Category Archives: El Vez

Late Night ESPECTACULAR

THIS Saturday we are having a sexy late night Cinco de Mayo show.  Did we say show?

What we meant was…

LATE NIGHT ESPECTACULAR!!!

This party features oodles of gratuitously sexy performances,  luchadores clashing in a battle royale,  fantastic cerveza, and dancing!  This spectacle of spectacular is hosted by a trifecta of tremendous talent: the Mexican Elvis El Vez (Robert Lopez), the tallest caballero this side of the border “Big Mike” Geier, and Mexican blonde bombshell Christine Deaver.  See these three lo-co hosts as you’ve never seen them before: late at night and uncensored!

Joining in the saucy mayhem:

Late night shows are crazy popular and lines to enter can get long close to show time.  If you are attending, be muy inteligente and arrive here right before 11 PM.  Don’t forget your ID, you must be 21 or older to witness the ESPECTACULAR!

Get your tickets ANDALE!!!

¡Caliente! Live Photos

At long last they are here!  We have the official ¡Caliente! live photos.  Catch a glimpse into our spicy new show with these saucy shots taken by Michael Doucett.

Also, check out this most excellent review from Drama in the Hood, written by the lovely Emma Chambers.  This review has one of the best summations for the finale: “… if you have ever wanted to see a very large man dressed up as the Statue of Liberty, surrounded by slices of cake while servers wearing cabaret-style mini dresses parade about with flags from a range of countries—not just the US and Mexico—now is your chance.”  Guilty!

We sum up these photos and that review with one word: ¡Caliente!

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Examiner.com is Crazy for ¡Caliente!

Teatro ZinZanni presents ¡Caliente!

by:

“¡Caliente! stars Christine Deaver and Robert Lopez who play the brother/sister duo, Tres and Cinco who work in the kitchen. It appears that the tent is being sold and the kitchen crew is the last to know of this news. It’s up to the pair, with the help of the rest of the crew, to literally save the show. Each member begins to live out their own show biz fantasy, trading in their kitchen uniforms for circus costumes.

With a Latin flare, the “Mexican Donnie and Marie” are joined by the very tall singer/songwriter “Big Mike” Geier and the very short Chinese acrobat, Ling Rui, the Argentine Malambo dancer, clown and percussionist, Ann Bernard, Ukrainian contortionist, Vita Radionova and the French acrobatic trio, Les Petits Freres. It’s sort of a wide world of circus with a vaudeville accent. Every performer appeared to be flawless in their crafts.”

Read the full review!

We Did Everything Right!

Well, we like to think this, but we are biased.  No, this headline comes direct from CultureMob.com.  Here it is again with a truly glitzy intro:

Teatro ZinZanni Does Everything Right

by Tom Mohrman

“¡Caliente!, the new show at Teatro ZinZanni, is completely over the top. You’ve got your acrobatics, your dancing, your jokes. There’s songs, sparklers, cabaret, an amazing five course dinner, and custom cocktails. The conceit for this season’s show is that the kitchen has been fired, but instead of accepting their pink slips, they stay for one last night, and put on the show of their dreams. Starring Christine Deaver and Robert Lopez (aka El Vez), the three and a half hours spent inside the spiegeltent is full of laughs and moments of wonder.”

Read the full interview on the CultureMob Website!

See ¡Caliente!

¡Caliente! is in La Casa!

¡Caliente!

We’ll say it again.

¡Caliente!

We just love the sound of that word.  ¡Caliente!  It just rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it?  It means hot in Spanish, and boy is this show ever caliente.   Check out the photos from ¡Caliente!‘s wildly successful run in our San Francisco tent (photos courtesy of Mark Kitaoka and Tracy Martin) and read more about the performers here.

Death! What a Way To Go!!

Ghouls, goblins, ghosts, and guests converged on the tent October 29th for a Halloween themed Mezzo Lunatico, hosted by El Vez, the Mexican Elvis.  Best summed up as “scary sexy”, the show featured a veritable cornucopia of awe-inspiring acts.

Miss Indigo Blue proceeded to excite and delight the entire tent in several sexy burlesque dances, one culminating in El Vez carrying her zombie-fied (yet still gorgeous) corpse from the stage!  Death (Ling Rui), clad in a saucy little golden Speedo, aided morose host with the most, El Vez, in crowning our costume contest winner Dr. Frank-N-Furter. Cabaret nouveau singer/accordionist Seth Bedford wove nostalgic tales of youth peppered throughout with humor, all in time with his whimsical squeezebox. Hauntingly spectacular performances from operatic tenor Steve Thoreson, left the audience ravenous for more. The edgy Momo Butoh dance troupe provided an eerie, yet oddly satisfying and artistic experience. Solo strap artist Ling Rui brought the house down (not literally or this post’s title would be quite literal) with a gravity defying aerial act that left jaws on the floor from the flat-out open mouth gaping. A surprise visit from the angelic Pastor Kaleb, who led the masses in an epic dance party.

Whew!  We need to lie down!

Great photos below from Greg Holloway.

We will see everyone at the next Mezzo Lunatico, December 16th & 17th! What? That’s right, it will be two nights of sexy delight just in time to stave off any holiday blues!

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El Vez is in the Building

El Vez, the Mexican Elvis, and a pick up band of ZinZanni musicians held court in the Seattle Channel studios as host, Nancy Guppy, taped a session of Art Zone this past Tuesday.  The two hour session featured Teatro ZinZanni’s Latin heartthrob Robert “El Vez” Lopez and a three piece band featuring Hans Tueber and Johnny Morton on guitar, and Korum Bischoff on drums. The group performed two of El Vez’s hits-  “Go Zapata Go” and “Si, I Am a Low Rider” for the Art Zone episode airing this Friday, January 14th at 8 p.m. and again on Sunday on KCTS at 11 p.m.
Check out this video, shot by ZinZanni staffer Brian Richards, of the studio session.

You can catch El Vez along with Grammy winner Thelma Houston and comedienne Christine Deaver in the final two weeks of  Teatro ZinZanni’s smash hit Hearts on Fire through January 23, 2011

Next Mezzo Lunatico: Nov. 20th “Thankful For”

Mezzo Lunatico, a late night varieté spiced with saucy cabaret, crazed circus, scandale, music and mayhem, continues in Teatro ZinZanni’s spiegeltent on Saturday, November 20th with El Vez as host and curator. Exploring the theme of Thankful For, Mezzo Lunatico features original performances by soulful chanteuse Sarah Rudinoff, exotic aerialist Vivian Tam, San Francisco’s wacky physical comedy troupe, Pi Clowns, acrobat Bernard Hazens, Seattle’s Sapphic Sweetheart Miss Indigo Blue, boylesque performer Jean du Jour and El Vez and the Los Lunatiques band. Doors are at 11 p.m. Show is 11:30 to 1:30 a.m. Tickets are $20 with a two-drink minimum and are available online at mezzolunatico.com and by calling the ZinZanni Box Office at (206) 802-0015. Mezzo Lunatico is sponsored by Top Pot Doughnuts.

And now a few ruminations from El Vez, Curator of the Evening, on the concept of THANKFUL FOR:

“THANKS FOR…the memories…the good times…nothing?

“Each of us is grateful for some special something….whether it be an indelible moment in time or the object of a moment’s distraction. Of course there are other more practical things to be thankful for: food on the table and a roof over our heads….or 10 more Friends on Facebook. And, let us not forget to give thanks for what makes America great…freedom of religion, freedom of speech….freedom to marry within the same species.

If we didn’t give thanks, we would just be a wild, uncivilized mob of misfits.

“WAIT! We ARE a mob of wild, uncivilized mob of misfits….and we are thankful for that!

“The Mezzo Lunatico cast for November is a great mob of misfits. Sarah Rudinoff the soulful chanteuse; San Francisco’s whacky physical comedy troupe, PI Clowns; Seattle’s Sapphic Sweetheart Miss Indigo Blue; Bernard Hazen and his ability to balance between dimensions at hyper-speed; aerial exotique Vivian Tam and Jean du Jour of the unique physique. And, I am thankful they will give their all in this ephemeral very late night offering on the 20th under the velvet canopy of Teatro ZinZanni’s spiegletent. Gracias!”

Do You Believe In Magic?

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Last Sunday, November 7th was a truly Magical Evening at Teatro ZinZanni as nearly 300 people attended the Second Annual Gala Benefit for the ZinZanni Institute for Circus Arts (ZICA). Board members, parents and camper, vendors, Golden Tassel Club members, friends and family joined the cast of Hearts on Fire as the special evening successfully raised funds for ZICA. Former TZ chef/comedian Kevin Joyce was the ultimate “zingmaster” of ceremonies, guiding us through an incredible evening of song, circus, feasting and merriment. Special guest star blues goddess Duffy Bishop and her husband guitarist Chris Carlson peeled back the tent top with her renditions of “Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom” and “I Put a Spell on You.”  Six foot two inch Manuela Horn reprised her role as Gretchen the Yodeling Dominatrix as she assisted El Vez, the Mexican Elvis, with his very special fund-raising effort (if you were there, you’d know exactly what happened ;-) .  Campers Jamal Bakari, Devin Barrett, Sam David, Max Peterson and Ryland Smith stole the show with a high-energy display of some of the artistry and skill they’ve acquired at Camp ZinZanni’s summer sessions.  Photos by Korum Bischoff.

Another Rave Review for “Hearts on Fire”

Reviewer Miryam Gordon revisits Teatro ZinZanni’s Hearts on Fire for seattleactor.com. Calling it a “zany gastronomic extravaganza under the Big Top,” the review lauds comedienne Christine Deaver’s costuming as “making over the top an understatement.”

The fabulous Christine Deaver goes over the top in "Hearts on Fire" at Teatro ZinZanni now through January 23, 2011.