The New Eccentrics

Run, don’t walk to see this fabulous duo. You only have two more chances to catch them in the Brick’s Comic Book Theatre Festival. Their current show is called “Manifesto” but that’s sort of  irrelevant, really. “Dark pop-up cabaret” is nearer the mark. Simultaneously evoking early 20th century European cabaret, with its weird, scary, surreal, accordion playing clowns…AND visuals lifted from the likes of Melies, Franz Mazereel (esp. “The City”), Terry Gilliam, et al…it’s one of the richest, charming and funniest experiences I’ve had in a long while. Employing an old fashioned over-head projector, they use historical woodcuts (and live drawing) to make a stage; they do storytelling with astounding original pop-up books, they draft the audience into performing (be ready to be a fashion model cruising a catwalk if you’re in a front row). Such is the art of these two (he as performer, she as designer) that centuries and worries melt away, leaving only the happiness of the moment. One feels like a child, and not just because the characters are “Mr. Moon” and “Kitty Meow-Meow”. It’s more because the villain is “The City” — a symbolic embodiment of everything that makes us clenched and unhappy. His ritual defeat is cathartic, stripping us of our bark and our barnacles, making us green again.

As I say, New Yorkers have only two more chances to catch this San Francisco based duo — tonight and tomorrow. For ticket info go here. For more dope on the New Eccentrics, go here.

AND, what’s more, you can win free tickets! Just go here.