Daily Nebraskan
Friday, January 22, 1982
Aits & Entertainment
Revue pumps up energy to make audience move
Page 8
By Pat Higgins
WHOT Radio, a rock and roll musical
revue, will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Fri
day and Saturday in the Nebraska Union.
Among the many entertainers involved in
this production are local bands the Exces
sives, the Travis Wagner band, Cost of
Living, and the Neoclassic Jazz Orchestra.
Producer Danny Meldon previously did
Carousel for Freaks, an original product
ion, as well as a version of the Who's rock
opera Tommy.
"There is going to be a lot of energy
going on during WHOT Radio. Hopefully it
will make the audience want to move,"'
Meldon said.
The musical, sponsored by the Univer
sity Program Council, is a combination of
music and dance with a skit in the middle
of the show. A fictional disc jockey for
WHOT Radio named A. Bobalu Mac ties
the piece together.
"The idea is that the artists involved are
portraying stars of the 45 0s who are trying
to make a comeback today. It is played up
to be somewhat humorous and it is politi
cal in a sense that it kicks Nixon around,"
Meldon said.
Choreographers are Trudy Kniccly Kos
and Cindy Monohan and director of the
program is Bob Beadell.
"Pretty much everyone involved is a
professional," Meldon said. "It has been
hard to get it together because everyone
has different schedules, but it is all falling
together now."
Dave Wagner and Bart Becker wrote
some original tunes for WHOT Radio. The
other songs arc covers of rock V roll and
rhythm and blues classics augmented by a
horn section.
"This is a flashy type of show. We arc
going to have a dance contest for the audi
ence and will give away Charlie Burton 45s
to the winners," Meldon said.
"A lot of these people were in Carousel
for Freaks (a mid-seventies musical).
Our disc jockey, Alan McCracken has a real
knack as a showman," Meldon said. "We
put a lot of people together to create some
energy."
WIS! tit
Jill l.l Jy ; ..U'A 4 7r,-vvM?
Photo by Dave Bentz
Danny Meldon (front) and Butch Berman (rear) rehearse music for this weekend's
presentation of the WHOT Radio Rock 7T Roll Revue.
Terf ormance dancer' teases audience at Bo's
By Cydney Wilson
Calypso, a male "performance dancer" is currently per
forming at Little Bos Center until Saturday and Jan. 27
through 30, with three shows nightly at 8:30, 10 and
11:30. His show is filled with dancing, music, singing,
jokes and questions from the audience. He selects his
three shows from eight listed in the show's program. His
costumes, which he quoted as costing $1,500 to $2,000
each are reminiscent of a Las Vegas floor show.
The Wednesday night crowd at Little Bo's consisted of
one male, the test female, ranging mostly between middle
20s to early 30s. As Calypso came out there were shouts
of, "take it off," etc. He performed a series of Elvis songs,
beginning in a rhinestone-studded pantsuit and cape, (the
cape he used in an interesting spinning scene with black
light and strobe effects), and ending in a G string.
Sometimes he appeared quite serious about his work,
while at other times he really hammed it up. He strutted
around the stage, approached the women in the first tow
and talked to the audience. Many of the women re
sponded to his gestures, and some helped him remove his
clothes.
Audience appeal
He tried to appeal to all of the audience members
by covering a wide range of music styles. Calypso, west
tern, Elvis, Sesame Street and the Muppets and Alice
Cooper.
In talking to Calypso, (David J. Calhoon, 27, of Green
Bay, Wis.) I saw a quiet, nice guy, who hopes that whether
or not people like his show, they simply can forget
!
Calypso
their troubles for a while. He does his own choreography.
He has taken dance lessons and also studies great male
performers. He hopes some day to take choreography
lessons. He took his name from a style of music, for
which Harry Belafonte is famous.
"He's my idol, I think he's excellent," Calhoon said.
"His music is primo. To build a show you hear music you
like so you work around it, developing a number to
perform."
He got into the world of burlesque dancing on a dare
when he was 18. He met a few female strippers, and went
to their show, and was impressed because it was not sleazy
or cheap, as he had previously assumed. They dared him
.to come on stage, and he did. That was seven years ago.
"At first it was hard for my family to accept - but
now they're all into it. My aunt helps make my costumes,
and my mother helps out a lot."
Thus far he has only taken it all off once, in Marsh
field, Wis.
"It has to be a prime audience," he said, fie said that
our audience was close to prime.
Prefers couples
He prefers working to couples.
"They really enjoy the show, as it's kind of a Las
Vegas-type show. I'd like to be called a burlesque
comedian - not a male stripper. I like working with my
audiences, learning names, etc., because the same people
return when you perform again in their town."
Calypso has never married because he feels it would be
unfair to leave someone at home while he's on the road 29
weeks of the year. When he first entered the burlesque
business he was a sophomore in college studying elemen
tary education.
His last performance was entitled "S and M in
Bondage." He explained at the beginning it was contro
versial, and he was not trying to sell it. He said his perfor
mance does not mean he does it in common practice. To
this extent he showed some professionalism. It was de
finitely not something that appealed to all of the audience
members.
Up to this point, he had been quite responsive to the
audience. He showed little respect for the audience when
a group of women got up to leave, assuming the show was
over. He remarked: "I don't know where you ladies went
to school, but where I went, people didn't leave in the
middle of the show."
One audience member I talked to summed it all up,
"You have to come out here with an open mind and have
fun."
Calypso is an entertainer, like all entertainers, he will
appeal to some people who see him as he sees himself:
a burlesque comedian. Others will think he is simply a
male stripper.
'What's NIT features women
in previously all-male roles
A look at increased enrollment by women in previously
male-dominated areas on all NU campuses is presented
when What's NU? airs "Women in Non-Traditional
Roles," Friday, at 8 pjnM repeating Saturday, at 1 pjn.
on all stations of the Nebraska Educational Television
Network.
UNL will present a segment on women majoring in the
College of Engineering and Technology. In another seg
ment UNL's Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resour
ces focuses on a female farm loan officer in a bank and a
woman majoring in animal science.