Interview: DISCOSHOW: ELI WEINBERG @ Linq Hotel in Vegas

Eli Weinberg is a performer and performance maker who has worked in live theater, dance, circus, burlesque and opera houses across two deades and three continents.  Clarifying his genre he prefers breaking new ground and smashing glass cielings with genre-eschewing pieces which are extremely physical and most irreverent.  Eli took ten minutes to answer ten upfront and personal questions for our Broadway World Los Angeles because many believe the City of Secrets to be the first cousin to the City of Angels. 

Where did the universe push you out into this world and with any siblings?

I was born at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena, California, two years after my older (and smarter) brother, Kyle, who currently serves as the president of the San Diego Education Association.

What was the "aha moment" when you realized intuitively you wanted to be a live performer?

When I was 12, I wanted to join the middle school dance team. I learned all the choreography with some of my best friends for the audition. I was the only boy who was even considering auditioning and this got back to some parents who were beyond themselves about the need to possibly modify (and in their minds, sully) the skirts that were standard costumes for the many years of existence of the team. When I heard that parents were talking, I remember being both confused as to why they even cared and then worried about the broader implications of my involvement. But, at that time, I was determined to audition all the same. As I walked to the door of the auditorium for the audition, I felt the thrill of bucking convention and going for it. That feeling quickly morphed into a sense of overwhelm brought on by what these parents and probably some peers might think. I took one more step towards the room and then swiveled right around and walked home. The rest of the year, I watched the team dance at games and assemblies, always wondering what would have been. This feeling of wanting, of regret (for not auditioning and that I had caved to pressure), of knowing I might have walked away from something that would have been the absolute best, made me realise that this was the thing I should probably be doing. And I’m sure I would have looked amazing in that f-ing skirt, too. AHA?!

Jonathan Groff thanked his parents and brother (while holding his 2024 Best Actor In A Musical Tony Award) for "fanning the flames of a young person's passion without judgement."  Did your/does your family support your desires and inspirations? 

Duh.

We see you trained at the "cool school" of UC Santa Cruz where there are no grades just bean bag chairs, good ganja and vegetarian fare at the Saturn restaurant. How did attending such a progressive and forward thinking campus of brainiac & slackers affect your artistic foundations? Who were some of your fellow Banana Slugs?

There was a rumor that classes were intentionally spread out around the redwood forest where the campus is located to encourage space and reflection between learning. Whether or not this was true is not so important, because I think it worked for me. I was a city kid and access to the great outdoors during those years was transformative. As an incoming freshman, I went on a ten-day backpacking trip organized by the university’s recreation department called Wilderness Orientation, exploring some of the most beautiful bits of the Sierras. That changed everything for me. We were pushed to our physical limits, taught all the basics of survival in the woods and given space to reflect on this milestone in our lives. I went on to work that same recreation department throughout my time at UC Santa Cruz, leading backpacking, biking and hiking trips, and while not strictly performance related, this became the foundation for nearly all the work I’ve made and want to make since. Bringing the outdoors in and bringing people out whenever possible - setting narrative, history and ecology driven work in natural spaces, amphitheaters, in the ocean or the mountains or the desert - this, for me, is the way.

You have travelled extensively in three Americas from Chile to Chicago creating both truly original and provocative concept shows all along the way.  Is your work heady or light hearted? Are you awakened to the mysteries of the universe or a misanthrope towards  humans being inherently selfish in nature?

A mentor of mine, the wildly talented John Gilkey, talks about the relationship between the mundane and the profound - using each as a lens to discover or understand the other, to see how they can play off one another, that both may have value in any given performance. At times, I think they might even become confused for one another, for better or for worse, by both performer or audience. Having likely misunderstood what he was saying, I think my work is generally developed with an eye towards play, towards off-kilter, towards possibly unexpected, and if the work of investigation and research bleeds through, I’ll take it. 

You are highly associated with movement and dance in your projects thus often compared to innovationists, Mathew Bourne and Twyla Tharp. What motivates you to choreograph a new piece? Do you prefer dance or speaking?

There’s nothing like a deadline -  for a show, a festival, a gig. That being said, I’m big on what physical spaces, natural or manmade, do for the performance, the performer, the audience. And if I go down a rabbit hole on an architect or a structure or national park, or the stories of people or animals who have called those places home, I can get driven to find a way to bring whatever it is I do into these places to see what happens for me and for others. 

Congratulations on DISCOSHOW nearing its one year residency in Las Vegas! What misconception did you have about Vegas shows and what is the best part of being a live performer in the City of Secrets? 

Thanks, Gavin and Broadway World!

Growing up, we would periodically meet my grandparents in Las Vegas and as a kid, my perception of what being a Vegas entertainer looked like was either performing at the free circus at Circus Circus or flying around on the Carnaval floats at the Rio. Both options were fantastical and fancy and fun and thankfully Vegas has lived up to the wonder of little me’s perception. 

Running 10 shows a week, 52 weeks a year is so very sweet and provides for an unreal amount of time to refine and elaborate and explore a show, a track, a character. The people I get to work with at DISCOSHOW and across Spiegelworld, day in and day out, are the best and for that I am beyond grateful. And if the shows we do can add to the experience of Las Vegas for visitors and give them something to hold on to, even for ten minutes after they happen - that too, is just great.

Donna Summer wanted to be a Broadway belter but couldn't get arrested in Manhattan so she took the international tour of HAIR! to Rome, Italy.  She visited Berlin and attended a night cub playing a high resonating technical beat which made a permanent imprint on her. She returned to New York to record "I FEEL LOVE" for a friend but set it to the "Berlin beat" now called disco music from the discoteques. What is your interpretation of disco music and its cultural impact on the music industry and dance culture?

I’m far from the right person to ask about the cultural and musical impact of disco on society but what I do know is this - it feels good, it sounds good, people who otherwise couldn’t be who they were could live their lives, in their fullness, in the spaces disco engendered and it was more fun than anything else going on from 1972-1979.

Have you read Frank DeCaro's popular coffee table book DISCO: MUSIC, MOVIES, & MANIA UNDER THE MIRROR BALL? Who do you want to fly into Vegas right this very minute to see DISCOSHOW?

I've perused, certainly, and I heard through the grapevine that Frank is a big fan of Discoshow. (@frankdecaroshow)

We had famed DJ Nicky Siano watch (and then DJ an after-party) for our opening night. His stamp of approval felt huge. But who else would I want to fly in to see the show? I think getting the Magnificent Seven from the 1996 Atlanta Olympics back together to see the show would be a dream come true!

You have a huge body of work in the U.S. but what theater venue have you yet to conquer within Los Angeles and what project do you think we are ready to see from your great imagination?

I think putting up a 72-hour piece at the historic Avalon Theatre on Catalina Island, maybe something that weaves the story of Columbian mammoths swimming across the ocean from the mainland to the Channel Islands during the Pleistocene Ice Age (this actually happened) would be a time.

Since 2018, Eli has developed and performed for Spiegelworld (Opium, Absinthe, Atomic Saloon) and still, as far as he can tell, maintains an excellent standing within the company. 

Career highlights include multiple productions directed by John Gilkey (The Simple Simples, The Murge, The Invention of Language), working with the Four Larks (The Temptation of St. Antony, Undine, Katabasis), a tour of Mexico and Colombia with Péndulo Cero Dance Company, dancing in a high school multi-purpose room for Danielle Agami (ate9 Dance Company), performing in a big blue box in Berlin for Sommer Ulrickson and pretending to be a pygmy mammoth at Channel Islands National Park with longtime collaborator Mo Katzman.

Now Playing!  DISCOSHOW A New York City nightworld in the heart of the Las Vegas Strip, with two cocktail bars, Diner Ross Steakhouse, and a show that doesn’t just unfold around you – it pulls you into the center of a disco celebration. Get lost in it all. The show itself is unlike anything ever produced, anywhere in the world. DISCOSHOW rejoices in the music and the emotion which ignited a decade. The inferno is still burning. Welcome to the club. A life celebration. Meet and fall in love with the people whose very survival relied on dance. It’s a show that moves your heart as well as your feet.