Vaudeville Redux

When reinventing a revered pastime like vaudeville for a new era, it takes creativity, wild ideas, great chemistry and a whole lot of fearlessness. That’s something of which the co-creators of Vaudies seem to have an endless supply.

Dave Holly and Jeni Mc (pronounced “MAC,” for those uninitiated) conceived of a variety show in the vein of modern vaudeville about eight years ago. At the time, the two had met collaborating on the local interactive, improvisational theatre experience Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding.

“I auditioned more because I wanted to see what it was like—not because I expected to get cast,” Mc said. “When I did, I thought, ‘Whoa—this is what a feisty Irish girl that’s good with one-liners should be doing.’”

And at a Tony ‘n Tina cast party, Holly made a beeline to Mc to compliment her stellar work on the show.

“We’ve hit it off great ever since,” Holly said. “She does refer to me as her ‘show husband.’”

“What’s kind of funny is that there’s a little bit of an age difference between Dave and I—not as much as people think, but his beard is deceptive,” Mc said. “I keep mine pretty trim.”

Holly’s history includes a wealth of experience in the world of radio and performance, including KELO-AM, KSOO, professional clowning and even a stint hosting a show about cars, Motor TV.

“I was the character ‘Motor Mouth,’ interviewing people about what was on their lots,” he said. “The ironic part was that I really know nothing about cars.”

Though he keeps a busy hosting schedule, Holly is perhaps best known in the performing arts community of late for his podcast, The Dave Holly Hour, which includes weekly interviews with local performing artists and creators.

“(On Motor TV), I was the one asking the questions—not the one giving the answers,” he said. “My current podcast is really about conversations, and that’s what I really like.”

The impetus for Holly and Mc to develop their own brand of comedic and musical entertainment was the storied local bar, Old Skoolz. “We would go there quite often and would end up seeing each other there,” Holly said. “One time we were promoting a benefit there and a very good friend asked us, ‘Why don’t you guys do something like a variety show?’”

And after some deliberation on a name with Mc and the owner of Old Skoolz, Vaudies was officially introduced to the public at its inaugural show in spring 2009.

“At that time, I was doing standup,” Mc said. “Dave knew I was sort of working on more monologue-type styles, and that really fit in with his vision of the variety show format—a host and co-host, bringing together a mix of entertainment.

“Kind of like Sonny and Cher—I was Sonny, he was Cher.”

With a heavy involvement in the local entertainment space, both collaborators brought a rolodex of friends who were performers, something Vaudies saw as an opportunity.

“Back in the days, when you had speed-dial and a top eight on MySpace, when a lot of your friends are musicians, dancers, singers, playwrights—you could call up a friend and say, ‘Let’s get two or three of us together so people can watch you all perform on the same night,” Mc said. “Let’s share that with the community.”

And share they did—and though each successive show is a little different than the last, they’ve found a lot of positive feedback when including elements of music, comedy and magic. The group’s most recent performance, Vaudies After Dark, was an all-female revue that included burlesque dancers as well, presented from Books N Brewz Pizzeria.

“Having an all-female cast—that was in general one of my goals,” Mc said. “To see more independent individual female performers—more than just being a backup singer or sidekick.”

“There are some other things we’d like to throw in,” Holly said, “such as fire dancers and poetry—we really do want to make it a variety. We encourage at each show that if you know someone who has a unique variety act to please have us get in contact with them.”

Other themes the duo has tackled through the years have included back-to-school, Vaudies FORE (a golf-themed experience) and a recurring Veterans Day event where tickets are gifted and discounted to veterans and where one or all of the performers have served in the military.

“That was kind of unique to find service members that are showing off their artistic sides,” Mc said. “The Veterans Day shows have my heart in that way.”

But as the pandemic has made gathering more difficult, Vaudies is looking into 2021 with high hopes for a healthy live-entertainment rebound.

“Because we’ve all spent this year sort of looking inward and individually honing our crafts, I want to find a way where we can find some of the people who have been working on something on their own who are now going to feel more confident,” Mc said. “I would love to see them be the scene, make the scene, and make Sioux Falls the scene—in a safe way.”