My Twisted Valentine

Frank Olivier's "Twisted Cabaret" is currently presenting a Valentine's edition of the zany variety show at Hale's Palladium in Ballard. Normally billed a clean comedy with a crazy array of vaudeville and circus skills, the Valentine's show, "My Twisted Valentine," is a raunchier, adult-themed version.

During the intermission, my partner mentioned that she could imagine Frank as a child endlessly coming up with crazy things to do with various parts of his body: "Look what I can do with my tongue, Mom!" As Frank whips on and off stage playing 12 different characters doing significantly more than 12 different kinds of physical stunts while carrying on a slightly demented monologue, the audience howls sometimes with laughter and sometimes with stunned disbelief.

Playing the straight man to Olivier is Paul Nathan who clumps around the stage in a too small suit providing distraction at appropriate times so that each time Olivier disappears then reappears as someone completely different, we are always taken by surprise.

That's exactly what we want at a variety show featuring magic, juggling, physical prowess and humor! The two have great chemistry and truly seem to be having a good time together on stage.

Olivier has a remarkable range of performance ability. Regardless of which persona appears on stage, he cultivates a sense of bumbling almost-incompetence, as if at any moment things could go terribly wrong and that he doesn't really quite know what he's doing. As he says while juggling, "There are thousands of different five ball tricks. This one is the one I can do."

It would be easy to take that as truth but if you scratch beneath that surface, his skill level is amazing. Whether he's performing jaw dropping card tricks or juggling stun guns on a high unicycle around a tiny stage or popping a balloon back and forth through his sinuses, he has clearly logged thousands of hours perfecting his arts. And that one five ball trick? Well, he proceeded to do many more, and then take his clothes off while continuing to juggle.

As those descriptions of his acts might indicate, they range from silly to awe inspiring. When he performs as Lingua Franca and Mr. Mouth, his description of it as "a horrible puppet show you can never unsee" is rather apt and it's good to be aware of that range going in. While the show is billed as kid friendly for those over eight, it is raunchy with a good amount of stereotypical sexual innuendo and the standard frat boy humor around men dancing together in tutus.

Lara Paxton from Circus Contraption joins the show for the first time, with her occasional aerial performances giving both men a little time to catch their breaths, as the show is quite physically demanding. Paxton's main performance piece is as an airborne mermaid, complete with a long, fluttering fish tail, and she's lovely to watch.

We missed half of her performance, unfortunately, due to a beer mishap when a worker on the run kicked over someone else's beer and managed to get it just as airborne as Paxton before it landed all over us. Keep in mind if you choose to attend that this is a show in the back of a brewery, complete with cement floors, uncomfortable folding chairs and a few drunken hecklers, so if you're going for romance this wouldn't be my first choice.

It is really remarkable though in the time of digital editing and special effects to go to a small theater and watch a master of not just one craft, but a myriad of them, dazzle and amaze with what he can do with just his body and a few simple props.

"My Twisted Valentine" runs through Feb. 23 at Hale's Palladium, 4301 Leary Way NW in Seattle. For info or tickets, call 888-377-4510 or visit www.twistedcabaret.com.