Blue Man Group

I was lucky enough to get to go see The Blue Man Group this weekend, and it was so much fun! I was really surprised at the interactivity with the crowd, I wasn't prepared for so much interactive fun. I expected some great performance art, but I got more than I even imagined. Now if I had only been picked for a skit.. that would have been the ultimate experience. Props to the lady that was chosen for the dating skit, where she was on a dinner date with all 3 blue men - and to the man who was blue-napped from the crowd, put in a body suit, escorted backstage, hanged by his feet, painted, and slammed against a giant canvas in an artistic emulation of the human body. The latter came up in later discussions of the show: did they really do that to the guy from the crowd? He came out wearing the suit, and I thought I noticed blue paint on his face and fancy shoes, but did the "backstage" show actually take place or was it pre-recorded? It seemed rather extreme to slam a person hanging from their feet against a wall who did not volunteer and was merely a spectator. The consensus is that if it really happened then it might as well have been on the actual stage.

In addition to the actual music, BMG is 80% performance art. I thought I picked up on non-verbal criticisms about art, technology, and culture throughout the show. The most obvious being the synchronized apps skit where there was so much going on it was hard to keep up with it all - a criticism on the effect of reliance and constantly divided attention that technology provides. Another example being the paint-ball skit where one Blue Man kept catching white balls in his mouth and he put it on a canvas as it turned into a esophageal sculpture. What I got from that was that anything can be considered art by modern standards, even something that was almost literally regurgitated.

I'm not the only one:

"One of the secrets to the success of "Tubes" is that it always seems as if there might be more to it than there actually is. Look hard enough, and you can find pointed comments about prefabricated culture and the dangers of technology." (Music & Marshmallows, In Sync)