Urban Circus
Sxip Shirey’s Hour Of Charm
Story: The Quiz Kidd
The golden age of the Circus may be well behind us. We are stuck between the animal cruelty of the Ringling Brothers and the New Age cheesiness of Cirque Du Soleil. But experimental artist and all around fun guy Sxip Shirey is trying to revive it thanks to his Hour Of Charm shows. Showcasing up and coming comedians, musicians, performance artists and assorted oddballs, Sxip’s Hour Of Charm reminds you of when the circus felt otherworldly and just a little bit dangerous. The artists who joined in the festivities when the circus rolled into Joe’s Pub on Jan 31 included
Corn Mo – He’s opened for Ben Folds and They Might be Giants and plays music that sounds like Andrew W.K. jamming with Tiny Tim. Accompanied only by his accordion and cymbal he hit with his foot, Corn Mo rides the thin line between outsider music and genuine pop spectacle. His hair metal lip-synched version of Hava Nagila had the crowd in stitches.
Red Bastard – A red suited monstrosity (huge bulging butt and belly prosthetics) bringing back the tradition of the buffoon. No one in the audience was safe from him as he hopped in to the crowd and demanded audience participation. One lucky, or unlucky - depending on your point of view, audience member even got to give the bastard mouth to mouth.
Curtis Eller – A man, his banjo and tales of presidents gone mad and dead movie stars. Curtis Eller plays apocalyptic folk music that sounds like it comes form the depths of the great Depression, dusty with the drought and ash of dead dreams. But he still managed to make us laugh. Gallows humor at its best.
Scotty The Blue Bunny – Big. Blue. Sparkling. Gay. Rabbit. In huge heels. Donnie Darko by way of Liberace.
Reggie Watts – Hip Hop, Soul, human beat box with a dash of the blues and William S Burroughs. Reggie Watts uses only his voice and a small recorder to create mind warping, textured songs and dense tone poetry. Like Bobby McFerrin if he worshipped Satan and read Edgar Allen Poe while listening to Run DMC.
Greg Walloch – Probably the tamest of all the performances of the evening, Greg is a stand p comic who uses his sexuality and cerebral palsy to point out the funny yet meaningful foibles of life. Comedy with a message.
Sxip Shirey – Using children’s toys, bowls, marbles and broken flutes, Sxip makes some of the most accessible noise/experimental music around today. His music sounds like field recordings from some future time when all musical instruments have been destroyed and society is forced to find melody in the mundane but always beautiful rhythms of everyday life.
Amanda Palmer – Better known as half of the Dresden Dolls, Amanda played some new songs and an impromptu version of “Girl Anachronism”. Her voice is so powerful it almost blew the doors off Joe’s Pub. Always more cabaret than Goth, Amanda sowed her show biz roots by bantering with the crowd about art, My Little Pony and the dangers of Guitar Hero addiction. I just hope the new songs she played are included on the next Dresden Dolls record, they were that good.
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