Ovo, the Cirque du Soleil show which just opened in the big blue and yellow tent in the parking lot of the Giants stadium, gets its name from the Latin for egg. But the Canadian circus does anything but lay an egg. We were skeptical and cynical; circus is for kids, which was when we last saw a show, and how many clowns can you pack in a car anyway? We came out with -- ha! -- egg on our face. This show was pure magic: impossible feats of strength and acrobatics presented with effortless, poetic grace.

From the first act on, we got blown away. An acrobat was doing a dance on top of a stairless spiral stair rail, culminating with him doing a handstand on one hand. Yeah, we grumbled, cute yoga, but can he do it with his left hand? And then as if he heard our thoughts, he swapped hands back and forth. And from then on, it was a sequence of more and more amazing bewilderment.

The conceit of Cirque du Soleil is to wrap the sequence of acts into a narrative, and envelop everything in their own live music (which you can purchase as a CD during intermission), so as to present a continuous spectacle rather than a sequence of skits. Also: no animals. The concept this time around is bugs, which provide the colorful thematic material for the sets, the outlandish make-ups and the creative costumes, and some fragments of a story line, revolving around said bugs finding an egg.