A delightful group of performers entertained Austinites in what can only be described as both a cat lover’s dream come true and something that could only be true in fairy tales: an actual cat circus. Yes, a live circus act featuring feisty and trained feline performers. Yes, it is real.

The Acro-Cats were put together by Samantha Martin, a professional animal trainer and cat behavior expert with over 25 years of experience. Martin had noticed that there were very few acts that starred feline thespians and felt the need to correct that omission.

From Nov. 12-18, people of all ages crowded into the small black box theater at The Blue Theatre on Springdale Road in East Austin. Every seat was full. The children sat together on the floor in front of the stage so that they could be close to the kitties.

The show got off to a late start, but in no time the feisty feline performers more than made up for the delay with their delightful tricks and adorable personalities. 

Martin and her assistants had the cats leaping great distances and weaving through a cat-sized obstacle course. One of the cats pushed around a shopping cart, while another dashed up a 10-foot pole and leaped onto Martin’s back with the greatest of ease and most delicate of impact.

One of the true highlights of the show was the final act, The Rock Cats, the world’s only feline band. The band initially started out as a three-piece act with one cat on piano, one cat on guitar and a third cat on drums. 

However, the band has grown in number since the group first got together. The Rock Cats also feature a cat who plays the chimes and a chicken who plays the cymbals and the tambourine.

While these may be professionally trained feline performers, they are still cats that do what they want to do. 

As Martin so graciously put it at the beginning of the show, “Nothing teaches you humility like a trained cat act in front of a live audience.”

 Many of the cats came out when it was time and dutifully did their tricks for their audience before getting a treat from Martin or one of her assistants, but some of the cats felt like going off-script. 

Most of them would eventually do their trick, but one cat just flopped down on the floor and took a literal cat nap while another actually wandered off to explore the theater, only to reappear 15 minutes later during a completely different part of the show.

While it was a little chaotic, the show was far from a catastrophe. The finicky nature of the feline performers actually made for some comedic gold. There were points during the show where watching the humans unsuccessfully try to coax the unwilling cat into doing a trick was just as amusing, if not more so, as watching a cat do the appropriate trick.

However, Martin and her amazing feline performers do more than just dazzle audiences with their skills. Martin also fosters rescue cats and kittens and brings them with her while the Acro-Cats tour so that she can find homes for them as they traverse the country. Since Martin started the show, more than five years ago, she has found homes for 98 cats.