It’s the equivalent of spinning a globe, and with a blindfold on, letting your pointer finger glide along the globe until it can spin no further, then removing the blindfold, and booking a vacation to wherever your finger has just landed- completely surprising, definitely wild, and infinitely entertaining. I was exposed to The Encyclopedia Show by a friend; because, well, that’s what friends do, they bring you to incredible shows that change your perspective on performance art, from the weird and very abstract to seeing it as a smart and quirky perspective on life. Now, as a friend, I’m telling you that you should go see The Encyclopedia Show October 23rd at 6:00pm in Mandel Hall 1131 East 57th Street.
Since that fateful September eve when I saw a variety of performances centered on the theme of the periodic table of elements, including poets, singers, actors, and actual scholars, I have been exposed to a few other episodes of the show, including Civil Wars, Wyoming, and Brains. What The Encyclopedia Show does so well, month after month, is make a fun game guessing which theme will be picked at random next. During the Chicago Humanities Festival sponsored event, the theme, in conjunction with the Festival, will be ROBOTS. In complying with The Encyclopedia Show’s rules, each invited performer that is asked to participate will be given a month to riff on their given topic such as “Helium,” or “Table,” that has to do with the theme, “Periodic Table of Elements.” It’s amazing to see what the artists can accomplish artistically in a month.
What can you expect from seeing this show? Well, the show brings a plethora of characters. Robbie Q Telfer, the curator and co-host of the show, is among the more balanced in the bunch. With Patrick the Intern, a shy kid who gets picked on by all the adults (in which I can relate (just kidding)), Dr. Armando Thomas-Chihuahua, a fast talking un-social savant, and the Jilted Emily Rose, a haiku spitting weeping woman, this show has a lot of vibrancy to it. And then there’s, “the Fact Checker,” played by Ian Belknap, one of Chicago’s great writers and solo-performance artists. The Fact Checker plays on the idea that you can’t exactly take what everyone’s saying on stage to the bank, including The Fact Checker. While each performer has written from their own experience on each topic, they also bring with it their own spin, an addition that makes the audience member get a peek into the head of the performer.
In the end, you would be doing yourself a disservice to not see this show. After I spent this whole time writing about the show and the whole time you’ve dedicated to reading this, we’ve already invested in it so much. Time to see your investment returns cash in. See The Encyclopedia Show: October 23rd, 2011 at 6:00pm in Mandel Hall, a part of Hyde Park Day during the Fall Festival.
Editor's Note: Stay tuned. In the coming weeks, we will reveal which CHF-affiliated artists and scholars will take the stage with Encyclopedia Show regulars on Oct. 23.
Mandel Hall: Oct. 23, 6:00 PM
Tags: Encyclopedia, performance, spoken word, poetry, slam, Telfer, Belknap, Emily Rose, random
