Meaning very visual." Two thirds
of his 30-minute video are devoted to performance with the cats, in the
heavenly, melting illumination of Key West at a crepuscular hour. For its
latter third, the video jumps into a series of cuts taken from an
intimate, almost metaphysical ramble on cats spoken by Dominique while on
a ramble about town.
The effect is mesmerizing, hypnotizing- almost as if we were one of his
cats…
