TO train a cat to balance on a ball and walk it forward, you will need a weighted ball, a track to place it on, a hand-held clicker and lots of kitty treats. Each time the cat masters part of the process — standing on the ball, say, or learning to walk backward to make the ball advance — you make a clicking noise while delivering a treat. It takes time, patience and a willing cat.

“You start very small,” said Samantha Martin, ringleader of the Amazing Acro-Cats, a 14-cat circus that is coming to New York City next week for the first time. “Some tricks take weeks to train, some take just minutes.”

She should know. Ms. Martin’s cats, who will play one-hour shows from July 16 through 19 at the Muse Brooklyn, are trained to do highly non-catlike things: Tuna, the lead performer, rings a cowbell; Alley, who holds the Guinness World Record for longest cat jump (six feet), plies her specialty; Sookie pushes a shopping cart across the stage, unless she is distracted by shiny objects or finds the stage too warm, in which case she lies down.

The show ends with the Rock Cats, a six-piece band whose members play free-form on a miniature guitar, drum set and other instruments. Except when they don’t.