On May Day, after a five year hiatus, Psychotronic Paul dons his Official Curator fedora and returns to the Edison Theatre at the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum to present a comedy, cartoon and music-drenched program, Great Depression style.
First and foremost, let's answer the salient questions about the May Day extravaganza, featuring cool cartoons, musical clips, comedy shorts and genuine 1929 "naughty flapper" music by chanteuse Kitten On The Keys.
Can one buy advance tickets online? Yeah, baby - RIGHT HERE!
Do members of the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum get a discount? In the immortal words of the San Francisco Giants' beloved right fielder Hunter "The Preacher" Pence, YES YES YES! By all means, become a museum member - they have been and are doing fantastic work. If you adore classic film and especially silents, blow off the multiplexes and support the crew at Niles instead.
What will we show?
The Pre-Code Follies reflects Psychotronic Paul's love for Busby Berkeley, Fleischer Studio and Van Beuren cartoons, lecherous wisecracking comedians, vintage Tin Pan Alley tunes and 1929 musicals featuring scantily clad chorines prancing through way-out production numbers (and yes, all of this writer's enthusiasm for such things is well documented). In the immortal words of Ed Sullivan, the "rilly big shoe" shall include all of the above on 16mm and 35mm a.k.a. FILM, GLORIOUS FILM.
How about that "live in person" performance?
Kitten On The Keys, who knows ALL the ditties from those "dawn of talkies" movie musicals, is a genuine throwback to the sprightly entertainers of yore.
And Kitten will tickle those ivories while singing these great classic tunes between the toons.
How do I get to Niles? Well, with the full understanding that this blog's readers are more tech-savvy than Mr. Blogmeister is, here's the museum's location, 37417 Niles Boulevard, from Google maps.
If we decide to just show up, when should we arrive to get a seat? No later than 7:30, in our estimation.
Is it necessary for me to know how to tap dance like Ruby Keeler in 42ND STREET? No, but it may be necessary to think about doing so.
Can I get in free for knowing who Alice White AND Marjorie White were?
No, but you will receive a copy of the home "Pre-Code Follies" game, provided you have a place to store nitrate film!
This fun video, starring friend of this blog Kitten On The Keys, is quite the charmer. It is sweet, genuine, the real deal (not contrived as a lot of entertainment for kids can be) and has been nominated for an Electro Swing Award.
Directed by Eve St. Ramon
Song by Bart and Baker
Costumes by Monique Motil
While I'm unquestionably a week too late with my blurb, I strongly encourage the San Francisco Bay Area readers of this blog to get their collective derrieres to Mama Calizo's Voice Factory this weekend to check out Kitten On The Keys' one-woman show.
Kitten did a fabulous turn at last January's Pre-Code Follies extravaganza with her charm, good humor, "Punk Rock Betty Boop" persona and genuine tunes from the Roaring Twenties. She will be hitting the footlights Friday, Saturday and Sunday, no doubt with outrageousness, numerous one-liners and wonderfully goofy original songs.
To quote Kitten's press release:
"San Francisco's own Kitten On The Keys (A.K.A Suzanne Ramsey) is a frisky one ma’am band. Her new one woman musical: Does This Piano Make My Ass Look Big? follows the hi-jinks of a dorky suburban girl who is insecure, addicted, and socially impaired. Her life changes for the better with the discovery of punk rock and a burlesque rock & roll lifestyle.
This world-premiere romp replete with sequins n' sass, told through original songs (written and performed by Kitten) and video, will tickle your funny bones and stir your nether-regions. Kitten on the Keys is a little Judy Tenuta, Mae West, and a dash of Shirley Temple optimism rolled into one perky package. She writes all of her own material and plays the piano, accordion, and ukulele."
Sounds like tons o' fun for grownups who have decided NOT to get stodgy, conservative and old. Get out to Mama Calizo's and support local theatre!
Does This Piano Make My Ass Look Big? A limited engagement co-directed by Dwyane Calizo & Suzanne Ramsey Friday and Saturday at 8PM, Sunday Matinee at 2PM Mama Calizo’s Voice Factory 1519 Mission Street (Van Ness & 11th Sts.) San Francisco 94103. Tickets are $15 & $20 (no one turned away for lack of funds) -- and available at the door or at Brown Paper Tickets. NOTE: Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids and this show's for adults!
I'm seriously tickled to be bringing a pungent slice of our customary KFJC Psychotronix Film Fest style mayhem to the wine country. On January 17 at 7:00 p.m., theMendocino Film Festivalpresents theMend-O-Tronic Incredibly Strange Short Subjectsnight at historic Crown Hall, 45285 Ukiah St., Mendocino, CA 95460.
And I'm equally tickled to be the producer/curator of the following pop culture slice n' dice at a historic venue:
At the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum's Edison Theatre (the town nickelodeon 95 years ago), we will present a hallucinatory blend of outrageous clips from 1930's musicals, lecherous and absurdist comedy shorts, surreal cartoons, etc. - with a performance of ditties from the Pre-Code era by the fabulous Kitten On The Keys. Yes, LIVE IN PERSON, our hostess with the very mostest will m.c. and live up to her Sisters Of Perpetual Indulgence sobriquet, St. Tickle-The-Ivories.
News flash from NBC-TV: there's superlative burlesque-vaudeville-circus talent right here in the San Francisco Bay Area. As if you didn't know that!
And yes, Virginia Mayo, there is a tie-in with this blog. The fabulous and hilarious Kitten On The Keys will tickle the ivories as the hostess with the mostest at my Pre-Code Follies movie night on January 30, 2009 at the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum's Edison Theatre. The wonderful Devil-ettes performed between our cornucopia of cheesy Christmas kitsch movies at the Thrill-O-Tronic show at the Cerrito Theatre on November 15.
