'Gazillionaire' at Spiegelworld Announces New Performance Schedule

One of the most creatively dangerous and funniest live entertainment experiences in New York City right now is care of a clown prince who recently abdicated from the empire of Cirque du Soleil. An improvised and totally unpredictable assault on the late night variety show format, Gazillionaire's Late Nite Lounge combines infectious live music, unrehearsed audience interaction and game show mayhem, and dives head first into the shallow end of the cesspool of social taboos.

Dripping in brylcreem and inappropriate innuendo, The Gazillionaire is the world’s filthiest rich impresario and variety show host. With one hand wrapped seductively around his golden microphone and the other usually planted on the unfeasibly large bulge in his trousers, The Gazillionaire warmly welcomes the audience to an 80-minute roller-coaster ride. It’s not for the faint-hearted, but has the potential to deliver the ultimate rush for live theater thrill-seekers. The exhilaration of laughing at another audience member’s expense is only tempered by the fear of what might happen next. The Gazillionaire is joined by his delightfully ditzy assistant Penny and her band of oddball musicians, Fish Circus. Constantly stretching the limits of what is acceptable and feeding from the audience’s reactions, no two shows are ever alike and the audience (and the performers) have no idea where things will end up.

The Gazillionaire is the creation of Voki Kalfayan, an artist who is pushing clowning out into completely unchartered and hazardous waters. Many will have previously come across The Gazillionaire and Penny (Anais Thomassian) in their former roles as the incompetent hosts of the circus-variety show Absinthe, now in its third season at Spiegelworld. After dropping out of college, Voki joined the illustrious Ringling Brothers Clown College in Baraboo Wisconsin. Having mastered juggling, stilt-walking and prat falls, he spent the next year living on a train and touring the Midwest and Southern States with The Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey. Voki then suddenly found himself wrapped inside the clown’s ultimate comfort blanket, working for Cirque du Soleil for several years in the Las Vegas production “O”, the Australian tour of Quidam and the development of Ka. But as Voki found himself weakening against the emerging dark side of The Gazillionaire, he threw in the blanket and decided to embark on the treacherous road of being his own clown.

Gazillionaire’s Late Nite Lounge is now playing at Spiegelworld on the South Street Seaport.  The show is presented six nights a week in the intimate Salon Deluxe Spiegeltent at Spiegelworld (Pier 17, under the Brooklyn Bridge at the South Street Seaport): Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday at 9pm; Friday and Saturday at 11pm.  Special times: October 2, 19, 30 at 10pm; October 18, 31 at 12 midnight. Tickets can be purchased through TicketCentral.com or by calling 212.279.4200.  For more information, please visit www.Spiegelworld.com.

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