Occidental hosts outdoor variety show Chautauqua Revue

What started out as a place to clown around for one West County man has turned into an annual late summer variety show of music, storytelling and old school gee-whiz entertainment.

The Chautauqua Revue at Occidental Arts & Ecology Center Sept. 10-13 offers two hours of vaudeville acts running the gamut from strange to wonderful, offered up on a funky stage beneath the branches of oak and bay trees on the banks of a creek. The audience sits on hand-made benches.

It started out as a way to give my clown troupe - Clowns on a Stick - a place to do new material. It was my Field of Dreams. Built a Theater and Do a Show,” said James Pelican, the founder and producer of the Chautauqua Review, now in its 13th year.

The facilities manager at The Occidental Arts & Ecology Center, an intentional community in the hills above Occidental known for its abundance food gardens, Pelican has built up the revue from one night two three nights, and a children’s matinée. Saturday night already is sold out.

This year’s show features a magician and sword swallower, and author and itinerant entertainer Eliot Fintushel playing the Theremin, a strange electronic instrument controlled without touching that makes a weird other-worldly sound familiar to fans of 1950s sci-fi movies. He’s been known to play Debussy on the Theremin.

There are two acts that are constants from year to year: his clown group and Big B and his City Slickers, a Bay Area band headed up by Pelicans old college buddy Ben Buettner who can and will play pretty much anything.

Mistress of Ceremonies is the clown Wisteria McBrillcream.

“It’s become a really great time. The setting is super special at the bottom of the North Garden. People have to walk through a field of flowers to get to our hand-build, quirky stage. So we have the audience n our pocket before we sing our first note,” Pelican said.

Chautauqua’s were a popular form of populist entertainment in the rural United States more than a century ago, always combining entertainment with education.

The Occidental show stays within that tradition, said Pelican. This year’s show will be threaded through with a them of drought, hopefully in a way that raises awareness with a little laughter too, he added.

Pelican, a graduate of clown school, is a familiar performer in Sonoma County whose credits include shows with Cinnabar, Main Stage West and The 6th Street Playhouse.

This year’s review ends with a sing-along of Woody Guthrie’s “So long, it’s Been Good to Know You.” But The Chautauqua, said Pelican, will be back.

Evening shows Thursday and Friday at 7:30 p.m. are $29. The children’s matinée on Saturday Sept. 12 at 2 p.m. is $6 for kids, $8 to $15 for adults.

The OAEC is located at 15290 Coleman Valley Road, Occidental. For more information and tickets visit oaec.org or call 874-1557 ext. 101.

You can reach Staff Writer Meg McConahey at meg.mcconahey@pressdemocrat.com or 521-5204. On Twitter @megmcconahey/