The Hamilton College Performing Arts opens the Contemporary Voices and Visions Series on Saturday, Sept. 21, at 8 p.m. with Paul Zaloom's Velvetville in Wellin Hall, Schambach Center for the Performing Arts, on the Hamilton College campus.
WHAT IS VELVETVILLE? Mix a tablespoon of Marcel Duchamp with a soupçon of George Carlin, a half cup of Salvador Dali and a bowl of Soupy Sales. Result: Paul Zaloom's Velvetville, a relentlessly low-tech, multi-media puppet extravaganza, featuring cheesy black velvet paintings, highly idiosyncratic, puppet animations, and weirdly funny juxtapositions of unlikely objects and trash.
WHAT'S IT ABOUT? The actual topic of the show must be kept a secret, for reasons that will become obvious once the show begins.
WHAT HAPPENS? Dressed in cheap flannel pajamas, Zaloom races between three different media on the stage to illustrate a surrealistic and wildly funny narrative.
We see Zaloom's Vermont vacation trip, which urbanizes and destroys the state; his sudden death and subsequent wake in a funeral home; his descent into hell, run by Walt Disney; his hyperactive and cathartic nightmare about the ultimate Republican party; and much more.
WHAT 3 MEDIA? #1: Found objects and other rubbish as puppets (a gas mask plays an L.A. city bus; a stack of egg cartons is a condominium; bubble wrap portrays a frozen, popping river; and hideous shower curtains provide the backdrops).
#2: Black velvet paintings, with Smurfs, lurid sunsets, leaping fish, big eyed waifs, etc. from the jolly land of American kitsch.
#3 Hand puppets in the wild and ribald tradition of the 450 year old Punch and Judy Show, updated to fit the new dynamic of this glorious baby millennium. The incorrigible cad Punch deals with love, murder, and law enforcement and maybe pays the consequences.
WHAT'S THE POINT? Directed by Randee Trabitz, this three ring circus celebrates our swell civilization and Zaloom's complicity in its evils, while dazzling unsuspecting viewers with a panoply of breathtakingly cheap special effects.
Sustained laughter and wild amusement will be the objective, with the residual effect of the audience realizing it is laughing at what will eventually kill us all.
Tickets are $15 adult, $10 senior, and $5 students. To reserve tickets or for more information, call the performing arts ticket office at 859-4331. Due to adult content this performance may not be appropriate for audience members under the age of 18. Velvetville has been made possible by a generous grant from Dan W. Dietrich, Hamilton College class of 1964.
