FUN!
Halloween, naturally, is my favorite holiday. There is
something undeniably special to my shadow-dwelling heart
about the Feast of Souls, the Day the Departed Walk Among
Us. Clearly, I'm not alone, since the annual revenance of
Halloween summons a darkling creativity among my fellow
Children of the Portland Night.
Just the other day, for example, I received a mysterious
brown box adorned with various Representations of Death.
Inside the box lay a matchbook (what deviltry do they suggest--what
deviltry, indeed?) adorned with a cartoon demon, trident
in hand. Inside, above the staggered rows of sulfur flame
summoners, a website and secret password appeared. Accessing
the Infamous Superhighway, I soon found directions to a
most secret and luscious night of revelry scheduled very
near to the drear day itself....
But I get ahead of myself. For there is no need to wait
to begin the nighttime revels. Courtesy of ever-ambitious
burlesque impresaria Kitty Diggins, of whom much
has been written in this column and elsewhere, a most worthy
tribute to the black-and-orange holiday unfolds this
very weekend in the cozy environs of Berbati's Pan.
The Mad Monster a GoGo weds several of Diggins'
loves: burlesque theater, go-go dancing and the goof-gonzo
horror shtick of the '50s and '60s. While many Halloween
events these days either mirror the innumerable horrors
of the real world a little too closely or take the holiday's
pagan roots a little too earnestly, MMaGG holds no such
illusions about its own weight.
"This is going to be very silly and ridiculous," Diggins
says confidently. She promises sketch-comedy sendups of
the frequent live-TV mess-ups on the classic camp show Dark
Shadows, Herschell Gordon Lewis' cheeseball gore flick
Color Me Blood Red, The Twilight Zone and
even an undead I Love Lucy. An on-stage haunted house,
a contest to name the Scream Queen of this particular Season
of Mists, spook burlesque, glow-in-the-dark witch doctor
go-go dancers and Diggins' own dip into something bright
and red will no doubt complete a marathon of over-the-top
ghoulery.
As a final coup de grâce, Diggins has wisely
retained the services of the Natrons, a three-headed
monster of graveyard blooze that somehow caught an echoing
Delta death rattle in a Mason jar and has been amplifying
and distorting it ever since. After their now-notorious
NXNW showcase at Jimmy Mak's, where no plate of calamari
was left unscorched, the trio is likely as hot to trot as
could be. In fact, they probably feel it in their bones.
The Mad Monster a GoGo
with The Natrons, Third Floor Sketch Comedy, Kitty Diggins
et al
Berbati's Pan
231 SW Ankeny St., 248-4579
7 pm Sunday, Oct. 22
$7
Dress appropriately, OK?
KOMEDIC KAPERS AND KRAZINESS
Don Barnhart and Danny Vilipando
Sharp, cynically observed observations. Ever heard of
those?
Harvey's Comedy Club
436 NW 6th Ave.,
241-0338
8 pm Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday; 8 and 10:30
pm Friday; 6:30, 9 and 11:30 pm Saturday, Oct. 18-22
$8-$10
ComedySportz
Improv comedy--to the death!
1963 NW Kearney St., 236-8888
9 pm Friday, 7:30 and 9:30 pm Saturday, Oct. 20-21
$10,
$9 with can of food for Oregon Food Bank
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