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Lazer Vaudeville, a show that combines
high-tech laser magic with the traditional arts of vaudeville, will
perform Thursday, May 13, at 7:30 p.m.
in the Kirkham Auditorium at Brigham Young
University-Idaho in Rexburg.
Tickets
for the Center Stage Performing Arts Series event are $8 for the general
public and $2 for BYU-Idaho students. They are available at the BYU-Idaho
Ticket Office by calling 496-2230 or online at www.byui.edu/tickets.
Complete
with juggling, black light illusion, acrobatics, comedy and audience
participation, Lazer Vaudeville offers fun for
the entire family. A cast of characters leads the audience on a journey
through the imagination as a wizard performs magical illusions with laser
beams, a neon cowboy kicks up a luminescent rope-spinning display and an
audience member escapes from a straitjacket. The master of ceremonies is a
seven-foot tall, fluorescent, fire-breathing dragon named Alfonzo.
Founded
in 1987, the touring company fulfills Carter Brown’s dream of
bringing vaudeville back to the stages. Contemporary lighting and sound
effects have made Lazer Vaudeville successful
with the TV generation.
“Kids
are used to video and film, so they really respond to this,” Brown
says. “Part of our mission is to introduce audiences to the art of
live performance.”
Internationally
acclaimed as a master of his craft, Brown demonstrates the lost art of hoop
rolling. In an astonishing visual display, the hoops roll around his body
and circle the stage as if taking on a life of their own. He manipulates up
to 10 wooden bicycle rims of various sizes; some are antiques. Brown and
fellow performers Jeffrey Daymont and Cindy
Marvell also juggle modern items such as plungers, machetes, and running
chain saws.
Together
the troupe creates pinwheel illusions and percussive sounds with South
American bolas, bounces balls off airborne drums in a mesmerizing ensemble
piece, and defies the laws of probability by passing up to ten clubs in an
engaging display of buffoonery and expertise.
“The
kind of juggling we do blows away everybody’s
concept of what juggling is about,” Brown comments. The PBS series “Center
Stage” recently focused on Lazer Vaudeville’s
blend of vaudeville and technology in an episode filmed at the Paramount
in Austin, Texas.
Marvell,
the first woman ever to win the International Juggling Association’s
championship, “juggles like a poet” and performs with “a
compelling mix of pragmatism and magic,” according to Jennifer
Dunning of The New York Times. She also dresses up like a chef and teaches
children from the audience to spin plates.
Master
manipulator and comedian Daymont keeps his crazy
antics going throughout the show. With razor-sharp timing he gleefully
intercepts clubs as Brown and Marvell send them whizzing by at precarious
angles.
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