By Mark Powell
PARADISE this week
Thursday, January 13, 2000
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…
The cost of the video is $19.99 for one, two for $32.00 with a $3.00 discount for locals. Dominique and His Flying House Cats is aavailable early afternoon at Sunset Pier, or through his web site at http://www.e-isle.com/catman/.. or by writing P.O. Box 4133, Key West, FL 33041.