From page to the stage! The Silliest Show On Earth!

Rummaging through some old files, I  found this very early concept drawing of a stage that would eventually evolve into the silliest show on earth (on turntables). 

Back in 2010-11 and fresh off the very cozy, seated experience of the Space Cadet Headphone Concerts, I was about to release an album called 12 bit Blues.  This album was louder than the Space Cadet soundtrack and in my mind warranted developing a show that was "louder" as well.  For this tour we would be returning to the nightclubs.  But I felt it would be fun to bring a crew along to create a travelling carnival of sorts.

Since many of the album's tracks were mid tempo and in 6/8 time signatures, their immediacy on the dance floor was questionable at best.  So instead, I decided to present the music in the context of a vaudeville show where every song would have it's own mini act complete with costume changes, choreographies, interactive moments and puppet spectacles. 

As you can see in the drawing below, it was originally going to look like a sitcom living room, complete with a sitcom style couch, and pull-down 50s era projection screens.  On the screens we would project close up shots of what was happening live on the turntables, or add some animations to punch up different moments in the show.  Imagine a cross between Pee-Wee's playhouse meets Muppet Show meets a Mardi Gras parade float meets tons of beats and scratching, meets your family just chilling watching old home movies. 

I enlisted Adira Amram, Jessi Colon and Maresa D'Amore Morrison to be the dance troupe.  We had such fun touring with them as openers on The Slew tour that I wanted to continue working with them in some form.  And it was on that tour that Adira and I started chatting about how to develop this type of show where all of these fun universes collide.

Travelling with a sitcom style couch was bit too unwieldy. Asking each promoter to provide "a couch" left too many variables for the set up since it had to be the right height to act as mini puppet stage, stage prop, and a place behind which we could store puppets and props we needed access to quickly.  We decided instead to turn a couple of the touring cases on their sides and drape them with some Vinyl Vaudeville-esque upholstery. Problem solved!

The original 12 bit-era Vinyl Vaudeville Set included dance routines for 2 bit Blues, 3 bit Blues, 4 bit Blues, 6 bit Blues, 7 Bit Blues and 8 bit Blues.  But over the years and different incarnations of this show we've expanded it to add tracks from the other albums and projects as well. I've also created bespoke tracks just for the show that haven't been released yet. 

In Vinyl Vaudeville 3.0 we expanded the performing crew to include Tyson Houseman and Kyla Gilbert as puppeteers!

Here's a bit where ostriches tap out a beat on a giant MPC drum machine.  You can see Jessi, Kyla and Maresa on stage.  Adira and Tyson are operating the robot and synth puppets.

You may be asking yourself?  How on earth did it come to this?? 

The short answer is we all just wanted to have fun and make the most ridiculous stuff happen on stage.  For an act like the "Ostrich vs Drum Machine" it usually begins with a question like "Hey, wouldn't it be rad to see 2 ostriches playing a giant drum machine in the middle of the stage?" 

For Vinyl Vaudeville 5.0 we added Drunk Trumpet to the set and thought it would be fun to have a giant trumpet dance through the crowd. When making giant puppets it's all about keeping the materials light but structurally sound. The answer: pool noodles!  Tyson built this trumpet structure which Corinne later upholstered to fit the fabric/craft aesthetic of the stage design. 

Here's the trumpet in action. The center of the trumpet is held up by a pole which is attached to a reinforced hiking backpack. Tyson operates the arms using rods while Kyla operates the legs (also with rods) to make it dance!

Another large puppet we made was a 20 foot spider, er, crawler (it only has 4 legs).  I made this out of a seat cushion. Corinne upholstered it and added ears for fun and design! The abdomen is filled with bubble wrap to help keep it's shape but still be light weight. The legs would be made of cable coil and pool noodles.

Fully extended, it can reach heights of around 20 feet.  It takes 3 people to operate it. 

When we added the track "Skanky Panky" to the set I thought it would be fun to have some brass playing ants. These are also made of upholstered foam and rods.

"Dancing Cans" also seemed appropriate and Carnival/Coney Island kind of way. We made these out of rolled, upholstered foam floor matting... not much personality yet... but then...we glued the eyes on... LOL

Here's Kyla trying on the shell of one of the dancing penguins.  They would move by rolling around on spinning mechanics' seats that I found at the hardware store. 

8pus is one of the most recent editions to the Vinyl Vaudeville 7.0 show. Originally, the octopus were just on tour with us because we were filming a mockumentary about them during the off time on the road.  But one night we gave them a 5 minute bit in the concert and it's now one of my favorite, most absurd moments in the show.

8pus perform their underground underwater hit "Club Sandwich" and it's wild! 

Here's the sandwich...

And since we're on the topic of food props, if the stage or music festival has a riser, we sometimes wrap my turntables in a giant edamame pod...  The eyes on this one were designed by my daughter, Maple. 

This show is always such a joy to perform even though it has so many moving parts. It's especially ridiculous when we have to organize all the props, puppets and elements in the wings of the stage (often in the dark). The venue stage techs are often staring at us thinking "What on earth is all this??" But after the show they're always laughing and telling us "That was the weirdest show I've seen in all my years doing tech for this festival."

We're now scheming up new directions, additions and absurdities for what will eventually be Vinyl Vaudeville 8.0.

It will include some tracks from Creatures of The Late Afternoon and some brand new songs characters, dances, costumes and puppets.  I've been toying with this idea of a surround multi stage version of the show.  It's all still in the R&D stage at the moment but it's happening slowly but surely!

Finally, this show, like all of them, is very much human energy powered!  I'm so grateful to the whole crew for all of their amazing talent and energy they bring to this production. I can't wait to get this carnival back on the road with the team. In the meantime we'll be building up the next mini acts here in our workshop and give you updates on that as it happens! 

Thank you so much for your support!

E

PS: Here's a more recent trailer of the VV 7.0 show on my Youtube.