Sxip's Hour of Charm will be tonight, Saturday, September 15, at 7:00 pm and 10:00 pm, and tomorrow, Sunday, September 16, at 8:00 pm, at the Zero Arrow Theatre. The show will run on weekends through September 30th. Go to ART's home page for details.

The press release said that Sxip's Hour of Charm is "indescribable." Oh, but it is describable - it is like the circus, complete with ringmaster and musician Sxip Shirey and his performing crew. Screw the Cirque du Soleil - this is the true circus for grown-ups.

Before launching into the specifics of the show, you should know that Sxip (pronounced "Skip") and aerial artist Una Mimnagh are the only constants for each set of weekend performances. But if Sxip has assembled a set of performers of a similar caliber and creativity as the ones who appeared in the debut show, then the performers won't let you down.

Each artist has a special talent. Una Mimnagh entagles herself in a rope to a menacing harmonica tune from Sxip. Reggie Watts brings beatboxing back. Jonas Woolverton attempts unimaginable stunts on a gigantic hula hoop known as a cyr wheel. Jason Webley plays accordion and performs the best drinking songs ever. Meow Meow - well, it isn't clear what the diva known as Meow Meow does, but she managed to convince members of the audience to get real close to her.

And, of course, Amanda Palmer was a constant presence, dashing in and out of the audience, joining Webley on stage, showing off music from her upcoming record Who Killed Amanda Palmer? that she is recording with Ben Folds, and keeping the audience entranced. At the end of the show, a crew of people, including her mom, marched up to the stage for a grand singalong of "Sing" (what else?).

The evening had a wonderfully improvisational feature, so much so that it felt more like the audience was watching a group of good buddies engaged in a dress rehearsal. Sxip himself possesses the stiff, hyper enthusiasm of David Lynch - like Lynch, he lets things take their course, and he didn't seem to care about making the show follow a specific path. He told the audience, "We'll fuck up a lot. That's just the way it is."

Despite the tremendous talent evident on stage, the night didn't go smoothly. Sometimes, the pacing was out of whack - the beginning started off at a brisk pace, but the performances in the last half, including Sxip's solo piece and the work of performance artist Meow Meow, ran a little long. That has nothing to do with the quality of their work. Sxip himself plays unconventional instruments in an unconventional manner and was able to make a flute sound like the roar of a motorcycle and a lion. Meow Meow is a wildly glamorous cabaret singer who cuddles up to the audience in every possible sense, but her performance could have been cut by five minutes without any problems.

Photo of Amanda Palmer from Caroline Roberts. More review - including more on Amanda Palmer's performance and a note to the ART about an accident that happened that night - and a list of performers for each weekend after the jump!

The show also suffered because the ART couldn't quite pack what is essentially a circus into such the small space of the Zero Arrow. It looked great, and Amanda Palmer herself said onstage that, when she walked into the theater and saw the stage, she "fell into an Onion Cellar-y kind of timewarp."

However, the "Onion Cellar-y" atmosphere didn't work for Sxip's Hour of Charm. At some points, the theater setup was outright dangerous. Woolverton needed space to use his supersized hula hoop, but the center stage was small, and at one point he sent the hoop spinning into some people in the front row. The acoustics were lousy. Not only was the sound bad, but the performers had trouble setting up their equipment.

Speaking of equipment, during the climax of the show, when Amanda Palmer was onstage and various members of Sxip's circus joined in her commanding performance of songs old and new, a light tube fell from the ceiling of the ART and shattered on the ground. Luckily, it fell in a space between the cabaret seating and the bar, so no one got hurt, but a few more inches, and someone would have had a bad, bad night. The incident also generated a bar-brawl like noise that the pros onstage managed to overcome. Now the ART staff needs to have a pro take a look at their light fixtures before a real problem occurs.

This weekend:
--Una Mimnagh, aerialist
--Reggie Watts, beatboxer/comedian
--Jonas Woolverton, cyr wheel enthusiast
--Jason Webley, singer/songwriter
--Meow Meow, uh, we're not sure what she is, but she's entertaining
--Amanda Palmer, musician

Weekend of September 21:
--Una Mimnagh, aerialist
--Beat Circus, gothic circus-music band
--Erin McKeown, musician
--The Red Bastard, a "buffoon" with a "colossal red ass" (that's from the ART - you've been warned)
--Corn Mo, accordion rocker

Weekend of September 28:
--Una Mimnagh, aerialist
--AJ Silver, a cowboy from the Bronx (it surprised us, too)
--Dayna Kurtz, musician
--Greg Walloch, comedian
--Emily Grogan, musician