Yuri Kuklachev

Russian circus legend Yuri Kuklachev files suit for copy of show

BY JOHN MARZULLI
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Monday, June 9th 2008, 4:00 AM

A couple of circus cats are claiming impostors from Brooklyn ripped off their cat circus.

Russian circus legend Yuri Kuklachev and his son, Dmitri, filed a federal suit charging their ex-managers created a knockoff version of their Moscow Cats Theater show.

The suit accuses father-and-son duo Mark and Yanis Gelfman of secretly applying for a trademark and recruiting adefector who learned Yuri Kuklachev's secret methods for training cats to perform.

"They're basically trying to steal his identity," said Gary Tsirelman, a lawyer for Yuri Kuklachev.

You could call the whole thing a feline felony - but it's no joke.

Yuri Kuklachev, 59, and Dmitri, 33, say they have accomplished the unthinkable by training cats to participate in circus tricks and aren't giving up withoutflashing their claws.

"Cats [were] commonly thought to be untrainable prior to the development by Yuri Kuklachev in the 1970s of a unique, humane feline training method," their complaint filed in Brooklyn Federal Court contends.

Lawyer Alexey Bakman says Yuri Kuklachev is a legend in the circus world.

"Yuri still sets [an] example for his cats by personally performing all the acrobatic tricks he expects of his felines," Bakman said. "[They] include horizontal handstands and jumping and balancing on poles of tremendous height, just under the theater's ceiling."

The suit charges the Gelfmansused the Kuklachevs' images on posters and playbills and dressed up a clown to look like Yuri.

The wanna-bes stole comic sketches like one in which a clown goes to sleep at night and a cat comes back onstage repeatedly to turn a lamp back on, the suit says.

Loyal fans of the Kuklachevs have noticed the difference.

"Don't see them on this tour! Poor Yuri is in Moscow, not touring. How dare they!" huffed a blogger on the Accidental Russophile Web site.

While the two sides battle over the trademark, the Kuklachevs are also seeking an injunction and monetary damages. They're even suing the venues - which included the Tribeca Performing Arts Center - that hosted the alternative show, and Ticketmaster.

The Gelfmans' mouthpiece, James Woods, said the suit should be scratched.

"The Moscow Cats Theater was created by the Gelfmans," Woods said.

jmarzulli@nydailynews.com