Performing Arts: Page 76

Talking to Strangers

Stand-up comedian Hannibal Buress talks Chris Rock and 30 Rock

Comedy

Before Hannibal Buress started doing stand-up comedy at 19 in Chicago, he wanted to be the “black Howard Stern.” Since then he’s written for Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock and has appeared on Louie, Conan and Jimmy Kimmel Live! In 2012, he released his first Comedy Central special “Animal Furnace,” and now he’s working on his new web series Talking to Strangers, in which he interviews musicians like The Root’s Questlove. Just don’t ask him when it premieres, because, well, he has no idea.  Continue reading →

Cirque Du Eugene!

Performing Arts

If you didn’t catch Cirque Du Soleil when they came through town last year, there’s no need to fret. Local promoter Fusion Friendly is presenting the next best thing at Cozmic on Saturday: Cirque Du Eugene! For the third year running, this amalgamated variety show — which features various carnival-esque gymnastic acts performed by Bounce Gymnastics — will take the stage and boggle some minds. Continue reading →

A night of spuds and  schtick at Tsunami

Theater

The Actors’ Table of Eugene (T.A.T.E.) is showcasing some of the best comedy for women … and potatoes. This installment of Eugene’s eclectic readers’ theater will feature some sort of spud in every offering. Local actresses will read from their favorite comic pieces, and so long as there’s a potato involved, it’s no-holds-barred on the material. Continue reading →

She’s Got You

Actors Cabaret would like to introduce you to Patsy Cline

Theater

“There’s just no one who can touch her. Hell, I hang on every line,” Jimmy Buffet once sang of Patsy Cline. She is so much more than the first female country singer to headline her own tour, to perform at Carnegie Hall and to truly break down barriers of gender in country music. She is more than a tragic legend of young talent, villainous prompters and a cheating husband. She is a voice so strong and soulful you begin to wonder why you ever bothered listening to anyone else try to sing. Continue reading →

Science vs. Religion

How the World Began explores the Earth’s origins in rural Kansas

Theater

When you inherit the wind, hold onto your hat: You never know where you might end up. Or do you? I’m speaking, of course, about the 1955 play Inherit the Wind, written by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee and dramatizing the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial, which pitted prosecutor William Jennings Bryan against defense attorney Clarence Darrow in a Tennessee court case that questioned whether evolution could be taught in public schools up against the supreme word of God. Continue reading →

Not the Nerd Table

The dapper literary humorist and comedian reflects on writing, the biology of laughter and high school

Comedy

Mustachioed Renaissance man John Hodgman has accomplished pretty much everything a nerd-dandy could ever want: doling out advice for McSweeney’s, serving as humor editor for The New York Times Magazine, contributing to This American Life, appearing on The Daily Show, Battlestar Gallactica and Community, and writing a trilogy of deliciously fictional almanacs. Now, he takes on stand-up comedy, or his own esoteric, foppish version of it. Continue reading →

No Horsing Around

With the help of the community, South Eugene takes a production of Carousel to new heights

Theater

Near Amazon and 19th is a theater that seats 1,000 people — it is the second largest theater in Eugene. Its cavernous room glows warmly from the theater lights hitting the sea of red velvet seats. The elegant curve of the stage leads the eye to a custom-welded circular light piece, twinkling as it hangs above four candy-colored carousel horses — the quartet is hand-carved and painted, and worth $60,000. The theater director and his leading cast gather in the aisle, chattering about the opening night of their production, Carousel, on Feb. 21. Continue reading →

A Twist On Wonderland

The Work Dance Company creates a world of hip-hop wonder at the Hult Center

Dance

Forget rabbits with pocket watches. Forget tea parties. Forget Alice in Wonderland. Work Dance Company director and choreographer Nathan Boozer wants to take you down another rabbit hole into his Wonderland, an upcoming Feb. 15 show at the Hult Center that takes a look through the hip-hop looking glass at lands filled with music, butterflies, candy, zombies and Lady Gaga. Continue reading →