REVIEWS
THURSDAY, JANUARY 16, 1997
IT TAKES A …
VAUDEVILLAGE
In a variety show, each act
brings something to the whole.
To interest young people in how
it used to be done, the Lazer troupe
juggles traditional physical skills
with modern technical wizardry
____________________________
By Corinne Flocken
SPECIAL TO THE TIMES
Kids as well as their grandparents may love Lazer Vaudeville's mix of old-fashioned feats and '90s special effects, but the dead guys in the balcony can be tough critics.
"Sometimes when we play the old music halls and vaudeville houses, you can just feel the ghosts of old vaudevillians watching us," said company founder Carter Brown, a former Ringling Bros. Clown who brings his Ocala, Fla.-based international touring troupe of three to La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts on Sunday.
"I think they're excited to see these old acts come back. But," he added with a laugh, "if they don't like something, they let you know."
Like that time in Carson City, Nev…Brown claims a cast member preparing for a show was dogged by the ghost of an old stage manager. Brown figures the spirit was miffed by the man using roller-blades to move around the stage more quickly.
"The ghost just kept picking on him during the whole setup," claimed brown. "He ended up tripping the poor guy right into the backstage wall."
Then there was that theater in New London, Conn., where stage rigging that Brown swore was securely fastened repeatedly came undone and flew over the stage at odd moments during a performance. He pinned the mischief on "a bunch of dead opera singers that probably didn't like vaudeville anyway."
The American form of vaudeville began in the 1880s as free variety shows offered by saloon owners to attract customers. Juggling, animal acts, comedians and magicians were typical in a vaudeville lineup. Its popularity waned in the late 1920s with the development of talking motion pictures.
Brown, 36, clowned with Ringling Bros. And Barnum & Bailey in 1981-82 and then spent four years performing and designing for Carden International Circus, a Missouri-based circus.
By the mid-1980s, he said, he felt that audiences were ready for a show that embraced the best elements of circus and vaudeville with the technical wizardry of contemporary lighting and sound effects. He was admiring the lighting at a John Mellencamp concert in the mid-'80s when it hit him. "I thought, 'Why couldn't we do all this cool stuff in a theater? Not like Vegas with a bunch of topless dancers or the circus with the big pageantry and elephants and stuff, but in the warmth of the theater where we can really showcase these old vaudeville-style acts?"
A vaudevillian, by Brown's definition, is "a multifaceted entertainer who can make people laugh and smile and cry and gawk."
The one-hour show coming to La Mirada tries to cover all those bases. It features juggling by Cindy Marvell, a former Pickle Family Circus member and the first woman to win the International Juggling Assn.'s championship (in 1989), in an act patterned after Trixie LaRue, a top female juggler of the 1930s to '50s, Brown said. Jeff Taub, a graduate of the Blue Lake (Calif.) School of Physical Theatre, performs slapstick comedy that Brown says is reminiscent of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton.
The '90s effects include a battle between a laser-wielding wizard and a monster; black-light enhanced rope spinning and juggling acts; a floating crystal ball, and "Geospheres," a scene that Brown says combines elements of the black-light puppetry troupe the Famous People Players and the contortionist/illusionist skills of modern-movement troupe Mumenschanz.
Brown's hoop-rolling act, in which he juggles and rolls more than 10 hoops of varying sizes, is a slice of vaudeville history. He learned about it while still in clown college in 1980 and became intrigued by the idea of reviving it.
"The last guy in the U.S. to do this was a man named Ray Wilburt, who died in the 1960s," he explained. "There was one other guy in Germany doing hoops, but he's retired now, so I'm the only hoop juggler in the world today."
Brown developed his technique by looking at film clips and interviews with retired vaudeville performers. He practiced during warm-ups with Ringling and refined his solo act for several years - ultimately performing it in Monte Carlo's famed Festival du Cirque. He said he's been approached to do his hoop act for Cirque du Soleil, but he turned them down to concentrate on launching Lazer Vaudeville.
Brown uses two sets of hoops in his act: a collection of antique bicycle rims that belonged to Wilburt and a set of lighter, fiberglass hoops he uses strictly for juggling. By controlling the spin and velocity of the hoops, Brown sends them rolling in complex patterns across the stage, turning, circling, making figure eights and ultimately landing, like trained dogs, in a cage at center stage.
The way Brown sees it, a marriage between modern technology and acts that are in some cases more than 100 years old is a match made in entertainment heaven.
The special effects "only enhance what is already phenomenal
talent and phenomenal acts," he said. "Our show reaches beyond the grave to
bring the spirit of old vaudeville back to life."
Juggling magic
and history
Lazer Vaudeville gives an old
form a new look
By Kevin Farley
Spotlight Correspondent
The Portsmouth Herald
SPOTLIGHT MARCH 31, 1996
If you were one of the hundreds of people turned away from Lazer Vaudeville's shows at The Music Hall during First Night Portsmouth 1996, your chance for redemption has come. The group is bringing its stunning combination of high-tech laser magic, and the traditional vaudeville arts of juggling, acrobatics, zany comedy and audience participation back to The Music Hall for one show at 3 p.m. on Sunday, March 31.
Carter Brown, the group's founder, is excited about bringing an expanded version of the New Year's show back to Portsmouth. "Portsmouth is our kind of town," he said in a recent interview, "an active downtown with a restored vaudeville house. And the audiences on New Year's Eve were absolutely fantastic." The Music Hall itself is also an attraction to Brown and his cast mates: "Vaudeville comes back to the vaudeville house. There's a certain magic knowing the old vaudevillians performed there; I can almost feel their ghosts watching the show."
Weekend Section - Portsmouth Herald
The show fulfills Brown's dream of "diving into history to pull an art form out of the grave." His background includes stints with the Ringling Brothers and Carden International Circuses and the Monte Carlo Festival du Cirque, as well as solo tours of South America, Canada and Japan. He brings a strong sense of history to his work, tracking down old films of his heroes and speaking with reverence of his encounters with such juggling legends as Kit Summers and Homer Stack.
Since forming Lazer Vaudeville in 1987, Brown has been committed to energizing his art with new technologies and original methods of presentation. "When I started the show, I was fed up with the lack of creativity in circus acts and vaudeville in general," he says. "I really wanted to see it combined with the lighting effects and technology of the 90's."
The result is a show which encompasses everything from traditional juggling with such diverse objects as plungers, machetes and running chainsaws, to a masterful demonstration of the lost art of hoop rolling. The troupe creates pinwheel illusions and percussive sounds with South American bolas, bounces balls off airborne drums in a mesmerizing ensemble piece, kicks up a luminescent rope-spinning display, and uses flying black light sticks in a piece called "Geospheres."
These death-defying feats are mingled with such silliness as a chef named
Julia Childish teaching plate spinning to a young audience member, and various
tricks involving more conventional fixtures like straitjackets, pie tossing,
acrobatics and slapstick. They are all performed with a decidedly surreal bent,
and presided over by the master of ceremonies-a seven-foot tall, fluorescent,
fire-breathing dragon named Alfonzo. "Kids are used to video and film, so they
really respond to this," Brown says. "Part of our mission is to introduce young
audiences to the art of live performance."
"Portsmouth is our kind of town - an active downtown with a restored vaudeville house. And the audiences on New Year's Eve were absolutely fantastic."
- Carter Brown
The Centerfold of the Weekend Section
Brown comes from a theatrical family. Raised in New York City by his set-designer father and actress/dancer mother, he began performing at the age of eight. During a stint as director of the University of Vermont's mime troupe, The Silent Company, he picked up the basics of juggling and moved on to Ringling's Clown College.
It was during his road days with the circus that he found his niche as the premier revivalist of hoop juggling, a dying art which features the rolling and manipulation of antique bicycle rims. "The rims are hard to find these days," Brown says, "and this act is rarely performed because of the space it requires.
During his time with Carden International Circus, Brown became interested in the use of technology to enhance the presentation of his art. He eventually developed innovations in sound and lighting, which were successful enough to encourage him to pursue the vision behind Lazer Vaudeville.
In addition to the mainstream juggling tradition, Brown's influences include "movement art" innovators, ranging from Mummenschanz and the Famous People Players, to recent MacArthur "genius grant" winner Michael Moschen and The Flying Karamazov Brothers. "We're taking it a step further into the realm of high-tech," he says, "pulling a lot of elements in." Brown's partners in his endeavor bring the same rich diversity of skills and background to the group.
The Second Page of a "Centerfold"
Cindy Marvell, also a native New Yorker, is the first woman to win the International Juggling Association's Championship. At age 15, she became the youngest student ever admitted to SUNY Purchase's Antic Arts Academy, and moved on to San Francisco's Pickle Family Circus, and eventually worked solo in the Far East. She brings her background in dance to the mix, adding elements of modern choreography to the group's routines. "The technical level we perform at is very high," she says, "but we try to explore the frontiers of the art in a way that still appeals to kids and enthralls adults."
Jeff Taub, an acrobat and comedian, is also a graduate of Ringling Clown College. The Louisiana native studied theatre from a young age and, after his stint on the road with the circus, pursued his interest in theatrical design at the Dell'Arte School of Physical Theatre in Blue Lake, California. His background in mask making and design brings an additional dimension to Lazer Vaudeville, and he works constantly to develop innovations in props and costumes for the show.
Besides presenting over 150 theatre shows a year, Lazer Vaudeville offers an Arts-in-Education Outreach program designed to bring live performances to schools. "We teach kids about the history of vaudeville in America," Taub says. "Most of them can't imagine life before TV or movies, when vaudeville was the staple of popular entertainment."
Lazer Vaudeville's base of operations is Brown's 100-year-old house in Ocala, Fla., which has been renovated to include office and rehearsal space. Here the group creates and develops its material and runs the complex business of booking and travel arrangements, as well as designing and building the equipment and props essential for the show. But in spite of the logistical and technical demands, the group stays focused on its goal of presenting its ideas in human terms.
"Many people are drawn to the show because of the lasers and black light effects," says Marvell, "but, especially for the kids, it's still the human touch that counts."
The first 15 minutes of Lazer Vaudeville's show are in black light, so
late-comers cannot be admitted during this part. Attendees are asked to allow
themselves time to be seated before the show begins at 3 PM.
Lazer Vaudeville will perform at The Music Hall, 28 Chestnut St.,
Portsmouth, on Sunday, March 31 at 3 PM. Tickets are $8.50 in advance, $10 at
the door, and are available at the box office, 436-2400 or through
Ticket-master, 626-5000.
SPOTLIGHT MARCH 31, 1996
REVIEWS
THEATRE
Lasers, juggling, jokes and the 'awe' scale
By Jeffrey Borak
The Berkshire Eagle
BERKSHIRES WEEK / September 24, 1993
Lazer Vaudeville is making its third appearance in as many years this weekend at the Berkshire Public Theatre. But Carter Brown, the show's creator and artistic director, vows that this year's edition will be unlike any that area audiences have seen.
For one thing, his former partner, Mark Faje, is now doing stand-up routines in Chicago comedy clubs. So Brown is bringing with him two new performers: Randy Johnson, a Chicago native and longtime friend who has performed with the Windy City Circus and the Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus; and Holyoke native Jennifer Plante, who has performed at Universal Studios in California, Sea World of Florida, and the Chinese Golden Dragon Acrobats of Taiwan.
Brown also is bringing with him an entirely new show that begins with an
inventive black light adventure involving a music conductor, a dragon,
geospheres and an errant baton and that ends with a chain saw-juggling routine.
Bolas and bongos
In between, there will be a three-person club-passing act; a ninja routine done in black light and strobe; a double straitjacket escape involving a member of the audience; an act involving South American bolas and bongos, black light, strobe and regular lighting; hoop and black light rope spinning, a laser cannon and adagio acrobatics.
We have new lasers, more colors, more patterns, different programs," Brown
said by telephone from his headquarters in Ocala, FL. He is using the Berkshire
Public Theatre engagement-performances are Friday at 8, Saturday at 2 and 8, and
Sunday afternoon at 2-to launch Lazer Vaudeville's 1993-94 tour, which will take
him and his partners and their high-tech equipment to more than 50 cities across
the county and Bermuda between now and mid-April.
To keep Lazer Vaudeville going, Brown said, 'it takes three
pounds of high-test coffee a week. We don't say "That's my cup of coffee." We
say "That's my pot of coffee."'
Traveling troupe
"We do about 35,000 miles a year," Brown said, noting that last year Lazer Vaudeville make its first foray into South America. Born in Florida but raised in New York, where he moved with his family when he was 2, he studied gymnastics, mime, dance and comedy and began performing when he was 8. At the age of 12, he and his family moved from Manhattan to Vermont. At the University of Vermont, where he had a double major in theater and art, Brown directed the university's mime troupe, The Silent Company.
After college, he went to the Ringling Bros. Clown College and them spent two years performing with the Ringling Bros. circus. He directed an international touring circus for a while, did stand-up comedy in Chicago, and developed his bicycle rim juggling act. In 1987, he started Lazer Vaudeville in Chicago. Brown moved back to Florida a year and a half ago. To keep Lazer Vaudeville going, Brown said with a laugh, "it takes three pounds of high-test coffee a week. "We don't say 'That's my cup of coffee.' We say 'That's my pot of coffee.' Brown's decision to start Lazer Vaudeville stems from his interest in an old entertainment form-vaudeville-whose heyday has long past. "It's a high-tech way of introducing young audiences especially to an entertainment form they otherwise might not know," Brown said. He and his small company used to travel in a motor home. "We now travel in a 16-foot box truck and stay in hotels," he said. "When you're in a hotel, people can phone you. You also don't have to worry about pipes freezing in the winter or running out of heat."
I think the best stuff we do is with the kids. They are so awestruck…They
are also our toughest audience.
Brown does much of his own booking, although an agent helps out. He believes strongly in promotion. He produces 500 copies a year of a promotional video that is sent out to presenters and prospective presenters and as advertising to local television stations. "The first booking is the hardest," the 33-year-old Brown said. "Once people see the show, they're more willing to ask us back."
The show was particularly popular with South American audiences. "We had to eliminate much of the verbal comedy because of the language barrier," he said, "but they really went nuts for the black light and the music. They loved us."
In addition to the performances at the BPT, Lazer Vaudeville has been presenting a slide-show/lecture-demonstration at several area schools this week. "I think the best stuff we do is with the kids," Brown said. "They're so awestruck. They are also our toughest audience. We get a tougher comparison from them on the 'awe' scale."
Brown says the most challenging aspect of running Lazer Vaudeville is "forcing yourself away from the art to make the business side work." "You constantly have to balance what you have to do to keep the books balanced with what you have to do to keep yourself artistically satisfied." After five years of creating acts and traveling, Brown is not quite ready to quit. "I see myself kicking down the road another 17 years, maybe," he said. "Then, I can see myself maybe just putting the shows together, sending them out on the road, sitting back and drinking decaf instead of high-test."
BERKSHIRES WEEK / September 24, 1993
Boston Sunday Globe
SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 1996
P U L S E
*******
Lazer Vaudeville
zaps Music Hall
back to its roots
This is Lazer Vaudeville, where the physical skill, comedy and magic of an old-time roadshow combine with the speed, light and color of a video game.
A monster, a dragon, a wizard and three humans make up this touring troupe, which rolls into the Music Hall in Portsmouth next Sunday for a fantastical family show.
"The Music Hall was built to be a live entertainment/vaudeville house - and we're bringing that history back in a whole new way," said Cindy Marvell, one of the humans in the troupe, on the phone from the Midwest.
Old-fashioned skills from juggling to rope twirling play out under blacklights, lasers and special effects yielding such visual delights as a 7-foot tall emcee named Alfonso the Dragon, a glow-in-the-dark cowboy and a saw-the-monster-in-half trick performed with a laser beam instead of a saw.
The Boston Sunday Globe
Could any kid resist this?
Lazer Vaudeville pulled in standing-room-only crowds at The Music Hall on First Night, and this return engagement will be the only chance to catch the Florida-based troupe in the area in the near future.
Fans of old vaudeville should appreciate the updated juggling maneuvers in this show - with machetes and running chainsaws - as well as Carter Brown's lost art of "hoop rolling" with 10 old wooden bicycle rims.
Physical comedy fans will also enjoy Jeff Taub, who intercepts clubs from Brown and Marvell at precarious angles and keeps his acrobatics going throughout the show.
Tickets are $8.50 in advance, $10 at the door. The show starts at 3 p.m.
MARK DAGOSTINO
The Sun Chronicle
Attleboro - North Attleboro, MA * Thursday, March 21, 1996
Weekender
Vaudeville goes HIGH - TECH
Show dwells in past, future… and education
BY DON WILDING
SUN CHRONICLE STAFF
FOXBORO
Carter Brown was one of those kids who had to run away and join the circus.
But, as many of those soon find out, the circus isn't all that it's cracked up to be. The low pay, the weird hours, the rather unpleasant fragrances provided by the elephants and other animals just kind of got to him after a while.
There's got to be a better way to put this in the theater," recalled Brown, who also studied theater and art at the University of Vermont.
In 1987, Brown did just that-taking the acts of the circus and blending them with vaudeville and modern technology. What he came up with was "Lazer Vaudeville." It's been all over the county and to Chili, Hong Kong and Singapore, and will be at the Orpheum Theatre Friday and Saturday night.
"I had to reach back beyond the grave and bring back some of the old vaudevillians," said Brown, 35. "We combine it with modern black lights, lasers, strobes, lots of fog…"
The show, which has performed for thousands of people, features three entertainers of the vaudeville era, which was what entertainment showcased in theatres before the radio and TV eras. The show also features a fire-breathing dragon and a wizard who performs magic tricks with laser beams.
In addition to Brown, a one-time circus clown for Ringling Brothers and
Barnum and Bailey Circus and whose feats include his unique bicycle hoop rolling
act and rope spinning cowboy, the cast includes physical comedian and mask maker
Jeff Taub.
AT A GLANCE
WHAT: Lazer Vaudeville
WHERE: Orpheum Theatre, Foxboro common, Foxboro
WHEN: Friday and Saturday nights, 7:30 p.m.
HOW MUCH: $12.50 adults, $7.50 students and seniors
INFORMATION: 543-2787, 1-800-810-2728
Brown is heavily influenced by former vaudeville hoop juggler Ray Wilbert, while Taub, another one-time circus clown, brings a heavy Laurel and Hardy / Abbot and Costello / Three Stooges influence to the show.
Also on board is international juggling champion Cindy Marvell. Of Marvell, Brown says, "She won't admit it, but she's the best female juggler on the planet." Marvell is heavily influenced by Trixie LaRue, one of the top female jugglers during the vaudeville era.
More Front Page Color Spreads, Boooooring.
Not.
The show tends to marvel audiences of all ages. In South Dakota, a three-year-old boy was crying upon leaving the theater. Not because he was scared, but because he "didn't want it to be over." Teens and college students are also big fans, according to Brown. "It's really trippy stuff," he says. "It's like the 60's without the side effects."
While the entourage entertains many a fan at theaters, Lazer Vaudeville also brings its expertise into school classrooms around the country. This past week, they visited Thatcher Middle School in Attleboro and were scheduled to perform at Mansfield's Robinson School and Foxboro's Sage School today. They also stopped at schools in Walpole, Sharon and Canton.
The performers teach the students about vaudeville and how it evolved into present-day entertainment, focusing on how the great comedians (Burns and Allen, the Marx Brothers, etc.) went from vaudeville to radio and then television. Marvell talks about juggling and the perseverance that's needed to become great at anything. The methods of how laser technology and black lights work are also covered.
"We're really giving an educational perspective on the technology as well as the history," Brown says. "As live performing artists, we feel it's our duty to do this. We feel in our hearts that this is ultimately important. They don't cover a lot of this in the schools."
The Royal Gazette
Vol. 75 No. 35 BERMUDA, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1994 55 CENTS
High-tech vaudeville a treat for the kids
Lazer Vaudeville - City Hall - February 9-12
As the title of this show suggests, we have now reached that phase in our all-embracing Festival which is billed as "family entertainment:" a moment to catch the breath in the midst of so much culture - and to give the kids a night out.
That a show of juggling, acrobatics, magic tricks, blacklight rope spinning and brilliant laser beams spinning shapes fantastical still manages to cast its spell in this age of television and computerized visual wonders, is a triumphant vindication of live theatre. This was immediately apparent from the reaction of the many children in the audience, who were soon swept up into the spirit of the thing, laughing at the slap-stick comedy, gazing wide-eyed at all the special effects and loudly applauding juggling feats that were genuinely spectacular.
BERMUDA FESTIVAL
Lazer Vaudeville was founded by American Carter Brown in 1987. He is a highly accomplished juggler, and apparently the only bicycle rim juggler in the world. With his two supporting performers, there was also an exciting display of rope spinning and, with the assistance of a hapless volunteer from the audience, an anxiety-filled juggling sequence where gleaming machete knives replaced the usual plastic clubs.
The show began with a short display of laser light which transformed a darkened and fog-filled City Hall into a world of sci-fi geometric and searchlight patterns. What with the music and sound effects, it was a bit like being in the middle of the London blitz, but this soon gave way to the gentler world of blacklight wizards who floated crystal balls. Then we were finally introduced to the "host" of the show, a seven-foot fluorescent, fire-snorting and occasionally dancing dragon who periodically wandered on and off for a spell onstage, but was nowhere to be seen at evening's end.
Bermuda, February 1994
This, presumable because all three members of this valiant little group were required for an impressive session of three-part juggling in blacklight. Randy Johnson and Jennifer Plante are competent performers who brought some wacky humor to a mimed acrobatic sketch on sexual harassment in the office to the tune of "Nine to Five." They also provided the dance element of the program with an effectively lit pas de deux that seemed reminiscent of the apache dance, so popular in the golden era of American vaudeville.
Both Brown and Johnson have extensive circus backgrounds (Carter was with the famous Ringling Brothers) and although Jennifer Plante is primarily an acrobatic dancer show also has extensive training in magical illusions.
Juggler's World ***************Spring 1995
Carter Brown and Lazer Vaudeville Keep on Rolling
By CINDY MARVELL
Somewhere along the Continental Divide, under a backdrop of orange skies and blue mountains, a 16-foot box truck weaves its way through the terrain. The unassuming white truck contains 28 road cases, a bunk complete with mattress and sleeping bags, a coffee maker, three vaudevillians, and a dog named Roxy. The show, Lazer Vaudeville, is now in its seventh year of touring, and has crossed this mountain range seven times in various configurations since September.
The current cast is comprised of founder Carter Brown, Randy Johnson and Cindy Marvell, who collectively share the driving, juggling and everything else the show entails. As the truck rumbles along to the next show, Brown wakes up from his brief nap to cast a glance at the speedometer.
"Floor it," he advises, adjusting his makeshift pillow, "and keep it floored." Marvell complies, and the truck picks up speed around the curve. As the leader of a national, sometimes international, touring company, Brown does not get much sleep these days. "You constantly have to balance what you have to do to keep the books balanced with what you have to do to keep yourself artistically satisfied," says Brown of the many responsibilities involved in running the show. As a juggler, he tries not to become consumed by the endless bureaucracy involved in presenting more than 150 theater shows a year.
Though he initially focused on developing his solo act, it was Brown's ambition to perform a well-rounded show with a theatrical bent. Since its formation in 1987, Lazer Vaudeville has been committed to combining traditional skills with new technologies and original modes of presentation. "When I started the show, I was fed up with the lack of creativity in circus acts and vaudeville in general," Brown recalls, "I really wanted to see it combined with the lighting effects and technology of the 90's."
Brown's is an intense personality, full of energy, humor and mystery. And the show follows suit. With a mixture of laser beams displays, blacklight puppetry, acrobatics, clowning, and state -of-the-art juggling routines, the show is quite a handful for both audience and performers. It takes 5-7 hours to unload, set up and "tech' the show, not to mention warming up. Obviously it takes more than the usual obsession with juggling and performing to engage in such an enterprise. One must be obsessed with many things and somehow deep track of them all.
So, how did the insanity begin?
Brown was born into a theatrical family. His father worked as a set designer and stage manager, his mother an actress and dancer. As a hyperactive child growing up in New York, Brown was encouraged to channel his excessive energy into dance, gymnastics, mime and acting classes. As the age of eight he started performing in local plays and musicals. At 12 his family moved to Vermont, where Brown later attended the University of Vermont with a double major in theater and art. He has fond memories of "The Silent Company," the university's mime troupe, which he eventually ended up directing. As a new member, he was required to learn the basics of juggling, and after that things were never quite the same.
After two years, Brown took a break from college and hiked the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. Approaching the end, he received a notice notifying him of his acceptance to Ringling Brothers Clown College. "Since I left the University, I have no back-up, and that compels me to succeed in show business," Brown claims. "Either that, or go back-packing."
Brown did graduate from Clown College, however, and toured with Ringling for two years. It was during this time that he began to develop his bicycle hoop rolling act, which has since won him international renown. "When I was in clown college, John Fox came over and put a set of hoops in my hands that had once belonged to Kit Summers. Soon after I met Homer Stack, who sold me my first set."
While on tour Brown snatched all the practice time he could between shows, arriving early in the arena and staying late. Passing through Miami, he met Dick Franco, who gave him some lasting advice. "I was working on all kinds of props, but Dick told me to drop everything but the hoops. He predicted there would be a big market for it now that hoop jugglers have become so rare, and that I would find my niche if I stuck to it."
After two years at Ringling, Brown settled in Boulder for a time, practicing with Airjazz and working the streets on weekends. During the week, he practiced the hoop act for 12 hours a day. The incessant practice paid off, and Brown started receiving offers to perform his solo act indoors. He toured with Carden International Circus for four years, while also performing solo in South America, Canada and Japan.
While working at Carden, he became interested in the technical aspects of the show and was hired to run sound in addition to his performing duties. When the light man left the show, Brown took over that job as well-experience that would prove essential when it came to directing Lazer Vaudeville.
Brown may be unique among jugglers in the Western Hemisphere in that he has never in his life attended a juggling convention, not even a tiny one. A planned excursion to Burlington was unfortunately usurped by business concerns. "I'm really curious as to what it's like and why people do it," he wonders, "but hopefully some day I'll find out."
In 1992, Brown was invited to perform his hoop act at the prestigious Monte Carlo Festival, one of the high points of his solo career. "It was an honor to be invited, but I was a bit disappointed by the set-up," Brown recalls. "The juggling was perfect-no drops-but the floor was not ideal for rolling."
Though the quest for the perfect hoop-rolling surface is part of what motivates Brown to pursue a theatrical career, he also delights in giving audiences a will-rounded theater experience.
"Over a two-hour show you really get to know the audience and they get to know you. People come to the theater to respond to a performer's ideas, no just to see a Vegas act." As if in tribute to his clowning days, Brown takes a pie in the face at the end of his "Dueling Straitjackets" routine. "Once or twice a year I get to pie the volunteer-if they're really asking for it," he says with a devilish grin. Brown and Johnson also perform an acrobatic routine, complete with table slides and all the slapstick trimmings, reminiscent of their Ringling days.
As a 14-year-old, Johnson watched Brown practicing by the side of the ring in Chicago, and this encounter inspired him to continue his pursuit of the circus arts. Already a veteran of the Windy City Circus, which he joined at age 10, Johnson went on the study acting as a teenager at the Chicago Academy of the Arts. Now in his second year with Lazer Vaudeville, Johnson brings his inimitable comedic flair to the show, and his long arms and dependable hands help to hold the ensemble pieces together. With extensive set design credits in the Chicago television industry, he is also master prop builder, creating many of the unique props, tables, and road cases essential to the show.
One of the most impressive things about Lazer Vaudeville is the sheer amount of mileage covered between shows. "The way the tour is set up," Johnson quips, "the agents throw darts at a map, then call Carter up to see if he'll do it." The group goes through several coffee grinders a year, a large amount considering Marvell hardly ever drinks coffee. An old Juggler's World article quotes Brown as saying, "It's great to wake up and see the countryside rolling by," and the troupe often drives overnight after a show to make the next date. The 1994-5 season has seen shows from upstate New York to Prt Angeles, Wash. Last year the company played to sold-out houses and rave reviews at the Bermuda Theatre Festival, and is hoping for more international dates in the future. In May the company will spend a week performing at a theater festival in British Columbia, in August a week in Hong Kong. "We're hoping to tie in some bookings in Hawaii or the Philippines on our way back," Brown explains between phone calls.
In order to deep the logistics in order and the show booked for nine months of the year, Brown maintains a business office at his house in Ocala, Fla., near Orlando. The 102-year-old Victorian house is in the process of renovation, and Brown and Johnson have done much of the rewiring and drywalling themselves. Even Marvell has been known to pitch in with a staple gun or mop. In addition to prop and costume shops, the ground floor includes the all-important rehearsal studio. "If only the ceiling were six inches higher," Marvell laments, "it would be perfect."
In conjunction with the theater tour, Lazer Vaudeville produces an Arts-in-Education outreach program designed to bring live performances to the schools. Johnson always begins the presentation with a short lecture on the history of vaudeville in America, a new concept to most television-saturated students. "When we're on the road, the school shows give us a chance to stay in practice and try out new material in a more informal setting. And many of the students bring their parents to the local theater show, so ultimately we benefit from it as much as the schools we serve," Brown comments.
Unlike most "New Vaudeville" shows, which have proven the antithesis of television and commercialism by employing a minimalistic approach to theater, Lazer Vaudeville weans audiences away form the set by outdoing television on a technological as well as an artistic scale.
"Many people are drawn to the show because of the lasers and blacklight effects, but in the end they remember the live performances," says Marvell. "Especially for the kids, it's still the human touch that counts."
"And the lasers and special effects do help keep us off the streets and in the theaters," Brown adds with a wink. "It's all part of our carefully thought-out marketing strategy."
Recent political measures to cut funding for the arts are worrisome, but at the same time many old vaudeville theaters around the country are being renovated and there seems to be renewed interest in filling them. Lazer Vaudeville often arrives at a historically restored theater to find that they are the first vaudevillians to play there since the 1930's or 40's. When Brown discovers some momento of an old vaudevillian's presence-some call-board or prop stand-the event elicits as much excitement from his eyes as the show itself. It is proof positive that Brown is living his dream while inspiring dreams in others.
"Life is short-I really can't say how long I'll be doing this," Brown muses over a cup of espresso at a midnight truck stop. "Mount Everest still looms, but right now all I want is more bookings, more cool stuff in the show, more good coffee and my own Galaxy-class star ship to tour the universe."
Is there a corporate sponsor in the house?
At A Lazer Vaudeville Show
BY DARREN COLLINS
Last December a group of well-adjusted young jugglers came to my town to perform a show called "A Lazer Vaudeville Christmas." I had seen their regular show the year previous, and was impressed enough to recognize the show's name a year later. I had enough money in my pocket to buy a ticket to their show or a book on Elizabethan art. It turned out the local bookstore was selling tickets to the show; I didn't even make it past the comic book section before I bought one.
It was a couple of hours before showtime, and I thought maybe I could sneak backstage at the auditorium where lazer Vaudeville was playing. The doors weren't open for seating yet, so I had time to kill. I got up the gumption and in one big gnarled mess of passionate, unbridled fearlessness knocked on their dressing room door.
"Come in," a voice bellowed.
The door opened and there stood a vaguely familiar guy from the show last year. Later I learned his name was Randy Johnson. Behind him sat Carter Brown. Around the corner was a lady show I had never seen before. That was Cindy Marvell. A fourth person walked over and sniffed my kneecaps. That was Roxy, Randy's dog.
After stammering through introductions and whatnot, I found out that Cindy and Roxy were new since last year but that Roxy wouldn't be in the show.
"She falls asleep as soon as she hears the music," Randy pointed out.
I was granted permission to watch the group warm up, set up, act up and whatever. I hung around the backstage area for the following hours until showtime, all the while stifling my urges to pipe up and plead, "Teach me some neat tricks, please, please, please!"
When showtime arrived, I plunked myself down right next to some friends from my high school who reassured me that all the books on Elizabethan art were sold out anyway. I reassured them that from what I saw backstage this show would be "worth more art books than…" The stage lights suddenly went dim.
A creature so bizarre it rivaled a good number of cheap sci-fi movie lizards wandered onto stage. I remember fondly the image of Alfonzo, the very glow-in-the-dark dinosaurish dragon, who should be set far apart from any other Puff, Pete, or (heaven forbid!) Barney. The Lazer Vaudeville troupe, you see, utilizes black lights to make some really funky looking props, juggling equipment, or, in this case, dragons, look dazzlingly bright and high-tech from the ultra-glow tapes and paints they are decorated with. Much to the audience's delight, Alfonzo introduced the show and devoured Beevis and Butthead, all in the opening scene.
What to my wondering eyes did appear next but a bunch of brightly colored sticks, hovering about the stage. This segment, called "Geospheres," utilizes black light sticks hopping about from place to place on stage making different shapes and scenarios. The performers, dressed in black, can manipulate the different props to fly around the stage without the audience seeing them in the black light.
This use of black light really make for some interesting effects that most people have never seen before, particularly young audience members convinced that Yoda and Obi Wan were indeed backstage.
Before the lights went up for the first time, the performers appeared on the partially lit stage holding brightly glowing "Bolas." These are hard balls on the end of a scarf. The trio spun the bolas in a variety of circular patterns, circular patterns, circular patterns, causing a hypnotic effect. They skillfully hit the stage floor with the balls in sync, creating a driving beat that really impressed the audience. This reaction was apparent from the number of "ooos" "wows" and "How do they do that, Moms?" I heard.
When the lights came up, a really silly dressed lady came forward claiming to be "Julia Childish." Sporting her best kitchen utensils and worst accent, Cindy Marvell grabbed a young audience member for a good, wholesome round of public humiliation redeemed by successful plate spinning.
The next segment was a real favorite, and it certainly gave those who appreciated Wild West stunts a chance for some honest downhome applause. The lights went dark and a fluorescent cowboy believed to be Carter Brown strutted onto stage and whooped up one heckofa show. He boot scooted a storm in one wholloping display of rope spinning tricks underneath the black light. Using brightly-colored cowpoke ropes, he jumped in and out of the spinning lassos with the agility of a super hero.
If this was not already enough variety for a vaudeville show, the next sketch was performed solely with laser beams dancing enthusiastically about a gigantic screen. Hence, the name "Lazer Vaudeville," and hence, some hearty open mouths in awe at the special effects.
The lights came up again to reveal Cindy Marvell, this time sporting a green and gold hand drum and a white ball rolling loose in the rim of the drum. After a minute or two of dance to windy flute and piano music, all the while manipulating the drum in different patterns without losing the ball, she was joined by the other two performers. The trio, each holding a drum and two balls, bounce the balls back and forth to one another, crating rhythmical patterns off the drum and stage floor. The drums fly through the air between the beats, always keeping pace with the music of Japanese Kodo drummers. It suddenly became a well-choreographed, wordless chant that drew the crowd into a trance of fascination and wonder to the haunting beat of the drums. This segment alone was worth the price of an Elizabethan art book, hands down.
Always keeping their vaudeville charm and savvy humor, Randy Johnson and Carter Brown then grabbed another audience member, this time substituting plungers, machetes, chainsaws and candy canes for kitchen utensils and bad accents. When Marvell got involved, the sketch turned into a debate over trio politics and the virtues of artistic enterprise versus cheap thrills and macho stunts.
Perhaps the most incredible part of the show, besides Alfonzo devouring Beevis and Butthead, is Carter Brown's hoop act. In this part of the show, Cater takes antique bicycle rims and manipulates them in a creative and original way that, I think, defines vaudeville. He juggles up to five of them over his body. This hoop act is a "must see" and is material that has been mastered to a point where one could call it an art form. He does a lot of things with these rims that are similar to the Native American hoop acts I have seen. Not only does he juggle and spin them off his body, but to end the act he rolls them so that they spin around his feet in wide circles on the stage like trained animals in a curcus. As a finale, they all roll into their cage one by one. You can say what you want about Carter, but when it comes to bicycle rim juggling, he doesn't mess around.
At that point anything more was just a bonus gift since the show had already been worth the price of admission, but the trio gave the audience some tremendous club juggling that left them cheering for more to top off the evening.
Cindy Marvell began a solo act performing a dance and juggling mix that began with one club and slowly progressed to five. During the whole act she never tossed a regular cascade pattern. It was a tremendous display that combined juggling and interpretive dance to synthesized music. The audience managed to stifle applause until the end of her routine. As one spectator put it, "You don't want to clap during the act; it's like clapping in the middle of a classical piece."
A thick smoke then bellowed out into the audience, and just as I was about to dash to the nearest fire door, I realized it was just a fog machine. Lasers shot through the auditorium, danced to the holiday music and panned through the audience. Much to my dismay, the last number was up. The trio broke into a frenzy of club passing. Clubs shot through the air in one magnificent display of aggressive juggling and three-way passing to music by Manheim Steamroller. They wowed the audience one last time with a humor-filled act of not just vaudeville craziness and cheap thrills, but with skillful juggling and an overall stupendous wrap-up of an especially entertaining evening.
To my eyes, this show really offered something incredible to everyone who watched it. The trio combined everything from lasers, amazing glow-in-the-dark stunts, cheesy humor, and conventional juggling made crazy, to original acts that won't be seen anywhere else ever. This is truly commendable because it's hard to find a traveling variety show like this one these days. I give a warm applause to these folks for making vaudeville in the nineties traditional as well as high-tech.
Their parents should be proud.
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Darren Collins is a 17-year-old high school student at Port Angeles High School.
SEE THE SHOW LIVE - The Tour Schedule !
BRING US TO YOUR THEATRE - Everything you need to know about bringing us to your theatre. Reviews, Publicity Materials, Letters of Recommendation, Biographies, Program Copy, Art-In-Education, even our Tech. Rider
THE FULL 2 HOUR PERFORMANCE - Graphics and descriptions from all parts of the show.
THE ARTS-IN-EDUCATION PRESENTATION - You guessed it, graphics and descriptions.
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