Furry and feathery fun: Popovich Comedy Pet Theater showcases talents of rescued animals

Gregory Popovich loves animals and he loves theater.

At the age of 12, Popovich was a fourth-generation professional circus performer, traveling with the Moscow Circus and Ringling Brothers in Kyiv, Ukraine. He has been recognized by Guinness World Records for juggling nine rings while standing on a nine-foot ladder, and has won several world competitions.

Growing up, Popovich’s mother loved animals and he was surrounded by dogs.

Furry and feathery fun: Popovich Comedy Pet Theater showcases talents of rescued animals

“In fact, my first babysitter and first friend growing up was my mother’s dogs and later in life, after growing up, I began training them,” Popovich said.

When Popovich came to the United States in 1990, as a circus juggler, he began thinking about ways to upgrade his performances and his answer was to include animals.

Since then, Popovich has diligently trained over 30 animals including cats, dogs, mice, parrots and a miniature pig. Popovich rescued the animals from different pet shelters across the world. His shows help rehabilitate the animals and it’s good for Popovich too.

“I was surprised to see how the United States government supports homeless pets and as a pet lover I was very impressed, but later I found out how those pets got into the shelter,” he said.

Popovich said that training the animals can take a long time because some of them have lost their trust in people after being in the shelter. He has to train the animals to not only work through their own fears and traumas, but to perform as well.

“People didn’t learn the animals’ personalities and didn’t take the time to take care of them and for me, it was a painful thing to see, so I thought to work with pets only from the shelter and I tell my audience to adopt pets from the shelter,” he explained. “If someone from my show decides to adopt a pet from the shelter, I feel like I got my message across.”

No Popovich theater show is the same. Popovich said he finds it important to incorporate an animal’s personality into the show and sometimes he has to work around his furry co-workers and their cat-itudes.

Popovich purposefully trains multiple animals to do a set of tricks in case one has an off day.

“Each pet has a personality and my goal is to learn what they like to do, especially with house cats,” he said. “They’re very independent animals and you’ll never push them to do something they don’t like to do. Some like to play with the balls and others like to sit on my shoulder and I build their tricks and the show around that.”

According to Popovich, mice are the easiest of all the animals to train, and dogs are also willing participants. Popovich has a bit in the show where mice scurry up a long pole, which he said comes easy to them because mice naturally go up.

Popovich finds it important to find creative ways to show off animals in the show. While other pet shows might have dogs walking on their hind legs, Popovich wants to show the animals at their best and happiest in a new way.

“The audience will see a storyline as the circus meets the theater,” Popovich said. “The storyline is sort of the story of my life − a man leaves his circus life and decides he’s going to adopt animals and do the show with them.”

While animals are a huge focus in the show, Popovich will also wow the audience with his various circus tricks he has honed and mastered over the years. The show will feature juggling acts, acting, balancing acts and gymnastics with all the animal fun.

“This is an all ages show with a European physical comedy style and afterwards, I’ll go out to meet the audience with the animals and answer any questions they have,” Popovich said. “It’s going to be a very good time.”