On Sunday, March 2 The Flaming Idiots traveled through the snow and dazzled their audience in Hanaway theatre at Silver Cultural Arts Center. Rob Williams (Gyro), Jon O’Connor (Pyro) and Kevin Hunt (Walter) make up the mighty trio. Their acts involved juggling, coin catching, and making a sandwich with the use of feet along with other “oh my” skits.
The show opened with a projection of the evil Vendor, soon to be known as the enemy, and his evil plan to get rid of the Flaming Idiots. In the projections we meet Gyro, Pyro and Walter through cartoon. Vendor throws a big pie from space at the Flaming Idiots down on earth. When they are hit they are transformed. Pyro and Walter turned into two huge hands and Gyro transformed into a big face. The projection screen went up however the lights did not go on. The stage remained black. Suddenly two huge hands came running onto the scene lit only by black light and were soon joined by a huge face. Together they must fight off the huge creampuffs. These creampuffs are thrown to them from off stage and the three Flaming Idiots manage to astound the audience by juggling them. They conquer the evil Vendor and their first act.
They came back onto a well-lit stage with flaming torches (Not to worry, there were fire marshals behind the scenes). They began to juggle them amongst the three of them. One of them dropped a torch causing them to leave the stage and come back out to start the act again. This routine goes on two more times while the audience is unable to hold back laughter. They complete the torch scene and blow out the torches as they bow.
For one of their acts they call up a little girl onto stage and proceed to juggle machetes around her. Pyro drops one of the knives as a part of the comedic flavor of the show. The little girl is given permission by the other two, to kick him in the shin. Which she does, and is allowed to a second time when he drops it again. He then pretends to be mad at her and sharpens his knife. The little girl stands perfectly still as the Flaming Idiots proceed to juggle around her. They finish and the applause goes to the brave girl.
One of the thrilling and daring things taken on by the Flaming Idiots is their ability to include the audience. For another skit they bring a man on stage and teach him real quick how to free-fall. Then they connect themselves together by straight jackets and blind fold the man. The audience counts to twenty as the mighty trio escape their jackets and go behind the man just in time to catch him as he free falls into there arms.
In a continuing barrage of acts, Gyro calls a lady up and proceeds to make her a sandwich. He uses bologna, mayonnaise, pickles, cheese (individually wrapped), and mustard. Oh yeah did I mention he is making this sandwich with his feet? That is right, he also cuts the sandwich in half and tops it off with olives on toothpicks.
The most daring audience participation came when they specifically asked for a 280 pound man that was in good shape. He came onto stage and Gyro stood up on his shoulders. The other two Idiots came out and nine flaming torches were juggled between the three of them.
All in all I would have to say that the Flaming Idiots came to Plymouth State College and put on an unbelievable show through comedy, daredevil stunts, juggling and audience participation. They sped through many acts and kept the spectators on their toes.