Review: 'IncrediBello!'

“IncrediBello!” recently showcased the talents of Bello Nock at the Historic Asolo Theatre. That title may sound boastful, but it’s only truth in advertising. Bello and the other performers were truly incredible.

Bello was the star of the show, but he wasn’t alone. He shared the stage with three other incredible circus talents: Annaliese Nock, Bello’s wire-walking daughter; acrobat P.D. Weisman, and David Shipman, the host. Together, they defied gravity. Or at least made gravity feel bad about itself.

What am I talking about here?

The marriage of acrobatic artistry and clowning. That’s what I’m talking about.

Bello clowns around on the wire, climbs an impossibly high stack of chairs, flips in parabolic arcs on a giant, swaying lamppost. He makes you laugh; he makes you gasp. In the process, he does far more.

This world-class clown does what Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton did. In recent memory, Jackie Chan …

Like all great physical comedians, Bello’s comedy is character-based. His stunts are never arbitrary, never sprung on you for their own sake. Bello’s act flows out of …

Bello.

So who is this character?

Nock’s “Bello” persona is an impossible (or extremely unlikely) innocent. He’s an eraser-head Everyman—an ordinary guy who puts himself in incredibly hazardous predicaments. (Through an unlikely chain of events, Bello winds up riding the world’s smallest bicycle across a high wire!) In the process of risking his neck, Bello butts heads with Shipman’s authoritarian Ringmaster character. The Ringmaster thinks Bello should play it safe—and leave this kind of thing to the adults.

But Bello doesn’t do that. No sir. Bello doesn’t flinch, fold or back down. As if to say …

“I can do it!”

In the safety of your seat, you identify with that childlike assertion. Bello rides the tiny bicycle, climbs the stack of chairs, or sways from the lamppost. Despite your lack of depth perception and poor sense of balance, you’re right there with him! In spirit!

Bello puts himself in harm’s way.

But it’s never out of arrogance.

This eternal child in a man’s body approaches each ridiculous stunt with fear and trepidation. He’s never 100% confident he can pull it off …

But you know he can.

At least your inner adult does.

What with all your years of experience and everything.

You know Bello’s accidental excellence is an act. Sure. You don’t do what Bello does without untold hours of relentless practice. It also helps to have a circus family who’s been doing this kind of thing for generations.

Without turning into a heavy documentary, Bello’s show shines a light on the Nock family legacy.

Lessons aside, the performance is pure entertainment. Unpredictable Bello keeps up the pace and never gets stuck in a comic rut. Along with the character-based hilarity, some stunts are simply cool. Weisman rolls around on something that looks like a giant hamster wheel. As far as I can tell, there’s no narrative subtext. But it’s cool.

As Captain Cliché once said, “It’s a show the whole family can enjoy!”

There’s one character to thank for that.

Bello calls himself a “comic daredevil.” But he’s more like a comic dare-angel. There isn’t a mean-spirited bone in the man’s body. The show he’s created is a good-natured celebration of life, family and the possibilities of the well-trained human body.

How incredible is that?