Tonight, the New Orleans Bingo! Show brings their musical carnival to the Frenchmen Street club for the first time. It is their only summer performance in New Orleans.
What began as an experiment in the back room of Fiorella’s Café in the French Quarter of New Orleans has morphed into an international sensation. Led By multi-instrumentalist Clint Maedgen, the group blurs the lines between music and theater by presenting a performance that both harkens back to the golden age of vaudeville and looks forward into the future of art.
One of the most exciting parts of a Bingo Show! is an actual round of bingo that the group plays with members of the audience. At a recent performance at the French Quarter Festival, cards were handed out and numbers were called out. A winner emerged so quickly that a member of the audience (truth be told—it was your faithful scribe) began yelling that the game was fixed. Here’s a warning and a heads-up—hecklers at a Bingo Show! are subjected to the same age-old treatment that befell buffoons in the days before television. Suffice it to say that the audience member was completely and thoroughly chastised.
While the game of bingo provides an element of novelty to the performance, the quality of the musicianship and the energy of the performers, keep audiences coming back for more.
Maedgen used to deliver for food on his bicycle when he worked at Fiorella’s. He has said that his music was inspired in part by the sounds of the city. Now he has another considerably more glamorous “day job.” He plays saxophone and sings with the venerable Preservation Hall Jazz Band. That’s one of the reasons why this evening’s performance is the only one of the summer. The show begins at 10 PM. Don’t miss it.
