Photo Flash: First Look at THE GONG SHOW LIVE at The Cutting Room

Executive Produced by Leslie Gold (The Award-Winning Radiochick) and produced by Emmy-Nominated Peppy Castro and Broadway's Kenn Lubin THE GONG SHOW LIVE is an even better idea than The Gong Show on TV. It's LIVE. In a theatre. Where most of the 1970's American population wanted to be. Right there and up close with the lunacy. The beautiful new Cutting Room (44 East 32 Street - between Park & Madison Avenues). Scroll down for a sneak peek at some of the GONG SHOW's performances!

Leslie Gold hired New York Casting Director, Robert Russell, to cast THE GONG SHOW LIVE. She wanted the best acts in the world. She wanted the most unique acts on earth. She wanted these acts to astonish, amaze, astound and stupefy the audience. She wanted better acts than anything on the networks. She wanted the impossible. Well. Mr. Russell auditioned over one thousand acts. Thirty-five were chosen. Fourteen of which will perform nightly. Mr. Russell delivered. Gong that!

There are 35 acts. They dance in rings of fire. They twist themselves into impossible shapes. The sing in over four octaves. They dance, do magic, swallow swords, drink too much, dazzle with hand jives and foot work, and in the case of Sunshine Denet (pictured above) - blow the roof of The Cutting Room. What the great Mordechai does to "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" is nobody's business. These people are very good at what they do. They are the best entertainers in North America. Some say The Gong Show 10 Orchestra is better than the Tonight Show band.

The acts will be judged by a rotating panel of celebrity judges including Miss Gold, Dan Naturman, Chuck Nice and Ken Dashow. All judges have GONG privileges.

THE GONG SHOW 10 ORCHESTRA features: Keyboard - Frank Pisani; Guitar -Artie Dillon; Bass- Jimmy Caputo; Drums-Felipe Torres/Peter Greco; and Musical Director- Frank Pisani.

Between the years of 1976 and 1981 THE GONG SHOW was aired to millions of households in six countries where it collected billions of dollars from its advertisers. It was one of the most recognized brands in the worldwide pop culture lexicon. Its very title promised a good time. Guaranteed. Money back. Good time. Designed and built specifically for its audience, it delivered euphoric results to EVERYONE watching at home; but MOST importantly to EVERYONE in the Studio Audience. Hundreds and thousands of people barnstormed the NBC Studios in Burbank, California daily in the hopes of getting tickets to this runaway train. The real fun was being there and EVERYONE in America knew it. THE GONG SHOW experience was AUDIENCE-OBSESSED and manically driven by an elf-sized nuclear reactor called CHUCK BARRIS who reveled in the presentation of the famous winner's $516.32 check endorsed by the network's brass back at the Head Office, an office he was filling with mountains of cash from the 24 network shows he was single-handedly producing.

The show continues Thursday, September 12 and Thursday, October 3. The doors open for food and drink at 6:15pm. The lunacy begins at 7:30pm. The crowd-control is usually instituted by 8:15pm. Tickets: $35 & $49. Go to gongshowlive.net ("shows") for tickets and more information.

Photo Credit: Marc Birnbach

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