MATTHEW AND JASON TARDY, right, per form as AudioBody at The Freepor t Theater of Awesome. For tickets and show information, visit www.AwesomeTheater.com or call 518-8839.
Imagine Tommy and Dicky Smothers met Blue Man Group and had a baby.
Further, imagine that they all raised that child together in a techno-disco with a lot of toys from Radio Shack and Best Buy.
Then you’ll have an idea of what it’s like to see “Audiobody” at Freeport’s Theater of Awesome, located at 5 Depot St., just behind the new parking garage.
“That’s boring!” she said.
So the Theater of Awesome was born. The brothers, who are also jugglers, do a Sunday afternoon “high energy” juggling show, and open the theater to magic shows and other mainstays of the variety/vaudeville stage.
They developed an instrument that is part electronic drum, part computer voice, part goofy noises, and built it in such as way that it can “fit in a suitcase,” since they used to have to take this show on the road.
“Audiobody,” which runs on Friday and Saturday nights, and on Saturday afternoon, is centered on this instrument, and on blacklight LEDs and some fog effects, as well as musical jumpsuits that allow the brothers to conduct a family friendly musical adventure, while including goodnatured members of the audience as both witting and unwitting “victims” of the vaudeville.
One of the brothers crawls through smaller and smaller apertures — a bicycle rim, a folding chair, a broken tennis racquet — while his brother tries his level best to get him stuck. The other brother balances objects on his chin, ranging from a folding chair to a tall ladder.
The brothers juggle a bunch of tennis balls together, to create a musical event on a little laptop computer.
The brothers balance physical comedy with vaudeville talent, while trading off who has to be the straight man.
It’s the kind of thing you just don’t see anymore, since the demise of the summer replacement variety hours. Tommy and Dicky Smothers would be proud.
On the other hand, maybe we never, ever saw this kind of thing before. But it’s definitely worth a look.
Ticket prices for the Theater of Awesome range from $10-$25. You get a better price if you order the tickets online, at www.awesometheater.com. You can also call at (866) 584-4532 for more information.
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
