Spice Up Saturday With A Taste Of Variety

Fayetteville's monthly variety show returns on Jan. 25 with a lineup that includes Brady Cagle, The Birthday Boyz, .Less.Is.More, and Dandelion Heart (pictured). The free event is open to all ages, but adult content is expected. (Courtesy photo)
Fayetteville's monthly variety show returns on Jan. 25 with a lineup that includes Brady Cagle, The Birthday Boyz, .Less.Is.More, and Dandelion Heart (pictured). The free event is open to all ages, but adult content is expected. (Courtesy photo)

For some six-and-a-half years, on the final Saturday of each month, Last Saturday Fayetteville has been providing a stage, a venue and an audience for local performers who might not otherwise have a place to perform. Host -- and just one member of the group that it takes to bring the function together -- Houston Hughes originally set out to establish a poetry event, but the monthly variety show has grown to encompass all manner of performance.

"We have everything from musicians to comedians to jugglers -- whoever we can get to come and perform in that set, as long as they're locals and they do original material," Hughes explains.

FYI

Last Saturday Fayetteville

WHEN — 7 p.m. Jan. 25

WHERE — Fayetteville American Legion at 1195 S. Curtis Ave.

COST — Free

INFO — facebook.com/LastSa…

The show has always been free and always will be, and hopefully offers an outlet for some of the "weirder" voices the region has to offer, Hughes says.

On a typical performance night, two or three acts will mount a short set -- around 10 minutes or three songs each -- and then the evening moves into the Word War.

"Which is what we call our poetry slam," Hughes reveals. "And we call it that because we want to make sure it's not just poetry. We encourage people to enter who sing songs that they've written, who do comedy routines -- whatever it is you do, as long as you wrote it yourself, it doesn't require props and it can be done within three minutes."

The Word War is a two-round competition judged by the audience, and the winner receives a cash prize at the end of the evening. The show will usually culminate in one final performance, and then it's back to the drawing board to plan for the next month's event.

"The idea is somebody comes for the poetry and sees a music act that they wouldn't have seen otherwise and goes and sees their next show, or somebody comes for one of the music acts and becomes aware of a comedian and goes to the next comedy show," Hughes says.

"The hope is that there is that mutual symbiotic [relationship] -- a crossover in audiences that helps to grow the local arts scene."

January's lineup includes "one DJ, a solo acoustic act, a band, and then these two guys who are a jam band duo. And so what we're going to do is have them be the house band for the show and play between acts," Hughes shares. "Doing experimental stuff like that is a lot of fun and part of why the show exists."

-- Jocelyn Murphy

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NAN What's Up on 01/19/2020

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