On Friday and Saturday, September 28th & 29th, 2018, come celebrate this performance career milestone for two performances at The Tangent Gallery/Hastings Street Ballroom. These eclectic performances have graced the art galleries, black box spaces, streets, churches, and stages big and small in the Detroit area and throughout the U.S.
SATORI CIRCUS was conceived as a one-man orchestration early in 1988, coming to fruition the fall of that year. Hard to define, this artist is not clown and not mime. Just a ball of energy, this life-force started inhabiting a myriad of characters from man to woman, to child, to things. Along with music and pantomime, film elements and words (spoken or sung), slapstick and movement and cloaked behind clown white and various facial accents, SATORI CIRCUS’ world came to life wherever the stage.
He celebrates a performance career that has exceeded 25+ self-written/produced stage shows that included performances in 1515 Broadway, Detroit Artist Market, Scarab Club, College of Creative Studies, Detroit Institute for Arts, St. Albertus Church (a 146year old historic church), Oakland University/MeadowBrook, on America’s Got Talent and a 25 anniversary show at the Detroit Institute of Arts/Detroit Film Theatre.
It has also taken him across the country to perform in Los Angeles, Chicago, Las Vegas, Albuquerque, Pittsburgh and New York.
SATORI CIRCUS creative director and main performer, Russell A. Taylor has been on the scene for 38 years. Starting back in 1980 as lead singer for the rock band, The Nasties, and then as co-founder of alt-art-punk band, Fugitive Poetry in 1983. SATORI CIRCUS spoke, sung and moved for the first time at the Michigan Gallery in 1988 and found a home at the original black box-art theatre space, 1515 Broadway, Detroit. Thru the years he has been recognized for his work and has received accolades from local and national press. He won a Detroit Music Award for "Outstanding Live Performance," in 1994 and in 2012. His photo has graced the cover of the Metro Times and he has been called “…easily the Best Performance Art Group Detroit has produced. It should be seen if only to witness a New Direction in Art.” - Detroit Free Press and “A love for the absurd, SATORI CIRCUS is a singularly uncanny theatre-going experience that’s a little bit Performance Art and a little bit Rock Opera.” - Metro Times.
The 30th Anniversary show will feature some of the vignettes from his past shows such as “EQUILBRIUM”, “MOSES:39”, “Child-Proof”, “Funy As Hell”, “Twilight Barks”, “63mins (of random balance)”, “…poems we tell ourselves…” and a most recent performance art piece, “Stroke”. There will even be a couple surprise selections from the myriad of guest appearances SATORI CIRCUS as made throughout the years that include Theatre Bizarre (Det.), DAMNED (Det.), Dirty Show (Det.), Michigan Burlesque Festival (Det.), Atrocity (Pittsburgh), WIZBANG (Cleveland & Det.), Performance Art Festival (Cleveland) and the Erotic Poetry & Music Festival (Det.).
Featuring dear friends throughout the evening:
Brain Dambacher - light and stage design
Tim Suliman - sound design
Sadaat Hossain - keyboards and vocals
Marcus Concernicus - keyboards
Ryan McInnis - performer and vocals
Robin Schweihofer - performer and vocals
Matthew Ryan Surline - keyboards and vocals
Lushes LaMoan - performer and vocals
Scott Dambacher - performer and vocals
Contributing to these evenings will be other dear friends. Photographers Brett J. Lawrence, A. Owen Layne and Rick Bielaczyc, who will have photographs on site for sale, and the wonderful clothing designs and fashions of Ivy’s Corsetry.
SATORI CIRCUS is also the subject of a film documentary on his art called "Being Satori Circus", currently being filmed for release in 2019. Also, to honor this legacy the local Motor City Brewery has issued a commemorative limited release featuring his likeness on cans.
Be prepared for the unknown and come with an open heart and head to witness a hybrid of performance art rarely seen in this Detroit Metro Area. We guarantee that you have never seen anything like this and you may never again. Sometimes, journeys end where they begin and begin where they end
September 28th and 29th, 2018
Tangent Gallery/Hastings Street Ballroom
715 East Milwaukee Avenue, Detroit, MI 48202
(313) 873-2955
Entrance on Oakland
Doors @8P Performance Promptly at 9:30P
$15 in advance
Brown Paper Tickets… https://www.brownpapertickets.
$20 at door
18+ or Accompanied with Parent