Ringling Bros. meets Benny Hill in this adult show
Warning: If you are at all shy, prudish or shrink from the spotlight, do NOT sit in the front row at Spiegelworlds Empire. Latecomers were paraded around the circular stage, front-row sitters were hauled up for semi-ironic lap dances, and one bald guy got his head licked. Some front row ticket holders sat looking mortified for the full 90 minutes, in fear of their doom.
Empire is an adult event, a saucy circus, where Ringling Bros. meets Benny Hill. (However its only 21-and-older because of the liquor licensing rules). The main principles seem to be:
Underwear is sexier than sparkly leotard; circuses leave the funny stuff to the clowns, and that clearly isnt working.
The show has been extended through Jan. 24, and rightly so, its a shot in the glute for the live theater/spectacle scene in Portland.
The Benton Lot is a parking lot just off Broadway near the multicolored streetcar stop designed by artist Jorge Pardo. On the lot sits what looks like a very large yurt the Spiegeltent. Inside the partially heated chamber, acrobats gyrate and sweat, liberally touching each other and sometimes members of the audience.
The show opens with Miss A., a woman in a giant plastic hamster ball suspended from the ceiling. Sometimes it cracks open a bit and her hair or a limb come out. Its mainly moves though every possible configuration of her body and the balls surfaces, her body folding like a lock knife and bending like a noodle. Now thats how you become the focus of attention.
The hosts, Oscar and Fanny, are like your unmarried uncle and aunt: hilarious, dressed up and always ready to disrobe. Oscar is eerily like Dan Savage, the agony uncle of Savage Love fame. Without spoiling anything, they do some eye-opening things with a banana.
The acts change at a brisk place, interspersed by Miss Purple (Tessa Alves from Canada) crooning songs with New York themes, wonderfully accompanied by Moondog, a Lenny Kravitz clone, circa 1990, on guitar. Style tip: The whole show is more Lenny than Lemmy. Sometimes the cast comes out parading rough plastic models of famous New York buildings, which makes no sense. But who cares?
One tumbler on his back uses his feet to spin another by the belly, twirling him like a pencil. And when they mess up, its gratifying to know its real. A pair of buff gymnasts perform on two pairs of parallel bars that form a square, almost hitting each other and showering the audience with chalk dust.
The Gorilla Girls represent thousands of hours and dollars spent on a cheer team gone wrong. A roller skating couple spin at incredible speeds, and the possibility of getting four acrylic wheels in the face at 20 mph is distinct and terrifying. And theres acroyoga done right without all the self-congratulatory chatter.
The round stage is only 9 feet across and almost everything happens there. The slowest act, a balancing act, involving a dozen large palm fronds and one sweaty dude with a mastery of Qigong, is truly gripping.
The fact that everyone leaves smiling and without a scratch is payoff. Especially for those seated in the front row.
Spiegelworlds Empire will stage at 7 p.m. the next two Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays (Jan. 15-17, Jan. 22-24) at the Spiegeltent at the Rose Quarter. Tickets are $19-$74.50 and available at www.ticketmaster.com.