It is the spice of life.
A Bushwick entertainer is throwing a monthly variety show at neighborhood bar and yoga studio the Cobra Club. The magician and comedian said her show is more than an open mic night — she wants to revive the American theatrical genre vaudeville with professional performers executing esoteric feats.
“I hope vaudeville will have a comeback like burlesque has,” said organizer Tanya Solomon. “When most people hear ‘variety show’ they think of amateur hour — bad stand-up or people noodling on a guitar — but we have a professional Yiddish vaudevillian and a Bruk Up dancer on the same bill. That’s real variety.”
And Solomon is bent on driving that point home — even when it comes to the event’s name, Force Majeure, which is legal mumbo-jumbo for “a superior or irresistible power.”
The next edition, on Feb. 8, will feature Solomon’s magic, a singing and trick-roping cowboy, a drag performer, a burlesque dancer, a slapstick comedian, and a Bruk Up dancer, Solomon said. The latter act is a form of Jamaican dance made popular in the borough by Brooklyn’s Caribbean emigres. Solomon was so enamored of the contortionistic rug-cutting that she partnered with Bedford-Stuyvesant dance crew the Warriorz to bring a new Bruk Up performer to Force Majeure each month.
“I’m a big fan of that kind of character dancing,” she said. “I seek out the most skilled, most interesting, most diverse acts.”
And if the drag and burlesque doesn’t dissuade you from bringing your little one, don’t let the magic act entice — the whole show is 21-and-up, Solomon said.
“Too many people think of magic and clowns as children’s entertainment,” Solomon said. “It’s not necessarily a dirty show — it can get dirty — but it’s for adults.”
Force Majeure at the Cobra Club [6 Wyckoff Ave. between Jefferson and Troutman streets in Bushwick, (917) 719–1138, www.cobraclubbk.com] Feb. 8 at 9 pm. $10.
