Vaudeville joins technology for 21st century
■ Lazer Vaudeville brings its
updated magic and juggling act
to Eugene on Sunday
By Jen West
Oregon Daily Emerald
Traditional theater and circus
meet high-tech lasers in Lazer
Vaudeville’s variety show featur
ing juggling, acrobatics and magic.
The Hult Center for the Per
forming Arts presents Lazer
Vaudeville at 2:30 p.m. Sunday.
Tickets are $15 for the general
public and $14 for youth under
age 14.
The show comes complete
with comedy, rope spinning, au
dience participation, hoop jug
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gling, a laser light show, a neon
cowboy and a seven-foot-tall,
fluorescent, fire-breathing drag
on named Alfonzo as master
of ceremonies.
Carter Brown founded Lazer
Vaudeville in 1987 and was later
joined by Cindy Marvell and Bee
Jay Joyer.
The show combines the phys
ical aspects of theater with the
visual arts of lasers and black
lights. The trio of performers
will juggle balls, clubs, plungers,
machetes and running chain
saws, and later on in the show
they will saw the dragon in half
with lasers.
“I got started (juggling) as a
hobby when I was a kid in New
York City,” Marvell said.
She said she learned some jug
gling tricks from her father and
performed her “wacky hobby”
for her eighth-grade talent show.
While still in high school, she
began formal training at the
Antic Arts Academy at SUNY
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Carter Brown, a Ringling Bros. Circus veteran who founded the futuristic Lazer Vaudeville
in 1987, juggles with hoops made from antique bicycle rims.
Juggling was a “small, elusive
field,” she said, and there were
few women who performed it.
“Girls in general shied away
from throwing and catching,”
Marvell said, and usually people
took it for granted that boys knew
how to throw a ball. But unlike
other physical activities, she said
012365
Community
Center tar the
Performing Arts
■ Friday
8th &
Lincoln
Live CD Recording
The Motet with
SonMelao
AfroCuban Jazz Funk
$8 advance, $io door, 8:oo pm
■ Sunday ■
Everton Blender,
wHhCansaman
Reggae
$14 advance, $16 door, 9:00 pm
■ Tuesday ■
Benefit for Kium s ’’Indian Time”
John Tmdellc Bad Dof
Native American Singer-Songwriter
$15 advance, $15 door, 7:30 pm
■ March 22 ■
The Summit with
Ra$in$ Family
Hip-Hop
$8 advance, $10 door, 8:00 pm
■ March 23 ■
Jupiter Hollow with
Incendio
Jam Rock/Flamenco
$8 door, 9:00 pm
■ March 24 ■
The Meditations
Reggae
$10 advance, $12 door. 9:00 pm
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juggling is not a “co-ed sport,”
but an activity that men and
women can do together.
Brown, a veteran of the Ringling
Bros. Circus, does a type of jug
gling with bicycle rims that is al
most a lost art form. He is the only
person in the world who performs
a seven-minute bicycle-rim jug
gling act “as far as we know,” Joy
er said. Brown uses three different
sizes of rims, and some of his
hoops are more than 100 years
old, according to Joyer.
“It’s difficult to perform,” he said.
Joyer’s roots in the juggling arts
stem from his childhood. When
Joyer was two years old, he went
to the circus, and he said he “fell
in love with the clowns.” He said
as a kid, he dreamed of being an
astronaut or fire fighter, but he al
ways came back to the clowns.
He started juggling in high
school and continued at the San
Francisco School of Circus Arts,
where he trained and taught for
five years. Then in July he joined
Lazer Vaudeville.
Vaudeville was widely popu
lar in the' United States from the
beginning of the 20th century
through the early 1930s, but it is
now in decline, Joyer said.
Many famous entertainers such
as the Marx Brothers, Charlie
Chaplin and Houdini started out
in vaudeville. Lazer Vaudeville
has taken the traditional vaude
ville and added modern tech
nology to it.
“If vaudeville were still going
strong, this is probably what it
would look like,” Joyer said.
In addition to their performing
schedule, Lazer Vaudeville also
visited elementary schools in
the Eugene-Springfield area
Tuesday, demonstrating their
skills and informing the kids of
the history and technical aspects
of their show.
Marlene Thornton, substitute
teacher and clerical worker at
River Road Elementary School,
said she thought the kids at
the school really enjoyed the
demonstration.
The performers encouraged au
dience interaction, she said, and
often had students come up on
stage to assist them.
“I thought it was interesting
that they told (the students)
about how it all worked,” Thorn
ton said. She said she wouldn’t
be surprised if the kids went
home and tried out some of the
lighting techniques with flash
lights and their bathroom mirror.
“The show is visually appeal
ing and a lot of fun,” Joyer said.
E-mail reporter Jen West
at jenwest@dailyemerald.com.