'Triple Espresso' offers a comedic, vaudeville buzz
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"I've been in funny shows before but nothing quite like this," Brian Kelly says of "Triple Espresso," now playing at CLO Cabaret.
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"Triple Espresso" became the longest running show in the history of Iowa when a 10-week gig stretched to 68 weeks and more than 550 performances.
Des Moines must have been in need of laughter, and lots of it.
Brian Kelly, one of the trio who has brought "Triple Espresso" to CLO Cabaret, was asked to describe the show -- is it a comedy? A musical comedy? A buddy comedy?
The best way to put it, he said, is "anything for a laugh."
Back in 1995, a comedic magician (Bill Arnold), a musician (Michael Pearce Donley) and physical comic (Bob Stromberg) got together over comedy and cooked up this idea of a vaudeville-inspired comedy trio who have suffered "an epic fail," as Mr. Kelly puts it, on a national talk show in the 1970s (remember "The Mike Douglas Show"?).
- What: CLO Cabaret at the Cabaret at Theater Square, Downtown.
- When: Through Jan. 9. 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays-Fridays; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays; 1 p.m. Thursday matinees Sept. 30, Oct. 28, Nov. 18 and Dec. 16.
- Tickets: $34.75-$44.75; 412-456-6666 or clocabaret.com.
The show opened in Minnesota in 1996 and caught the eye of its eventual executive producer, Dennis Babcock, who had worked for the Guthrie Theater there and was managing director of the Pittsburgh Public in the early '80s. "Triple Espresso" has since wound its way through more than 50 theaters in six countries.
Mr. Kelly has been on "Triple's" caffeine high for eight years and 1,500 performances, playing towns from Bolingbrook, Ill., to Dublin. He says that makes him a slacker compared to the show's originators -- Mr. Arnold, Mr. Donley and Mr. Stromberg -- who continue to perform and hone the show year after year.
As Bobby Bean, Mr. Kelly plays the schemer for whom "the next prospect is the excitement. It doesn't matter if it's good or bad, it's a prospect, and that's the thing." The magician Buzz Maxwell, played here by Christopher Hart, "is always hesitant to jump in, but he always does, and he always regrets it." Hugh Butternutt (Dane Stauffer) is the mediator of the group.
Mr. Kelly was won over by a particular scene.
"I've been in funny shows before but nothing quite like this," he said. "My favorite thing in the show is the shadow puppet routine. I remember going to see the show when I was going to be auditioning for it eight years ago and watching it going I can do that, I can learn the guitar, I can certainly do that. And then I saw the shadow puppets and I was like, 'I have to do this show.'
First Published September 16, 2010 12:00 am
