OBIE and LA WEEKLY AWARD winning satirist/puppeteer Paul Zaloom (AKA Beakman
on TV's cult fave Beakman's World) performs in Velvetville, a relentlessly
low-tech, multi-media puppet extravaganza!
This rare event opens this Thursday at Highways in Santa Monica for only two
weeks. Look at the groovy attachment! Directed by Randee Trabitz.
What’s Velvetville?
MIX:
- a tablespoon of Marcel Duchamp
- a smidgen of George Carlin
- a half cup of Salvador Dali, and
- a bowl of Soupy Sales
YOU GET:
-cheesy black velvet paintings!
-highly idiosyncratic, real-time animations!
-weirdly funny juxtapositions of unlikely objects and trash!
What happens?
Zaloom uses all kinds of crap to illustrate a surrealistic and wildly funny
narrative including: his Vermont vacation trip, which urbanizes and destroys
the state; his sudden death and subsequent wake in a funeral home; his
descent into hell, run by Walt Disney; his hyperactive and cathartic
nightmare about the 2005 Inaugural; and much, much more!
What’s the point?
This three-ring-circus celebrates our "swell" American civilization and
Zaloom’s complicity in its rank stupidity, while dazzling unsuspecting
viewers with a panoply of breathtakingly cheap special effects. Sustained
laughter and wild amusement will rule!
VELVETVILLE INFORMATION
Where: HIGHWAYS PERFORMANCE SPACE, 1651 18th Street @ Olympic Blvd., Santa
Monica, CA
WHEN: Thurs thru Sun, May 31-June 3 & June 7-10
Performance Times: 8:30 pm all shows!!
Tickets: are 15 smackers. Call 310-315-1459
Parking: Plenty of street parking on 18th or Olympic
Quotes:
"A Paganini of found objects, Zaloom is incredibly inventive in his use of
props-if that isn’t too fancy a word to describe the junk employed in his
hilarious low-tech effects." F. Kathleen Foley, Los Angeles Times.
"One of the most original and talented political satirists working in the
theater." Stephen Holden, New York Times.
"Paul Zaloom is a wildly creative, stupendously resourceful performance
artist who turns what is essentially trash into a trenchant and hilarious
puppet show." Time Out New York
