The MAT breaks out

I couldn't talk my kids into joining me for the Kennedy Center Imagination Celebration's Aesop's Fables.

Because I'm a judge on the Pikes Peak Arts Council theater category, I'm trying to see every local show produced. Man, there are a lot of shows.

I tried not to feel like a perv here, being the only adult at the show without kids.

But the show was well worth it, even for adults. Jim Jackson and Birgitta De Pree, the brilliant clowns behind the Manitou Art Theater, merged the stories from Aesop with their great circus schtick.

Naturally, there was juggling, balancing and Jim's favorite illusion: in which he straddles a mirror to give the appearance that both legs are off the ground and he's flying. It looks even better when Birgitta joins in.

I thought the best gag was during the story about how sticks are stronger in a bundle than they are separately. But, as we learn by the sound effects off stage, even the bundle can't hold up to a chain saw.

Jim and Birgitta have created a fun, if not-quite seamless, kids' show that with a little minor tweaking, could be a popular road vehicle.