travsd

Auditions Begin Today for a New Variety Show in Astoria

With late April and all of May clogged with events, your correspondent has been hard at work trying to get some events on the calendar for June. A couple of new book talks are in the works, but meantime, something else just fell into my lap, and I thought I’d announce it today for the benefit of readers who are variety performers. Auditions begin at 5pm today at the Hellenic Cultural Center in Astoria Queens, for a new variety series launching in that space on June 8! I’m to be one of the judges on that big show, and am very excited at the prospect. I’ve been watching Kong Show producers Powell and Ella for some time, and was grateful for their participation in my “Variety Store” at QED this past summer. I’m kind of in love with Queens at the moment, so this is a perfect way for stay involved in the borough…that is, after this Sunday’s presentation at the Queens Theatre, Flushing!

Meantime, if you’ve got an act, call ’em at the numbers above and get your slot in the auditions! (BTW, I love that it’s all happening at the Hellenic Cultural Center. Astoria has always been NYC’s primary Greek enclave…and, as it happens, I began the story of vaudeville in my book No Applause…with Ancient Greece. The book is one of the prizes to lucky contestants in this variety night!)

Published by travsd

Writer and performer Trav S.D. (www.travsd.com) is best known for his books "No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous" (2005) and "Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube" (2013). He has written for the NY Times, the Village Voice, American Theatre, Time Out NY, Reason, the Villager and numerous other publications. Trav has been in the vanguard of New York’s vaudeville and burlesque scenes since 1995 when he launched his company Mountebanks, presenting hundreds of acts ranging from Todd Robbins to Dirty Martini to Tammy Faye Starlite to the Flying Karamazov Brothers. He has directed his own plays, revues and solo pieces at such venues as Joe’s Pub, La Mama, HERE, Dixon Place, Theater for the New City, the Ohio Theatre, the Brick, and 6 separate shows in the NY International Fringe Festival. In 2014 he produced and directed the smash-hit "I’ll Say She Is", the first ever revival of the Marx Brothers hit 1924 Broadway show in the NY International Fringe Festival.