Opening Night at the Moisture Festival
Review by Elena Goukassian
Posted April 1,
2008
The Moisture
Festival! Where else could you
possibly see a German cowboy singing and tap-dancing while
playing the drum and a washboard necktie, all perfectly
synchronized? From mimes to drunk opera singers to trapeze
artists, the Moisture Festival has everything you could possibly
want from a variety show. And that was just opening night.
Celebrating its fifth anniversary, the Moisture Festival opened
on March 27 and continues through April 13 at Hale’s Palladium,
with a burlesque component at A Contemporary Theatre. The
Festival invites local as well as international entertainers to
perform the strangest and most extraordinary routines. Among
them, Iman Lizarazu, a French mime who takes off her jacket and
hat, only to fall in love with the coat rack she hung them on.
There were Moppi and Hacki Ginda, German mimes who flick chest
hair at each other and at the audience and go fishing only to
catch babies.
One
of my personal favorites was Godfrey Daniels, who dressed as a
large ridiculous puppet with very long arms. His whole act
consisted of him throwing and catching a big red ball, but for
some reason, probably because it is so simple, it was very
entertaining. The expressive costume and the way he floated
around with those lanky arms reaching for the ball made him a
really likable character. Or, maybe I just have a fondness for
puppets.
Godfrey Daniels
The
act that caused the biggest stir in the audience, though, was
the Zipcode Man. Tell this man a zip code, and he will not only
give you its location, but also what the best place to eat there
is. He identified tiny towns in North Dakota, suburbs in
Chicago, even cities internationally. The only one he couldn’t
get was somewhere in Japan, but it seemed like the person who
told him the code wasn’t too sure about it anyway. At
intermission, more people quizzed him, including myself,
thinking he could have been bluffing. He wasn’t. He got
Montpellier, France (34096) and even
Sofia, Bulgaria
(1756) right away.
The
show ended on a high note, with the Aerialistas acrobatically
twisting, turning, and hanging every which way from hoops
suspended from the ceiling. Opening night was a great success.
Everyone in attendance laughed, sang along, and enjoyed some
beer and free appetizers. What a great way to kick off the
Moisture Festival.
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