[New Act] Hand Balancing, 10 mins; full stage. Man and woman. Man seated at table opening. Phone rings. He answers. Partner enters. Somebody wants to engage them for a show. The decide they need practice. “Let’s try a few tricks before we go over to fill the date,” the man says. Business of man peeling off coat and woman exiting and changing from street to athletic costume. Routine of hand to hand stunts follows. All of the familiar lifts and balances are offered and neatly executed. Several lifts from the floor to a hand to hand brought applause responses at the American Monday night. Good small time openers of closer of the standard variety.
10 Mins.; Three (Interior). An acrobatic trio with one member in Billie Reeves’ “drunk” makeup. The shortest member is in bellboy uniform while the third does a “straight.” Some rough and tumble falls re taken by the “souse” with the little fellow displaying unusual ability as a ground acrobat. The straight also has some nifty twists, turns and evolutions. A good act and could classify on a big time bill.
The Parrines showed real strength in everything they did. The woman member revealed remarkable strength as the understander with the man on her shoulder, and he weighs about 175.
Koban, the showmanly Jap, with two boys new to his act, held solidly and lived for two bows after the final curtain of the show. The gorgeous oriental production hypnotized the usual walkers-out and they remained to see a carking run of balancing, tumbling and sensational human Risely.
Devorah and Zemater, bar acrobats, had some exceptionally good stunts, but their attempt to kill time between their specialties by blackface comedy chatter hurt their act rather than improved it.
[New Act] Arab Acrobatics, 6 mins; full. Usual Arab acrobatic turn with six men. However, an opportunity was offered at the Colonial act this week to get a line on the act that would have been difficult to imagine had the turn filled the place on the bill originally allotted to it. Instead of closing the show it appeared second, and the applause for the pyramid formations and the whirlwind acrobatics frequent.
Following the acrobatics Ed Morton slipped over a fair sized hit with popular numbers leaning mostly to comedy stuff. “You Tell ‘Em,”his opener, got by nicely, a song about “Our Vestibule,” full of suggestion, was eaten up by the upper loft delegation, and “Onion Time in Bermuda” and “wedding Bell Blues,” the Latter with an arrangement of all the married woe songs of the past decade, both were surefire for him.
Sylvester Schaeffer opened the second half. His act is practically unchanged since its last appearance here. At that time it was not a roaring triumph at the performance witnessed. This time it seemed better placed. Though slow in spots, Schaeffer’s multifarious stunts went briskly throughout, and the huge chariot, went for a corking handing and three recalls for bows.
Fred and Albert, with gymnastic stunts on rings opened. A lift whereby both men use only one finger of each hand with one of the men hanging on his knees on the rings was featured in their muscular display, which includes a strong jaw stunt at the finish when one of the men pulls a rope with his teeth that lifts his partner who holds rigidly to the novelty apparatus.
Weaver and Weaver easily earned the honors of the show, stopping proceedings in next to closing position. It is a “different” act of the kind needed on the big time.
