2013 Artists, Performers, Cast & Other Such Nonsense
Presenting your Edwardian Ball Creators & Co-Hosts
ROSIN COVEN & VAU DE VIRE SOCIETY
Performing an Original Presentation of Edward Gorey’s classic, “The Doubtful Guest”
And Featuring… in Los Angeles
Jill Tracy | Dark Garden | DJ Xian (LADEAD) | Delachaux
Shakti Bliss | Marisa Lenhardt | Shovelman | Emcee Vegas E. Trip
Leisure Listening Lounge hosted by SuperTall Paul Newman
Owl Tree Healings – Tarot & Tinctures
Our Los Angeles Portrait Booth by Darren Eskandari
And much more in store…!
And THANK YOU to our STUPENDOUS PERFORMERS who joined us in San Francisco this year!
Wanderlust Circus Orchestra | Shotgun Wedding Quintet | The John Bros. Piano Company | Kinetic Steam Works
Miz Margo | Squid Inc. | Shadow Circus Creature Theatre | The Fertile Void
DJ Fact.50 | The Klown | Emcee Kingfish of the Hubba Hubba Revue
And hope you didn’t miss…
The Museum of Wonders (both nights)
Mystic Midway (Friday night in the Ballroom, Saturday in the Lodge)
Trickster’s Isle of Noises Medicine Show (Both nights in the Museum!)
Our incomparable Vendor Bazaar & Piano Saloon (both nights)
Bicycle-Powered Carnival Rides by Cyclecide (Friday only!)
Ballroom Dancing (Saturday only!)
Prof. Phineas J. Flockmocker III F.H.S.G. (both nights)
Our Famous Portrait Booth (Saturday only!)
Art Curation and Installation by Will Chase
ROSIN COVEN
EDWARDIAN HOUSE BAND & FOUNDERS OF THE EDWARDIAN BALL
Rosin Coven, your Edwardian Ball Hosts, dreamt up this spectacle long ago in a dust-covered martini bar in the middle of a bleak desert. They proudly continue the tradition of bringing a Gorey story to life each year in partnership with Vau de Vire Society. Nine musicians blend violin, two cellos, bass, guitar, harp, vibraphone, trombone, trumpet, drums & lush vocal harmonies in a strangely beautiful mix of classical, jazz, chamber, tango, klezmer, sultry lounge, theatrical cabaret, and cinematic dreams. Also known as the “World’s Premiere Pagan Lounge Ensemble,” they continue to surprise even themselves.
Appearing: Saturday night SF, Los Angeles
VAU DE VIRE SOCIETY
CO-HOSTS OF THE BALL
Spawned from the depths of San Francisco’s thriving Dance and Circus sub-cultures, the Vau de Vire Society has ravaged and titillated the live entertainment scene causing jaws to drop in awe and admiration around the Bay Area and beyond. This Avant-Cabaret community consists of classically-trained dancers, some of the nations most acclaimed acrobats, aerial artists, contortionists and circus side-show acts, an array of unique fire-performers, a handful of thespians and a barrage of the most enticing go-go’s. The group has been cross-pollinating genres by collaborating with an eclectic variety of world-renowned musicians and Dj’s in creating original stage shows and festival productions for the non- pretentious. Most notable collaborators include Cirque du Soleil, San Francisco Symphony, Peaches, the Alkaline Trio, The Dresden Dolls, Fishbone, Rosin Coven, Crystal Method and many other widely respected artists.
Appearing: Friday & Saturday night SF, Los Angeles
JILL TRACY “Belle of the Ball”
Hailed by LA Weekly as “the cult darling of the underworld,” “Belle of the Ball Jill Tracy has been proclaimed by National Public Radio as “a Bay Area treasure…like Grafeo coffee, Scharffen Berger chocolates, and fine Napa Cabernets.” She has cast her spell onstage at the Edwardian Ball nearly since its inception over a decade ago, and is thrilled at the continuous growth and popularity of the event. Her signature concoction of dark parlour and post classical piano, haunting lyrics and seductive style creates a sound that conjures up glamorous shades of dark cabaret, early cinema, and film noir— but with a distinctively modern flair. She calls this devastatingly beautiful place she inhabits “The Elegant Side of the Netherworld,” She has collaborated with legendaries including David J (Bauhaus,) Steven Severin (Siouxsie and the Banshees,) Jello Biafra, and even famed author Lemony Snicket. And Jill Tracy has just made history as the first musician to be awarded a grant to compose music inside the famed Mutter Museum in Philadelphia, the nation’s foremost collection of medical oddities. Her recent spontaneous “channeling” of music in peculiar locales have featured haunted castles, decrepit gardens, abandoned asylums, and forgotten mansions. Her Musical Seance project with Atlanta cult violinist Paul Mercer (which incorporates cherished objects brought in by the audience) has garnered a collection of ardent fans from around the globe. Los Angeles Times has called her a “modern musical icon.”
Appearing: Saturday night SF, Los Angeles
www.jilltracy.com
twitter.com/jilltracymusic
DARK GARDEN CORSETRY
Dark Garden’s crew of dedicated corset makers, helmed by Autumn Adamme, has been making the world a curvier place to be since 1989, offering a safe space for people of all shapes and sizes to be fabulous. Their corsets, costumes and gowns are world renowned for exceptional quality and fit, not to mention beauty.
Appearing: Saturday night SF, Los Angeles
DJ XIAN
Philosophies: Trancendalism, post-modernism, existentialism, gestalt psychology, morphic residence, Will, Becoming, archetype alchemy, deconstructionism, inhibitionalism, flow, doing the right thing, overcoming odds, socially functional antisocialist, ambiguity, absurdity, inversio verborum, pseudointellectual mastubatory sophistry, pseudosciences, asexuality, identity sans gender, reflecting others, metaphysical education, contradiction, stoicism, occult history, symbology, perceptual reletavism, masks, onion layering, logic, psyche division as coping mechanism, reaction formation, making people smile, destroy all illuminati, lucid dreamimg, neuro linguistic programming, dichotomy, resonance, transpersonal responsibility, autopilot modes, zero bullshit tolerance, catalyst, catalysis, psychotaxis, dissociation disassociation, manifestation, pragmatism, social duty, benevolence, golden rule, eastern vs. western, quantum vs. newtonian, dynamic entropy, windego, zen, taoism, self-determinism, the internetz, contradiction, synchronicity, net whoring, guilt, xeper, xepera, xeperu, etc ad nauseum.
Appearing: Los Angeles
DELACHAUX
DJ/Producer Delachaux is San Francisco’s sonic evocateur par excellence. His intoxicating style of pouring vintage samples and exotic orchestrations over a barrage of saucy beats has fused a wild carousel of voluptuous voodoo and body-quaking bass that reflect the dilated discos and carbonated cabarets of Barbary Coast nightlife and have made him one of the Edwardian Ball’s most cherished maestros.
Appearing: Friday & Saturday night SF, Los Angeles
SHAKTI BLISS
Shakti Bliss is a DJ, Performance Artist and Music Producer based out of Los Angeles twisting luscious old time swing and lounge tunes with fidgety uptempo house beats creating a genre of her own called “Dirty Electro Swing”. Her unique live mash-ups and remixes keep the dance floor swinging with a Vaudeville flair and unavoidable banging bass music. Dressed to the nines, Shakti Bliss exudes her flirtatiously addictive pleasure for 1930′s swing culture with a fun loving modern sexy edge. Think Betty Boop meets Burning Man with a ridiculously romantic ending.
Appearing: Saturday night SF, Los Angeles
MARISA LENHARDT
Marisa Lenhardt has sung with the San Francisco Opera, the Oakland East Bay Symphony, Chris Brubeck, and multiple times in recital with Frederica von Stade. At Burning Man she is known as the voice of David Best’s Temples and the Thunderdome. She performs regularly with the San Francisco Renaissance Voices, Lyric Theatre of San Jose, the Stanford Savoyards, and with Velocity Circus Troupe, where she sings music of her own composition, often from a trapeze. Recently, Francis Ford Coppola added a scene for her to sing in his film, Twixt.
Appearing: Saturday night SF, Los Angeles
SHOVELMAN
Shovelman is a junkyard beatnik, a shovel guitar wielding surrealist folk superhero. Armed with a collection of pawnshop effects pedals and an old barn-shovel turned slide-guitar, Shovelman plays ol’ fashioned folktronica-grooves looped straight out of the ground. The sounds of Mississippi deltablues from the electro-psychedelic future, collide with the antiquated rubble of lyrical one-man-band hoboetry. Shovelman has opened for Primus, Beats Antique and The Yard Dogs Roadshow performing on stages at festivals that include Lightning in a Bottle, Health and Harmony, Earthdance and The Oregon Country Fair. “Shovelman’s music would be playing on the radio if Tom Waits and Les Claypool ever went on a road trip together…… and were lost.” – Chip ‘So Wat TV’ Santa Cruz.
Appearing: Friday & Saturday night SF, Los Angeles
EMCEE VEGAS E. TRIP
Hailing from the Mighty plains of KonTiki and Chinotchka, an avid Ventriloquist to the needy, a pilot of the unnerving, Greedy with sheep-like abandon. A rebirth of ancient astronauts and Dean Martin’s drinking hand. Daring to dare the undare-able after being dared.
Singer, Actor, Comic, Patriarch to the Forgetful. Skullduggery never smelled so good.
Appearing: Saturday night SF, Los Angeles
Leisure Listening Lounge hosted by SuperTall Paul Newman
The Leisure Listening Lounge is a journey into another world. Like an amusement ride 12 people step in, buckle up, and take off together. Hosted by SuperTall Paul Newman a multi-instrumentalist, loop master, and street performer; the audience is reminded of the sacred yet fleeting nature of this very intimately shared moment. NOW, is really happening and will never happen this way again! A complete song is magically created as layers of instruments, beatboxing, and vocal harmonies build into a familiar tune instigating synchronized movement and unified smiles. Due to the quiet nature of the instruments used there is virtually no sound without the headphones. A strange yet marveling sight as spectators around the room eagerly wait their turn with curiosity as to what is happening on “the inside.” You have just experienced, and helped create, this moment in the Leisure Listening Lounge.
www.facebook.com/supertallpaul
Appearing: Los Angeles
OWL TREE HEALINGS Tarot & Tinctures
Owl Tree Healings offers spiritual guidance and insight into your life path by exploring your “root-system” through the ancient arts of Tarot and Therapeutic-Grade Essential Oils. Bonnie Duque, born into a family of intuits and healers, including a widely-respected Mexican-Indian Curandera (folk healer/shaman), has been a natural channel for psychic energy since childhood. Bonnie has been reading Tarot for 25 years and brings a depth of insight and personal wisdom to every session. Owl Tree Healings was featured at the 2012 Edwardian Ball (SF/LA), 2010 Noise Pop Treasure Island Music Festival and maintains an ongoing practice in San Francisco at EHS Pilates Studio.
Owl Tree Healings will be located in the Museum of Wonders and will offer Individual and Couples Sessions.
Appearing: Friday & Saturday night SF, Los Angeles
THE WANDERLUST CIRCUS ORCHESTRA
Crashes and reels like a calliope freight train off the rails, weaving miraculous feats of skill through the extravagant orchestral warp of our prodigious band. Tap-dancing sax king Shoehorn is featured alongside frenetic frontman William Batty, sweating and sighing through standards and originals in the Spike Jones fashion while the finest circus and vaudeville acts in the Pacific Wheel Circuit show off their explosive best. Also in the mix: members of Shanghai Woolies, 3 Leg Torso, AnnaPaul and the Bearded Lady, and Juan Prophet Organization. Bring grandma and the kids – all are welcome at the font of joyous panic.
Appearing: Friday night SF
SHOTGUN WEDDING QUINTET
Forming in 2003, The Shotgun Wedding Quintet has worked to create an illicit blend of hip hop and jazz that’s rooted in tradition, but is ever looking forward. Each member of the band is a multi-instrumentalist, making use of samplers and looping-techniques to create a wall of sound as band members shift from instrument to instrument building continuous layers of music and rhythm.
Appearing: Friday night SF
www.jazzmafia.com/family/shotgun-wedding-quintet
JOHN BROS. PIANO COMPANY
The unique original music of The John Brothers Piano Company (John Morgan and John Thatcher Boomer) has been described as ”a throwback sound that evokes the honky-tonk ghosts of Barbary Coast” (SF Chronicle). The explosive symphonic experience births from a simple combination of piano and clarinet reflective of BeBop Jazz, Contemporary pop, and russian classical music with an ever present sentimentality for the roaring 20s.
Starting as street performers in March of 2010, the John Brothers raw and aggressive performances maintained their street presence, while earning them a stage in The 2011 Monterey Jazz Festival.
Appearing: Friday & Saturday night SF, Los Angeles
KINETIC STEAM WORKS
Kinetic Steam Works is a Bay Area collective dedicated to steam powered kinetic art, repurposing the artifacts of clockwork modernity while creatively blending Art & Industry.
Appearing: Friday & Saturday night SF
MIZ MARGO
DJing in SF for 10+ years, spins everything from goth/deathrock to cabaret, to indiepop to electro, to ???, one of the founders/promoter/DJs of Dark Sparkle/After Dark, can be regularly heard around the city at clubs like Death Guild, Pop Roxx, Black Tuesdays and sundry other events….
Appearing: Saturday night SF
the fertile vOid
A new ensemble from Carrie Katz, founder of Rosin Coven, the fertile vOid brings together the lush strings of Squid, Inc, a string quartet made up of some of the Bay Area’s fiercest string players, the other-worldly sounds of multi-instrumentalist Laura Inserra, and the original compositions of Carrie Katz, aka Midnight Rose, artfully arranged by Darcy Rindt, violist of Squid, Inc. The uprisings of ferocious longings and hushed lamentings of secret inner demons radiate through the sounds of opulent strings, the hang (a Swiss instrument with tones ranging from flute to Gamelan to strings or a harp), percussion, voice, and haunting bells.
Appearing: Friday Night, SF (9:30pm in the Museum of Wonders)
SQUID INC
Squid Inc is made up of some of the Bay Area’s fiercest string players and will open your ears as the world of popular music dances with classical tradition. Fun, fiery, and fully engaging, we play our original tunes and original, unusual arrangements with a unique style and flare all our own. Come check us out live and you’ll hear the line between performer and audience dissolve, where everyone feels they are welcomed in with open tentacles – completely encouraged to act, react, and interact. Welcome to the future of the string quartet!
Appearing: Wednesday at St. George Spirits Soiree, and Friday night SF with The Fertile Void
SHADOW CIRCUS CREATURE THEATRE
Shadow Circus Creature Theatre is a puppetry troupe headed by creator and puppet maker Dave Haaz-Baroque. For three years, Dave and his production team have been bringing their giant creatures to the Edwardian Ball, mainly for the purpose of having them eat unwary performers. They provide creature effects for various local events as well as performing adult-geared puppet shows around the Bay Area. The puppets of Shadow Circus are regular guests on KOFY TV’s ‘Creepy KOFY Movie Time’ and the team has recently begun to branch out into short films and animation.
Appearing: Friday & Saturday night SF
DJ FACT.50
For the past ten years DJ FACT.50 has been working the bay area’s club and art house scene. He specializes in many different styles of music, but his current obsession is Electronic versions of classic old world genres of music. Such as Swing, Hot-Jazz, Tango, Ragtime, Cabaret, Neo-Classical, and many others.
THE KLOWN
Behold the o-so-utterly-delicatessenic bumps, grinds, bops, hops, plops and drops of The Klown, derivative red-nosed counter-revolutionary imitation of renaissance ape Boenobo the Klown, co-producer / resident DJ of Trapeze and Bohemian Carnival, ringmaster of Gooferman, The Klown Korps, and the Jolligood Seduction Company, and chief neurosurgeon at Lord Maybe’s Stuffed Pet Hospital. One drop of Wigglyworm Supersauce into The Klown’s nefarious macchina volantean Bobophone and off the buttocks go to the races, patent pending. Grab horn. Place bell on ear. Squeeze bulb. That’s third place talkin’.
EMCEE KINGFISH of the HUBBA HUBBA REVUE
Kingfish (Jim Sweeney) is a veteran San Francisco showman, impresario and social drinker. He’s also the producer of San Francisco’s biggest, wildest, burlesque & variety show, “Hubba Hubba Revue,” winner of the SFWeekly’s 2009 award for “Best Burlesque Show.” An ardent supporter of social gatherings on the grandest scale, Kingfish is a lifelong Edwardian, and wishes everyone a splendid time at this year’s Ball.
Appearing: Friday night SF
MYSTIC MIDWAY
A dedication to THE MYSTIC MIDWAY, The Pop-Up Bike Carnival as magical vessels wherein we embody as INFINITE PLAYERS!
We invite and invoke THEE MYTHIC MARVELOUS GATE to whimsy and strange delight!
We INVOKE THE MYSTIC FIRE and call upon our true magic & creative powers!
The Midway invites us to EMBODY as ALCHEMICAL agents upon The Mythic Stage where we may write our NEW STORIES!
May it be so…through creative collaboration, ensemble play, mytho-poetic invocation, reverence to our history-lineages-ancestors & allies and devotion to creative community!
Together, we step into the dreaming heart of The MARVELOUS NOW and unleash our magicks!
Appearing: Friday night SF in the Ballroom, Saturday night SF in the Lodge
TRICKSTER’S ISLE of NOISES MEDICINE SHOW
Trickster’s Isle of Noises is a place, a community, and a concept. Through Metaphonics (the metaphysics of sound) we blur the boundaries of Art and reality, Of interior and exterior soundscapes, and create opportunities for social connection through the sonic ethers and imagination.
Trickster Events specializes in crafting otherworldly, immersive Art experiences. In venues big and small, we weave together custom made props and set pieces; elaborately costumed, eccentric interactive performers, with themes and ideas often left out of the average social gathering, all wrapped up in a bow of mystery and whimsy.
tricksterevents.com/the-isle-of-noises.html
CYCLECIDE
Heavy Pedal Cyclecide Bike Rodeo is a club of alter-bike mechanics, mariachi-punk musicians and cycle crazed clowns who love building bikes and creating custom works of interactive art. Together we form a traveling pedal-powered carnival that is fun for people of all ages. The Heavy Pedal Cyclecide Bike Rodeo has been independently operated and touring for over ten years now. We travel in a converted school bus full of clowns and their alter-cycles and pull a trailer loaded with pedal-powered rides. We’ve toured across the United States and down into Mexico and have been featured performers at festivals such as Coachella, Stage Coach, Bumbershoot, Tour De Fat, Burning Man and Maker Faire, to name a few. We remain passionately devoted to the idea of the bicycle as a piece of interactive kinetic sculpture that can make music, breathe fire, even save the world!
Appearing: Friday night SF
PROF. PHINEAS J. FLOCKMOCKER III F.H.S.G.
Prof. Phineas J. Flockmocker III F.H.S.G. has expounded on his ideas at the Steampunk Museum in Anaheim, Nova Albion Steampunk Convention and The Great Dickens Fair. He brings to the world his unusual 19th century view of science, ‘Flockmocker Science’. With the aid of his two associates, Prof. Abner Perry and the chief financer of Flockmocker’s Moon Venture, Jaques Seraphin-Vaillincourt d’Auge, Professor Flockmocker intends to bring to today’s world, the world of tomorrow, today! And thus, thru Flockmocker Science, revolutionize civilization as we know it!
Appearing: Friday & Saturday night SF
L’EMPIRE DIABOLIQUE
L’Empire Diabolique is a Bay Area theatrical troupe dedicated to the re-enactment of a Victorian-era sideshow. They premiered in 2012 at the Great Dickens Christmas Fair and love to thrill and chill audiences with spectacles, amazements, amusements and the absurd.
DANGEROUS PUPPETS
Dangerous Puppets specializes in hand-carved wooden puppets with an edge. They present live shows, puppets of all sorts for sale and custom order, and stop motion animation videos.
“These puppets are dangerous.” -anonymous boy
“He’s heavy… But I like the symbolism.” -Tom Waits
“No! DON’T TOUCH IT!” -anonymous boy
WILL CHASE ARTS
Will Chase Arts has been responsible for the most eye-popping, mind-blowing, and visually-stimulating curated art shows known to humankind … at least in the Bay Area, anyway. Whether it’s in a formal gallery, an art event, or a knock-down-drag-out party, the galleries we create draw on any of the 1,500 artists in our database. And we’re not talking about the crap you find in 49 Geary, either … these are the best in local emerging artists that by all rights you should be hanging on the walls of your home, office, or prison cell.
Wondrous Performers from our Illustrious Past!!!
FLYNN CREEK CIRCUS
FLYNN CREEK CIRCUS is a rurally based circus-theatre company pushing traditional arts to an innovative edge. We strive to stimulate wonder and radically inspire the community be demonstrating disciplined artistic and athletic risk.
KLOWN KORPS KOLLECTIVE
Emerging in third place from the aftermath of the infamous Circus Metropolus blimp catastrophe of 2010, the Klown Korps Kollective specializes in immersive, interactive capers, custom-fit tomfoolery, and quasi-profound, unsanctioned acts of anti-terrorism (including the klown-fi band Gooferman). Honored as the first-ever circus troupe to be DARPA- and FDA-certified as 100% Klown, the Klown Korps is responsible for postponing the inevitable demise of planet Earth through trickery associated with the Mayan calendar, and for the signature hair-dos often associated with Trojan Vibrations. The Klown Korps will be supporting Friday night’s Edwardian World’s Faire as Midway operators, and policing Saturday’s Edwardian Ball in the form of nefarious and highly respectable Keyfstoner Kops (with their mobile Sensation Station precinct headquarters).
F’RISQUE
F’risqué was forged in the midst of San Francisco’s thriving creative metropolis. This eclectic group of professional performers has been classically trained in various forms of dance, theater and circus. Each artist strives to maintain their individuality while also engaging in the collaborative process, allowing for an intricate fusion that has evolved into a unique style. Off stage, this dynamic group of artists are also fitness professionals ranging from personal trainers, to Pilates instructors, to dance teachers. Blending their vast experience and varied expertise, F’risqué has become an intersection for ideas and creative expression. F’risqué’s ultimate goal is to entertain and inspire through the medium of dance.
THE FOSSETTES
The Fossettes are the fusion of a succubus, an Amazon priestess, and a pair of red-headed sirens. They have come together to channel the inspiring work of those who have come and passed before them, in particular the vision of Bob Fosse, from whom the group lovingly derives its name. The four original members (Erin Kraemer, Julianna Seligman, Elizabeth Castaneda, and Melissa Castaneda) hail from the four corners of the cosmos and have been collaborating since 2005. They began performing as the Fossettes in May of 2009 and have been dancing the nights away ever since.
THE DISPLAYED LABORS SIDESHOW
The Displayed Labors Sideshow has been entertaining and horrifying legions of people for over the last five years. Combining old school sideshow with an insatiable blood lust, founding members Courtney Crimson and Chi-Kitty hit the bay area like napalm. These two have single handedly set fire to the minds of many with a take no prisoners approach to audience interaction. Displayed Labors is notorious for revealing never before rehearsed acts of danger live and on stage, including their signature performance, “William Tell”. Armed with fury and a questionable suitcase, DLS promises to leave scars, not only on their bodies, but in the minds of many. If you have seen them once, you can not get enough. If you have never seen them, you will never forget them. Ladies and gentlemen…. Step into the sideshow.
MALVOYE THE MENTALIST
A piece of American history from side shows and traveling carnivals, Malvoye the Mentalist is a fully automated antique fortune telling booth, that shares versions and visions of the future. Malvoye’s powers of mentalism are summoned to give you your own very unique and astonishingly accurate fortune. Malvoye knows all, Malvoye sees all.