It seems a reasonable conclusion that if you hear the statement, “Vaudeville has been good to me,” you are either watching an old TV show in black and white or talking to a performer older than Methuselah. This comment is, in fact, the enthusiastic reaction of a young New York performer to his forthcoming Holiday Vaudeville shows at Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage tonight and Friday evening.
“Yup, vaudeville has been good to me,” said classically trained musician Sean Grissom, aka the “Cajun Cellist” and a performance headliner for the past several years at Kennedy. “I enjoy the interaction with the crowd. It’s fun to break down that third wall — and it’s making a comeback as a sort of variety show.”
| Onstage |
| Holiday Vaudeville |
| Where: Millennium Stage, Kennedy Center, 2700 F St. NW |
| When: 6 p.m. Thursday and Friday |
| Info: Free, 800-444-1324 or 202-467-4600, kennedy-center.org |
Grissom’s cast of performers for these shows will be Mallory Lewis, daughter of the entertainer Shari Lewis, who will be appearing with her mom’s two best friends, Lamb Chop and Hush Puppy and the modern Klezmer Quartet, the Alexandria Kleztet. The big stars, however, will be the audience. And those who have never attended this pre-New Year circus, but plan on coming, might want to listen up.
“A staple of [Holiday Vaudeville] is that everyone who enters the stage area becomes part of the show,” Grissom continued. “They receive a paper bag that has a Starlight mint and a kazoo. I like to do a warm-up to get people acclimated to the stage, what to expect … and to have them get used to the kazoos. I find out where they’re from — it’s a very inclusive show.”
And while he won’t give away all of the show’s acts, audience and performers will be doing their very own version of “Dueling Banjos,” which prompts the quip from Grissom, “If you’re in the audience, it sounds like being in the middle of a bumblebee hive!”
An enigma of musical performance, Grissom is a classically trained cellist who holds a bachelor of fine arts degree from Pratt Institute and a master’s in music performance from Hunter College. He records, composes and teaches while performing his own style of country, Cajun, classical and rock.
This man, who has played two world cello concerts at University of Maryland’s Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, as well as on concert stages internationally, always returns to the streets and subway stations of New York, where he considers himself the “blue-collar cellist.”
“What was old is new again,” he said of his ‘vaudeville without walls.’ “I personally feel that if I am ever too proud or ‘too good’ to perform on the street, I’ll quit.”
