Hovey Burgess, the internationally celebrated juggler, clown and circus performer will join the cast of Matt Roper's downtown variety show WILFREDO A GO GO this coming Monday night, 3/9 at the Slipper Room. Burgess will appear as 'the Polar Bare', in an act comprising the art-forms of circus, burlesque and comedy alongside his performance partner, Lil' Miss Lixx.
Burgess, who has just finished a winter season performing with the Big Apple Circus, is one of the oldest performers working in the variety scene today and will celebrate his 80th birthday later this year. He is the recipient of a plethora of awards and honours, including the
Red Skelton Award, the Downtown Clown Golden Nose and a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Celebration of American Circus at Lincoln Center. Burgess also choreographed and appeared in the
Robert Altman motion picture Popeye, at the request of one of his former protégés, the late
Robin Williams - who starred in the title role for
Paramount Pictures in 1980.
Wilfredo a Go Go is hosted by the comedian and entertainer
Matt Roper, under the guise of his outlandish alter-ego Wilfredo, who has charmed, hypnotized and terrified audiences around the world. Roper first came to prominence among New York theatre-goers in 2016 as
Chico Marx in the Off Broadway hit I'll Say She Is: The Lost Marx Brothers Musical at the Connelly Theater. He has since performed with various downtown collectives including the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus, the Secret Variety Society, Visceral Abstractions and Three-Legged Dog. Roper recently performed the role of clown in Jack and the Beanstalk, the first large-scale pantomime to be performed in Manhattan for over a century, at the Playhouse Theater at the Abrons. Last month Roper made his directorial debut for stand-up comic Ashley Blaker's solo show Goy Friendly at the Soho Playhouse.
Gregory Dubin, a.k.a The Great Dubini, the stand-up magician, is also earmarked to perform. Dubin performs regularly at Ripley's Believe It or Not Sideshow Wonders, The Love Show NYC, in the Off Broadway hit Sleep No More, as well as in his own magic and variety show The Mystique Boutique. Also expected to appear is Gigi Bonbon, a former Miss Coney Island and one of the best-loved burlesque artists in New York's downtown scene. Bonbon performs regularly at Duane Park, Le Scandal, House of Yes, The Box, Employees Only, Hotel Chantelle, Nurse Bettie and at Coney Island's Burlesque at the Beach.
Wilfredo a Go Go at the Slipper Room, NYC. 9.30pm, Monday 3/9. Tickets at
slipperroom.com
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