"Sxip's Hour of Charm"
Makes Boston Premiere
At Zero Theatre

"Sxip's Hour of Charm" has long been part of the line-up at Joe's Pub at the Public Theater in New York.   Now the eclectic variety show comes to Boston, or more accurately, Cambridge, at the Zero Arrow Theatre in Harvard Square.  Performances will take place Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from September 14- 30, 2007.

Regularly described as indescribable, "Sxip's Hour of Charm" is a hybrid of circus, music, cabaret, sideshow and burlesque.  Each show will feature 6-8 different acts, including songwriters, circus artists, human beat boxers, story tellers, comics, aerialists and more. Plus, the lineup will change each weekend.

Amanda Palmer, of the The Dresden Dolls, is helping to bring this curious show to Boston, where Sxip promises three weekends of music and performance that hope to delight, confuse and enlighten even the most cynical members of any seen-it-all audiences.
 
Week One (Sept. 14-16) features Amanda Palmer, performing both Dresden Dolls and new solo material; aerialist/ceiling walker Una Mimnagh; Jonas Woolverton spinning on, inside and around the elegant rolling steel hoop, "The Cyr"; human beat box vocal looping and comedy from Reggie Watts; and accordion and song powerhouse Jason Webley. Host Sxip Shirey will recount his recent trip to a mad Serbian Brass band festival and perform on his famous metal pipe contraption with 5 red marbles and 5 glass bowls.
 
Week Two (Sept. 21-23) highlights the weird American gothic avant circus music of Beat Circus; the ebullient, sly and arresting folk rock stylings of Erin McKeown;  the "foolery" of The Red Bastard (above, also known as Eric David, of Cirque Du Soleil), a grotesque yet disarmingly charming buffoon whose enormous ego is matched only by his colossal red ass;  accordion rock opera powerhouse Corn Mo (who used to be in The Polyphonic Spree, and opens regularly for They Might Be Giants and Ben Folds Five); Una Mimnagh's beautiful and dangerous "ceiling walk;" and Sxip Shirey's composition for Industrial flute and five curious objects.

Week Three (Sept. 28-30)  brings AJ Silver (left), the sexiest rope-spinning cowboy ever to come out of the Bronx; songwriter Dayna Kurtz, a genre-defying smoky alto singer/songwriter; the sweet, sexy raunchy storytelling of Greg Walloch who uses his own cerebral palsy to challenge preconceptions of human disabilities with his provocative comedic monologues;  the return of Una Mimnagh performing knotted spinning falls on the single hung rope ("corde de lisse"); and Sxip Shirey's stories of quantum mechanics and red blood cells. (One additional artist is to be announced).
 
For ticket and information, call 617-547-8300.

-- OnStage Boston