Blue Man Group: It's a blue world at the Venetian
The Blue Man Group brings its unique blend of comedy, music, performance art and multimedia extravaganzas to the Venetian's 1,760-seat theater, built especially for this show. Seen often on NBC's The Tonight Show, the Blue Man Group puts on their high-energy show without saying a word, but it's the audience that's left speechless.
To a backdrop of pulsating experimental rock music, this trio of anonymous performers — clad in black clothes and blue, rubbery masks and gloves — delivers a nearly two-hour show that's hard to describe.
Each night, as they have for six years, the Blue Man Group engages in outrageous performance art, dance, creatively plays percussion instruments; displays astounding athleticism while spewing and catching gumballs, marshmallows and other food; sets off explosions, pyrotechnics, special effects and multimedia spectaculars, and splatters paint everywhere — including onto the first few rows of the audience!
The members of Blue Man Group, with their bald, cobalt-blue heads (thanks to greasepaint), don’t talk or show emotion. According to the group’s creators, Matt Goldman, Phil Stanton and Chris Wink, the expression comes through art and music.
“'Techno-tribal' describes our work,” Wink said. “For example, we have a light inside a drum, and we pour paint into the drum and it explodes 25 feet into the air. It looks like a rocket. Then we put a canvas over it and make a painting. It’s abstract expressionism. Are we making fun of it or do we love it? We don’t know.
"For people who like art, there are a lot of inside jokes hidden in there. Basically, the act is based around art and science — we call it artworld science.”
“We didn’t start out to be funny,” Stanton chimed in. “But the comedy comes out of three people trying to work together and things going wrong or taking some weird twists.”
“There is no script so there are a lot of different scenarios" that can take place. “They surprise each other on stage. And the audience is a big part. Blue Man brings people up to join in the fun.”
- by Bobbie Katz, Las Vegas Reporter for HelloMetro
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