By | Andre Hascall
One Man’s vision to form a comedy show of five artists, became the Peat Moss Variety Soiree that features many acts. Live at the Eagle House in Eureka, November 30th at 7pm.
Peat Moss, 28, is a Business Finance major at HSU and works at the Northcoast Horticulture Supply. When he isn’t at working on school work or at NHS, Moss is working on comedy and his show.
“My grades are affected but I am invested in this show,” Moss said. “Eureka needs it, t brings a lot of culture that the area needs.”
Moss got his feet wet in the comedy scene in February 2017. He was unsure of doing a comedy show but one of his co-workers wanted him to try it out. That coworker goes by the stage name ‘Dr. Foxmeat’.
Dr. Foxmeat would perform at open mic nights at the Palm Lounge in the Eureka Inn, every Wednesday night for some time. That open mic night is better know as ‘Open Mikey’. It was and is ran by an HSU Alumni who was also on the Lumberjack news team, his stage name is Nando Molina.
“Nando gave me my first start at Open Mikey,” Moss said. “He is a paragon of comedy in the area, and we are happy to include him in our November show.”
Open Mikey has been going on for the last five years, and Moss was lucky enough to perform there in February and a couple times afterward.
“My first time out I had the jitters bad, but after a few jokes i was good… and by April and May I was in the full swing of things,” Moss said. ” Open Mikey provides comedians with the time to work on routines, its important and Nando provides it.”
Other than providing the venue and time for comedians to perform. Nando Molina also provides somewhat of a mentor role to those that perform at open mikey.
“I respect him, when he says its good stuff that’s when I know its good,” Moss said. ” I would compare him to Lorne Michaels from Saturday Night Live.”
Moss originally set out to create a comedy show of 5 comedians. “A lot of top quality talents wanted to volunteer.” Moss said. With that it became more than a comedy show, with the addition of burlesque dancers, a magician, a band and more.
“I didn’t put this show together, this show put itself together,” Moss said. “People try to put something like this together and fail, I was trying to make a comedy show and wound up making a Eureka Cirque du Soleil.”
The band had a huge contribution to the group of performers. They go by the name ‘Black Eyed Susan’ and their lead singer is named Alicia Czech. Before this year, Czech hadn’t performed music in ten years.
“She has amazing vocals”, Moss said. “The kill it every time they are on stage and they are one of the biggest parts of the show.”
Black Eyed Susan does covers for songs by musicians such as, Tracy Chapman, Amanda Palmer, The Dressin dolls and more.
One of the acts involves a mix of burlesque and comedy. That is provided by comedian Megan D’arcy. D’arcy truly is a jack of all trades, being a hair stylist for the group, as well was performing.
“Her first act she got on a mans lap and asked him how much he thought she had weighed,” Moss said.
Burlesque is an art form where someone disrobes to a song that is meaningful. And is an empowering aspect of the lives of those that have it as a hobby.
“It is a big part of these girls lives, they don’t even expect pay because they love their hobby so much,” Moss said. “These girls are down to earth and possibly the nicest people I’ve ever worked with.”
Adding to that variety a bit more is Marciano the Magnificent. His role is as the magician of the group, but his act calls for a few jokes as well.
“Marciano also volunteered, to do magic at the show,” Moss said. “He’s got a great slight of hand, he’s funny and can entertain a crowd.”
This is not the first show put on by Moss, yet this show has some different aspects from the rest.
“All or past shows have sold out so far,” Moss said. “This will be our biggest event.”
More information is available at https://peat-moss.weebly.com/
Tickets available online at https://peat-moss-show.brownpapertickets.com/
