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Show flaunts talents of all types

VAUDEVILLE: Benefit will take audience back in time with a bit of everything – burlesque, acrobatics, music and more

MOLLY GILMORE; For The Olympian | • Published September 24, 2009

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With acts ranging from comedy and burlesque to acrobatics and chin-balancing, Lord Franzannian's Royal Olympian Spectacular Vaudeville Show isn't just for seasoned performers.

While host Elizabeth Lord is a veteran actor and storyteller, and music will be provided by members of the well-known Tune Stranglers, there are also novices in the show in an attempt to revive the glory days of vaudeville.

Lord is particularly excited about all the burlesque happening this year.

“There’s been an upswing in the popularity of burlesque lately, so there will be four different burlesque numbers as part of the vaudeville show, which is something that happened back in the day,” she said.

“That makes me happy. Every time there’s a traditional element that comes to my show, I’m happy.”

But last year, it wasn’t dancing girls who stole the show. It was strongman Sam Miller, who hadn’t even planned to audition.

“I just wandered past and saw there was an audition going on,” he said. “I had just gotten off a bus.”

Miller, one of only two performers returning to this year’s show, doesn’t lift weighty objects in the conventional way. He balances them on his chin. Last year, the objects he balanced included a stool, a wheelbarrow and even a lawn mower.

This year, he’ll have something new. “It’s some sort of water craft,” he said.

The performance provoked dropped jaws and gasps, but equally amazing is the rest of his story.

Asked if he’d performed before last year, Miller said, “I used to be homeless, and I used to do it for spare change.

“I had a hell of a time asking anybody for money. I could balance stuff on my chin, though, so I started doing it and people would give me money.”

Miller, who now works at Olympia Salvage, has been balancing things on his chin since he was 14 years old.

“It started with my dad at a bus stop,” he said.

“We’d be bored, and we’d see who could balance a stick on his finger the longest. One day, I put it on my chin, and I realized I could balance stuff on my chin.”

If Miller’s balancing act sounds a little risky, it won’t be the only act with an element of danger.

“We have a woman this year who dances with broadswords and daggers,” Lord said.

“They are hefty things. This woman came to try out, and she was whipping the sword around as though it were a baton.”