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Vanity Run Amok

Abstract

Vanity Run Amok is an extension of mid-20th century television variety shows in a two-person format where one person acts as a fixed host and the other as all of the show’s guest performers. The performance emulates many of the standard conventions of the variety show format: campy flash over substance, the disaffected host played by Brendan Nguyen, commercial breaks designed and directed by Anna Chiaretta Lavatelli, a flamboyant band leader played by Bob Pierzak and his house band, quick cuts in the live production expertly directed by Anna Chiaretta Lavatelli, and a parade of musical guests that come with cultural assumptions related to their individual performative genres. Vanity Run Amok deviates from the legacy of this tradition by giving the variety show tropes new meaning.

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