“Extreme Variety”
Tonight at 8 on WNBC/Ch. 4
I’VE never tried to deny it, even though I should. I’m hopelessly addicted to dopey
circus-y variety shows – the dopier, the better.
The more insane the acts, the better I like them. Take me to Cirque du Soleil, and leave me there, and I’ll die happily of peanut poisoning.
Leave me at Ringling Brothers and chances are good I’ll try to run away with the circus, although I can’t stand the hairdos. If you, too, just haven’t been the same since Topo Gigo went the way of all flesh, and freak shows became politically incorrect, you may enjoy “Extreme Variety” as much as I did.
This NBC special taped at Le Theater des Arts (or as the announcer calls it “Theater Day Arts”), at the Paris Hilton in Las Vegas, (which is as absurd as imagining the New York Hilton in Paris), is a conglomeration of a lot of nut job acts from Vegas and even one from Coney Island.
The variety special hour (as opposed to “this very special hour” which in TV parlance usually means one of the characters gets cancer or becomes gay) is hosted by “Ed” star Tom Cavanugh, who you’ll be happy to know only hosts the show and doesn’t get cancer or come out at the circus.
The guy is a very, very good host and there are some truly wonderful, insane acts that can only make you wonder how the hell someone ever figures out that they’d be good at say, swallowing hangers, eating light bulbs, or pushing their entire body through a tennis racket.
Cavanaugh, who is truly likeable when he’s being himself, seems to get a genuine kick out of the insanity. He’s not condescending, he doesn’t try to be a hipster making fun, and he’s not ashamed to be hosting a show where a guy eats light bulbs. I like that in a person.
The acts include, yes, Todd Robbins, the light bulb eater from Coney Island who also sticks a balloon up his nose, which I also like in a person – not necessarily in a date, but in a circus act, definitely.
There’s Rubber Boy who puts himself through a tennis racket, (must be tungsten).
There’s extreme archer Paan Moretti, who has really, really extreme hair and shoots an apple off his own head by shooting six crossbows which ricochet off one another – don’t ask.
There’s a guy who swallows seven swords and has a wire hanger for dessert (clearly he’s not the son of Joan Crawford. And a nose singer.
There’s even a cat act. No, not white tigers. House cats that do the same tricks as the giant cats do, which made me very happy. One of them even suspends himself by his front legs on parallel bars and walks to the other side. How can you not love something like that?
I realize that I will probably be the only critic outside of a Communist country who will love this show – and to that I say “Nyet and who cares?”