A Georgia Girl in Germany

For MacKenzie’s 10th birthday, we had a mother-daughter outing to see Blue Man Group perform. I’ve wanted to see them perform or some time now, and figured this was a great opportunity. A friend warned me of some of the nuances of the show (don’t dress too nicely in case you get splattered, be careful of paper cuts when the paper towels are unrolled overhead toward the stage -- German paper towels are much more sturdier than traditional American ones).

One thing I didn’t expect, however, was vendors walking through the aisles selling ice cream before the show! It didn’t take much arm-twisting for MacKenzie to convince me to get one for each of us.


At several points during the show, the men walked on the armrests, over audience members’ heads -- one Blue Man stopped for a good 30 seconds, standing on the armrests of the empty seats in front of us and stared at us before continuing his trek over seats and audience members. Oh, how I wish I could have taken a photo during the performance! (These performance photos are from the official Blue Man Group web site at http://www.blueman.com.)

Unfortunately (?), while we had good seats, we weren’t in the “poncho section” of the audience. Audience members sitting in the first four rows are provided with plastic ponchos to protect them from the various food, substances and paint that are thrown, ejected and/or sprayed from the stage.

I didn’t see much actually coming into the audience -- I suspect that’s because Germans don’t traditionally appreciate getting messy like that during the performances. In fact, a friend of mine said the show organizers moved the performance as far back on the stage as possible to prevent much audience-spillage after receiving numerous dry cleaning bills following the performances!



The show itself was great. It included throwing marshmallows (all but two of the more than two dozen hit their target: the open mouth of a fellow Blue Man from across the length of the stage!), splattering paint from drum barrels, spiral painting using paint spit from a Blue Man’s mouth onto a spinning canvas, drumming sequences using PVC pipes that changed from white to a variety of other neon colors when under black light (using a large, static drum set as well as three individual sets worn much like a tuba or sousaphone!), and long confetti streamers and mega-rolls of paper towels being strewn about and filling the auditorium while flexible PVC pipes swirl from the ceiling above -- all under black lights. The use of percussions was constant throughout -- MacKenzie was even given a set of foam earplugs before the performance began because of how loud it was.

Fortunately, afterward, the men walked through the lobby posing for photos, putting blue grease-paint fingerprints on faces, and giving “autographs” by kissing paper for their fans instead of taking pen to paper. MacKenzie was a little timid, but enjoyed interacting with them when she worked up the courage to do so. Yes, we walked away with all three of those extra post-show features!

MacKenzie decided to bring home the streamers that landed near and around us, as a “pet” souvenir from the performance. I don’t expect her “pet” to last long in our house though.

Look at how much grease paint the Blue Men wear! And this is after the intense 2-hour performance and wiping some off their scalps to fingerprint the fans!

MacKenzie’s showing off her two autographs (lip prints), her fingerprinted cheek and her “pet” streamers. I’d say she enjoyed the performance!

One last parting shot before we washed the grease paint off our faces (and before we smudged them any more than we already did!).

Labels: Birthdays, MacKenzie