Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Vermont Vaudeville

Vaudeville (Wikipedia)-a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill. Types of acts included popular and classical musicians, dancers, comedians, trained animals, magicians, female and male impersonators, acrobats, illustrated songs, jugglers.

        About two weeks ago I got to see a real vaudeville act, well as close to real as one can get in the 21st century. the night was full of jokes, music, magic and even an acrobat. It has been a long time since I had laugh so much in one night and it felt good. Let me tell you about this particular group of entertainers/performers in hopes that you will get to see them one day.
           It was a two hour show that opened with a MC telling jokes, and yes some of the jokes you've heard before but that doesn't make them any less funnier does it? He was followed by a man who allowed me to see my first in person prat falls and then he stood on-top of a ladder ,being held by no one, and juggled at the same time. In the second half he did some cool and fancy plate spinning which I had only seen on late night TV before that night. Then there was a very flexible woman. She was able to move her whole body around and through a folding chair with ease that there were times I couldn't tell her feet from her fingers. She came back in the second half and did amazing movements with a hula-hoop. There was a man who could do tricks with numbers. There was audience participation moments throughout the show including using two male members and involving them in a contest in which they had to throw tennis balls into a basket on-top of their heads. There were gorillas preforming to opera and speaking of music there was a lot of it. There was the house band which was just a piano and drums but they were really good. There was a prefromance by a local all female singing group, a member of the vaudeville group who played the ukulele and then there were the funny song parodies. From now on whenever I vacuum I will sing "I will always...vacuum".
               I think my favorite part of the night was the bubble guy. This man did things with a simple child's toy that I could not believe and made me feel like a kid again. The smoke bubbles, the caterpillar, the merry-go-round and the pile of bubbles that stacked taller then the kid holding them. Then there was the way the bubbles caught the light making each simmer and sparkle like magic. It really was a magical night for those watching, the kids and adults.

 They only do a few different shows a year but if you are in Vermont try and catch Vermont Vaudeville.
                                  
                     YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED!

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