SHOWCASE 

Thursday, 11/17/2011, 8:00-11:00 pm 

Our new RUMOURS Variety SHOWCASE, now at The Lodge (1600 Ocean Park Blvd.) in Santa Monica, spotlights five invited, featured performers in shorter sets on one Thursday night each month. Our aim is to inspire, amuse, delight, and entertain you. Performers are carefully selected for their creativity, dedication, passion and excellence at what they do, and each program will variously include singers, musicians, spoken word/literary performers, comics, dancers, and actors/actresses with original theatre pieces. We want you to come and make an evening of it in a supper club/dinner theatre/concert atmosphere. Each performer on these programs is there for a reason and is very much worth seeing. Tickets are $20 for dinner/show (see full dinner details below). Reservations are available. Admission to the show (only) is $10. There is a full bar. There is a stage with professional lighting and all of the sightlines are excellent. Free parking is available behind the Lodge, or in the parking lot across the street.

Enter from the front of the building. 

DAVID FRANCO has been working professionally as an actor, writer, and director in film, television, and theater for over eighteen years. He’s also been seen doing stand-up and sketch comedy throughout Los Angeles. His television credits include 24, Alias, ER, Action, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer to name a few. David is also a member of the award-winning Elephant Theatre Company. Some of his training includes The American Academy Of Dramatic Arts, The Royal Academy Of Dramatic Arts, South Coast Repertory Theater, Second City, and The Actors Gang, as well as work with exceptional actor/teachers such as Fiona Shaw, Peter Hall, Alan Rickman, Larry Moss, and Ann Randolph, with whom he has recently been working to create parts of his one-person show. Tonight he will be exploring a piece from this work-in-progress. David opens our show from 8:00-8:30 pm. Arrive early for a great seat; you do not want to miss him!

ADELE BEEMAN has been singing professionally since the age of 14. Critics have described her voice as ‘liquid gold.’ Adele embraces all genres and loves all styles of music, but has a keen sensibility and particular affinity for jazz and blues. Early in her career (in those antidiluvian days before the advent of the Internet) she opened for such greats as Sarah Vaughan, jazz cornetist Nat Adderly, James Brown and comedians Jay Leno, Robin Williams and David Letterman. Her career as a singer includes television variety shows and concert performances throughout the United States and abroad. She has appeared at some of the most historic venues in Los Angeles, including the Hollywood Palladium, the Troubadour, the Whisky a Go Go and the Cinegrill at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. After taking a long hiatus from the limelight, she has returned to the stage, live performance, and recording. You can find a video of Adele singing Horace Silver’s ‘Peace’ on YouTube and you can become a fan on Reverbnation. Her new CD of original songs is titled ‘Jazz, God & Other Stuff’ and it will be available at the beginning of 2012. It is Adele’s desire to share her gift and her original songs in order to brighten and enlighten. Adele and her group perform from 8:30-9:00 pm.

RICH FERGUSON has performed live across the U.S. and has been heard on many radio stations, including WBAI in New York City, KCRW and KPFK in Southern California, and on World Radio. He has shared the stage with Patti Smith, Exene Cervenka, Loudon Wainwright, T.C. Boyle, Bob Holman, and many other esteemed writers and musicians. He has performed on The Tonight Show, at the Redcat Theater, the NYC International Fringe Festival, the DocMiami International Film Festival, The Knitting Factory (NYC & LA), the Bowery Poetry Club, the SXSW Music Festival, Stephen Elliott’s “Rumpus,” the Henry Miller Library, and with UK-based poetry collective One Taste, as well as giving performances and lectures at various California universities. Rich is also a featured performer in the film, What About Me? with Michael Stipe, Michael Stipe, k.d. lang, Krishna das, and others. He has studied poetry with Allen Ginsberg, and fiction with Aimee Bender and Sid Stebel. He is a regular contributor and poetry editor to the online literary journal, The Nervous Breakdown. His spoken word/music videos “Human Condition” and “We Voice Sing” will be featured at the Vancouver Visible Verse Video Poetry Festival in November, 2011, and his “All The Times” video (all of these are available on YouTube) was featured at the Valley Film Festival in October, 2009. In Fall 2011 and early 2012, Ferguson will be published in various collections released by Uphook Press, TNB Press and Smith Magazine. Tonight he will be appearing with guitarist/bassist Bo Blount, his bandmate from We Voice Sing, from 9:00-9:30 pm.

NICOLE GORDON is one of those truly unique artists whose talents effortlessly embrace a variety of genres including pop, Americana, folk, rock, and soul. Originally hailing from Philadelphia, she has emerged on the Los Angeles musical scene as a highly-regarded singer, songwriter, and session vocalist. Her clear, soulful voice is at one moment a commanding powerhouse, and in the next hauntingly exquisite, while yet keeping her audience attuned to the sentiment of the song. Her songs have found their way into many independent films (Gaia, Jack and Bobby) and television shows (Brothers and Sisters, Charmed, Everwood, Felicity, Smallville, CSI–Miami & New York and others as instantly recognizable). Nicole has written and recorded with legendary songwriter Gerry Coffin (‘Will You Love Me Tomorrow,’ ‘Natural Woman’) and Mike Stoller of the legendary songwriting team Leiber & Stoller (’Hound Dog,’ ‘Stand By Me‘). She works regularly with Emmy Award-winning and nominated composers Ernest Troost and Blake Neely on film and television projects, as well as with numerous other composers and songwriters. She has shared the stage and performed with such notable singer/songwriter talents as Colin Hay, Kaki King, Lucinda Williams, Sophie B. Hawkins and Shaun Colvin, as well as having had the great fortune to work and play with some of the best musicians in the world. Tonight she will be performing songs from her latest CD release, the moving Songs of Shiloh, and others. Nicole will be playing and singing between 9:30-10:00 pm.

The B.O.L.T. was formed in late 2008 by charismatic front man and lead singer The Other Deepak, who also functions as songwriter/composer as well as violinist for the band; lead guitarist Brandon Fox, and drummer/percussionist Christo Pellani. With diverse influences and musical backgrounds, including Christo’s time spent touring the world with the Australian pop band Air Supply, the band spent months developing a sound that was unique and palatable for mainstream markets as well as for indie and underground sub-cultures. With several different formations of band members over the ensuing two years, they finally locked in the perfect combination in January, 2011 when they reunited with old friend and bass player Nico Barry. Currently based in Los Angeles, they have also have developed followings in San Diego, Miami, Baltimore, Washington D.C., New York, and other neighboring regions. With influences ranging from Radiohead, Talking Heads, Prince, Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Buckley, Led Zeppelin, and Coldplay, their sound is defined by magnetic vocal melodies, thought-provoking lyrics, ecstatic rhythms, and the searing sounds of electric violin and guitar. They are also known to write new songs in the moment during a live stage performance, connecting directly with the audience and making each concert a unique and interactive experience. The B.O.L.T. is a band on the rise if not on the run, and they are a lot of fun to see and hear. They should not in any case be missed. The B.O.L.T. will close our show, rockin’ us into the night starting at 10 pm.

 General Admission tickets to the show are $10 only.

*18-and-above.

*****DINNER UPDATE: The Lodge’s resident chef, Tony, got a full-time job elsewhere (and congrats to him). However, he is consequently no longer available to cook for events at the Lodge, including for SHOWCASE. Several close dinner options are available, however, for those who want to eat during or before the show. (As we are now not cooking for this event, it’s okay if you want to step out and bring something back into the venue to eat at your table.) Just a few doors down from the Lodge on the same side of the street is a lovely restaurant called Thyme. Those in the know in the neighborhood also patronize Bob’s Market at the opposite end of the block, which has an excellent, inexpensive takeout deli. You can also grab pizza by the slice from Grigorio, closer yet to the Lodge. For those of you who feel like walking, there is Café Bolivar at 1741 Ocean Park Blvd., which is two blocks down on the opposite side of the street. (Give our greetings to Alejandro.) We do ask that you do not bring alcohol onto the premises, as The Lodge has a full bar. Please tip Ashley and Pam, your bartenders.

 

YOU are invited. Music, Food, Theatre, Comedy. A Little Magic in the Night!

 

Presented by JOE STAATS at:

THE LODGE, 1600 Ocean Park Blvd., Santa Monica

(Southeast Corner of 16^th & Ocean Park) 

FREE PARKING behind building or in lot directly across the street.