The newly released Improv Everywhere, Volume 4 DVD includes every prank, flash mob, and work of street theater by Improv Everywhere from 2009 to 2011.

Improv Everywhere Volume 4 features all of the missions from the last three years. See all of our new videos in DVD quality, along with commentary tracks, and special features. Hours of footage!

Last December Al Jaffee, the 90 year old creator of the Mad Magazine fold-in, performed his first-ever live reading from “Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions,” another long-running Mad feature (video). The reading occurred at HEEB Storytelling: Lives Comics Edition at Joe’s Pub in New York City, hosted by HEEB Magazine.

This year Jaffee released a compendium of 410 Mad Magazine fold-ins, and was interviewed by Upright Citizens Brigade.

Thanks to Jeff Newelt for the tip!

photo by Seth Kushner

Aung Zaw-Oo (AKO) is back with his 2011 showreel featuring him performing incredible stunts and tricks.

See Previously: AZO Showreel 2010, Amazing Stunts and Tricks by Aung Zaw Oo

via The Awesomer

“The Narrative of Victor Karloch” by special effects artist Kevin McTurk is a combined film and puppet theater live performance about a Victorian ghost hunter (trailer). The production features 30 inch tall banraku-style rod puppets, a variety of digital, analog, and live special effects, and music by Zoë Keating. The production will appear at the 2012 Heather Henson Presents: Handmade Puppet Dreams.

images via Kevin McTurk/Spirit Cabinet Productions

Japanese performance artist Kenichi Kanazawa taps a rubber mallet on a steel table to make sound vibrations that create beautiful transforming sand patterns. Using a scientific sound-visualizing process called Cymatics, he is able to manipulate the complex sand shapes by making frequencies visible through these vibrations: the higher the frequency, the more complex the design.

via The Awesomer and Gakken

In July 2011, aerialist Seanna Sharpe performed on a “double-silk cloud swing” 285 feet above New York City’s Williamsburg Bridge during rush hour train traffic. Filmmaker Ronen Verbit captured her high-flying act along with her subsequent arrest and created a video merging the crowd’s footage with his own.

Romanian-born Ioan Veniamin Oprea created a very unique one-person act in the shape of a rainbow Human Slinky costume. The costume, and a five-year contract to perform in it, is currently for sale on Ebay for $1 million dollars with the tagline: “The stuff that nightmares are made of”.

The most unusual, astonishing, unique and creative act of its kind in the world to have graced these pages…Almost beyond description. People ask….what is it? What are we watching?….Absolutely fascinating to say the least… People everywhere are completely astonished and baffled at the act… Veniamin’s his name…comes from Romania and live in Orlando Florida. With appearances on TV Shows all over the World and mystifying audiences everywhere you just have to see him perform….

via Doobybrain.com

image via Veniamin Shows

Mark Day shot video of Sterling Johnson, The Bubblesmith performing on the Dark Kabaret at Masquerotica last Saturday in San Francisco.

Beatboxer Darren Foreman aka Beardyman performing at this year’s Just For Laughs Festival Festival in Montreal.

Here’s a series of Beardyman “Unshaved” performances at Udderbelly.

In May Beardyman made his US television debut on Conan.

Beardyman recently released his latest album I Done A Album.

Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey is an inspiring documentary film that follows master puppeteer Kevin Clash, the man behind beloved Sesame Street red monster character Elmo. The film was directed and produced by independent documentary filmmaker Constance Marks and has started playing in theatres.

Beloved by children of all ages around the world, Elmo is an international icon. Few people know his creator, Kevin Clash, who dreamed of working with his idol, master puppeteer Jim Henson. Displaying his creativity and talent at a young age, Kevin ultimately found a home on Sesame Street. Narrated by Whoopi Goldberg, this documentary includes rare archival footage, interviews with Frank Oz, Rosie O’Donnell, Cheryl Henson, Joan Ganz Cooney and others and offers a behind-the-scenes look at Sesame Street and the Jim Henson Workshop.

David Bowie Enters the Andromeda Galaxy, the latest video by the San Francisco sketch comedy group Killing My Lobster, who by the way are looking for help raising money for a new home in San Francisco.

Killing My Lobster has finally found the perfect location to build a premier theater space. A project which brings to an end 15 years of wandering from theater rental to theater rental. The space resides in the heart of San Francisco’s Mission district on 24th and Mission St.

The new venue would be a creative hub to hundreds of artists including actors, writers, choreographers, musicians, stand-up comedians and whoever else requires a theater for their production. Killing My Lobster also needs a versatile work space to allow them to expand the classes they make available to the community.

“Speakeasy Dollhouse” is an elaborate project by Cynthia von Buhler that tells the story of her grandfather’s unsolved Depression era murder in New York City, using dolls and dioramas to recreate the circumstances of his death. “Speakeasy Dollhouse” will be released in October as both a book and play. Von Buhler is raising funds for the project on Kickstarter.

SPEAKEASY DOLLHOUSE is a biographical tale of murder, mafia, and intrigue in New York City told with handmade dolls and sets, in conjunction with an immersive play.

via Gothamist

photos by Cynthia von Buhler

Here are a few photos from Wednesday’s 4chan Variety Show at Housing Works in SoHo. The event was in celebration of the release Epic Win for Anonymous: How 4chan’s Army Conquered the Web by Cole Stryker (see previous post).

Photo Gallery: 4chan Variety Show

The Conjuring Arts Research Center is a research library in New York City dedicated to performance magic in its many forms. In addition to its collection of 12,000 rare books on magic, the center teaches magic tricks to schoolchildren with its Hocus Pocus program. Cool Hunting recently visited the center and interviewed its founder, Bill Kalush (video).

Nestled in a hidden location in midtown Manhattan, the Counjuring Arts Research Center is ground zero for illusionists and historians alike. The Center provides a range of services, publishes scholarly journals, and teaches hospital-bound kids magic through its Hocus Pocus program. It is perhaps best known as home to one of the largest known collections of historic books, letters, and other media, which the center makes available online.

via Cool Hunting

Brooklyn Spaces is a wonderful online running compendium focusing on Brooklyn culture and creativity. Oriana Leckert started Brooklyn Spaces as a way to profile the “unique, weird and fascinating places” located in Brooklyn, New York. Some recent posts include interesting, in-depth profiles on small businesses and collectives like Breuckelen Distilling Company, the Metropolis Soap Company and The Schoolhouse.

photos by Maximus Comissar

poster by Molly Crabapple

Gemini and Scorpio present The Black & White & Red All Over Ball, a 4th birthday and fundraiser for Coilhouse Magazine, takes place August 21 at Red Lotus Room in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Laughing Squid guest blogger SF Slim is the evening’s Master of Ceremonies who will be introducing an amazing selection of music and performances.

Inclusive and elegant, weird and sincere, Coilhouse Magazine is “A Love Letter to Alternative Culture.” For four full years –both as a high gloss print publication and a daily-updated website– Coilhouse has served as a vibrant international hub for DIY expression and outrageous bohemian creativity. This will be the first full-fledged Coilhouse party in three years, the first NYC event in Coilhouse history, and an official birthday celebration.

Enter into a secret lush cabaret room deep in the heart of Brooklyn, to revel in live music, dance and circus performances and dance to rollicking sets from DJ luminaries. Aerialists…fire…projections… dadaist spectacle…surprises galore. Bid on silent auction items donated by Diamanda Galas, Molly Crabapple, Jessica Joslin, Paul Komoda, Jason Levesque & Xeni Jardin, Century Guild, Disinfo, PUREVILE!, Kate O’Brien, Nicole Aptekar, and Asha Beta: a splendid array of autographed prints and books, and one-of-a-kind art objects, as well as a full set of the out-of-print, highly collectible back-issues of Coilhouse. Plus, the first glimpse of Coilhouse Issue Six, and an opportunity to pre-order it at a discount.

“Let Me Tell You About The Dream I Had” is an extensive exhibition by art collective Miss Rockaway Armada, currently nearing completion at the Philadelphia Art Alliance. The exhibition will feature a flotilla of floating sculptures on the Schuylkill River, two parades, musical and theatrical performances, a bicycle-powered ferris wheel by Paul the Plumber of Cyclecide, as well as art installations at the Art Alliance gallery. The Armada has a history of making nautical art pieces, starting with a convoy of raft sculptures that floated down the Mississippi in 2006.

“Let Me Tell You About The Dream I Had” premieres on August 20 with a flotilla and performance on the Schuylkill River, at the Walnut Street Dock in Philadelphia.

photo by Tod Seelie

photo via AP/Rudi Blaha

photo via EPA

photo via The Telegraph

photo via Getty

photo via Reuters

The Seebühne, a massive floating stage on Lake Constance, is the centerpiece of the annual Bregenz Festival in Austria. The stage hosts elaborate opera productions that are famous for their extraordinary set designs, for audiences of up to 7000. The Bregenz Festival is currently underway, with performances through August 21.

via Fox Magrathea Circe & Bean Gala

Miss Heather Holliday is a lovely lady who has learned the practical art of orally-ingesting bladed weapons, and she makes a point of showing it off, often. We like sword swallowers around here, and Heather’s definitely got the skills and charm of a natural stage performer. This interview is from 2008 (from ex-Wonkette producer Elizabeth Glover).

photo by edenpictures

Heather has performed at Coney Island for years and is now part of traveling troupe of vaudevillians known as Pretty Things Peepshow (who are on tour right now). She’s also on Twitter. Here’s an excerpt of her bio on Coneyisland.com:

A practicing Mormon, Heather was struck twice by lightning as a young girl growing up in Utah. While this had a profound effect on her faith, she also discovered she had the ability to absorb tremendous amounts of electricity, which bled off her fingertips, or even her tongue.

photo by romasteel

I’ve been documenting sideshow culture vintage and contemporary on my Sugarchurch blog, check it out if you dig this.

Here’s another interview with Heather…

And a video profile of The Coney Island Sideshow School featuring Heather, who teaches (taught?) there…

via Sugarchurch

French filmmaker FKY documented the latest stunning performance by Royal de Luxe, a puppet theater company notorious for its giant marionettes. Three puppets–a girl, a man, and a dog–descended on Nantes, France in May for a three day street performance. The main character, Little Giant, is an 18 foot tall, 1700 pound girl puppet operated from a crane. Her hair is made from the tails of 70 horses.

We’ve written about Royal de Luxe performances previously:

- Royal de Luxe in Guadalajara
- Royal de Luxe Presents The Berlin Reunion
- Royale De Luxe Giant Deep Sea Diver Visits Nantes Searching For His Lost Niece
- Royal de Luxe Presents Le Calmar Geant a Retropropulsion

via Kuriositas

photos by FKY

Steve Martin so young that his hair’s not grey. Don’t believe it? Believe it. Martin became a writer for The Smothers Brothers Show at the age of 21, and he was part of their Emmy for best TV comedy writing in 1969 on a staff that also included Rob Reiner. He learned his magic chops by working at the Main Street Magic store in Disneyland.

Former San Francisco, now NYC-based theater troupe Banana Bag & Bodice have made Olde English Newe again, with a very modern interpretation of the epic poem Beowulf as a staged “SongPlay” complete with 7-piece onstage band. Next month they bring it all back home, taking their award-winning adaptation Beowulf – A Thousand Years of Baggage across the pond to Eurpoe for performances at the Kilkenny Arts Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. It’s a big leap for a small theater company, but the show’s success has gotten ever more epic (heh.) each year since it was first performed.

With a fundraiser ongoing at Indie-Go-Go, they are well on their way. But before they get in front of Irish and Scotch audiences, they also have benefit nights planned this weekend in San Francisco (7/22) and New York City (7/23).

Poster by R. Black

You can see the full NYC lineup online for the show at the Abrons Arts Center: HOT SCANDINAVIAN NIGHTS! A Beowulf Benefit in NYC. There will also be a one-night-only performance in Brooklyn on August, 2nd.

BEOWULF – A Thousand Years of Baggage debuted in 2008 in Berkeley for which it won best new show in the Bay Area that year. It’s an original show with no connection to that recent movie version. Turns out there have been a LOT of adaptations of Beowulf in the more than a millennium since it was written–it is well established in the public domain.

Here’s an excerpt from the show, featuring the epic battle between Beowulf and Grendel, epically:

On the night of Thursday July 21st at The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis a world record will be set for saying the phrase “Opera has gone to the dogs,” because, well, it will have.

Tragedy on the Sea Nymph is a 10 minute silent film starring dogs who perform the romance and tragedy of clandestine lovers shipwrecked at sea. The film will be accompanied by five opera singers and the Cedar String Quartet. … (Plastic baggies will be provided.)

Tragedy on the Sea Nymph made it’s debut in LA in May of this year at Machine Project in Echo Park. It was written by Elizabeth Cline with music by Lewis Pesacov.

Elizabeth Cline is an artist and curator living in Los Angeles. During the day, she works as a Curatorial Associate at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles where she produces artists projects in the Public Engagement Artist in Residence program. At night, she dreams and writes of the lives of dogs, roses and romance. Her next projects include a follow-up dog operetta set during the Gold Rush era.

via Maddow Blog

Magician Rahat Hussein performs illusions for unsuspecting workers at drive-thru establishments. Highlights include the floating money trick, fire wallet, and drive thru rocky raccoon.

via I Heart Chaos

Tiki Oasis 11, South of the Border, a four-day long celebration of all things tiki, takes place August 18-21, 2011 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in San Diego. Produced by Baby Doe and Otto Von Stroheim of Tiki News, this year’s Tiki Oasis is a “Retro Tijuana-style Tiki Party” complete with a “Burros, Black Velvets and Other Delights” art show, a Whipped Cream Girl Pin-up Photo Contest (à la Herb Alpert’s Whipped Cream and Other Delights album cover), and lots of great performances, music and vendors. If you are headed to the event, don’t miss rockabilly crooner, Big Sandy, perform with the lucha libre mask-wearing surf rockers, Los Straitjackets, as that’s sure to be a great show.

Event tickets are still available but Crowne Plaza Hotel rooms are sold out.

illustration by Derek

photo by Big Sandy

See also:

- Tiki Oasis 10 Extravaganza

- Tiki Oasis 9, Tiki Surf City -

- Tiki Oasis 8, Voodoo Vacation on Zombie Island

- Tiki Oasis 7, Hawaii A Go Go In San Diego

- Tiki Oasis 6