Madcap Magic at Sebastiani Theatre
By David Bolling
You have no idea the things you can do with a banana. You may think you do – perhaps something lascivious – but really, you don’t. Not until you watch the ingenious, insane, gravity-defying, madcap machinations of Anne Goldmann and Jonathan Taylor whose Daredevil Chicken variety show/magic act/song-and-dance routine/Vaudeville comedy show/kitchen sink entertainment extravaganza will unfold in the Sebastiani Theatre September 27.
And Goldman and Taylor won’t be alone. They have assembled a small galaxy of local, Bay Area and international performers to flood the Sebastiani Stage with what has been described as “joyful chaos.” Included in the assembled troupe will be Sonoma’s own Prince of Prestidigitation Tobias Weinberger, a home-grown magician and practitioner of arcane arts who can swallow straight down his throat both a two-foot sword and a table leg (although, mercifully, not at the same time).
Goldmann and Taylor perform all over the world six months of each year, including regular appearances as part of Cirque du Soleil’s resident Mad Apple review at the New York-New York Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.
When not on the road they live almost anonymously among us, right here in Sonoma Valley, comfortably ensconced in their Glen Ellen home, where they delight in nature and hike regularly through the grounds of the Sonoma Developmental Center.
They recently spoke with the Sun by phone from Scotland while wrapping up their 2025 tour near the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
“We live in Sonoma half the time,” says Jonathan, “then we go where the work is, we do a lot of big, international variety shows around the world – circus, cabaret, comedy.”
Daredevil Chicken’s signature acts include the highly imaginative, somewhat provocative and hysterically repulsive aerial use of bananas (or, more accurately, banana parts), requiring astonishing hand-eye-mouth coordination and audience participation. You really don’t want more descriptive information than that. You have to see it. The banana routine has been years in development. Which is why the Sebastiani Theatre show is billed as “The Magic Banana Hour.”
“We developed that act over many, many years, it’s one of the signature acts that we do in any show we’re in” says Anne, “along with a Quick Change Act.”
The quick change occurs inside a large fabric bag shaken vigorously by one partner while the one inside the bag transforms in seconds into a series of entirely different outfits. That, alone, would be briefly entertaining, but Anne and Jonathan have transformed an old circus chestnut into a hilarious and risqué bit of physical comedy, tacitly referencing the universal nightmare we all have of waking up naked in public.
The two met when both auditioned for a circus gig in Emeryville – “Jonathan got the job and I didn’t,” says Anne, to which he retorts, “I also got her phone number.”
They began working together and gradually transitioned into a creative team. That happened primarily in 2001 when, Anne says, “Jonathan and I were in Barcelona and we tried street performing. That led us on a very long adventure which eventually led to these international festivals that had a variety show, and we just inserted ourselves and started working on shorter cabaret acts and we honed them over the years.”
But how did it work when they were romantically involved and working so closely together at the same time?
“Jonathan always said that since we were romantically involved he wasn’t sure that was good for the relationship, working with me, and then when we were traveling in Europe I think we just got swept up with it, there are such wonderful street performances in Europe, very creative, so interactive with the audience, and we just found that we had really good creativity together, good chemistry, and we’ve been doing it really strongly and fulltime since then.”
In 2012 they started working for Spiegelworld, an international entertainment company with several shows in Las Vegas, including the wildly popular “Absenthe,” at Caeser’s Palace. Anne and Jonathan were hired to run the Spiegelworld touring show, called Empire.
“We ran the acts, we hosted the show, we looked for all kinds of collaboration,” says Anne. And that’s the model driving the Magic Banana Hour, which will feature 13 separate performers, with a strong emphasis on local talent, but with some “high end” international veterans as well. Jonathan says, “We’ve been planning this Sonoma Show for months. Over the years we’ve always dreamed of doing a show in Sonoma and inviting our friends from all over the world. We have friends coming in from Tasmania, other Australian friends, people from Vegas, and the great thing about doing a show in Sonoma is, you just tell people where the show is and they go, ‘Oh! I want to visit Sonoma. I’ll come.’”
But the Daredevil Chicken dream is even bigger than that. “Our dream is to do this at least seasonally, maybe do a longer run. We just love the Sebastiani. If we were to do a one month gig, Sebastiani would be perfect.”
Once you see Daredevil Chicken in action – and Sonoma Audiences had that opportunity in 2015 when the troupe performed in a tent on the Little League parking lot during the Sonoma International Film Festival – you can’t help wondering how anyone accumulates the necessary skills to pull off an act so complex. There are singing and dancing skills, of course, there are magic, sleight-of-hand skills, there are juggling skills, gymnastic skills, strength skills, acting skills, comedy skills and the ability to positively engage audiences in experiences about which they will later say to themselves or to their significant others, “My God, I can’t believe I did that.”
On Broadway, performers who can sing, dance and act are considered “Triple Threats.” By that standard, Anne and Jonathan must each be considered at least a multipotentialite, a polymath, perhaps an adept, and possibly a (for real) Renaissance person (go ahead, Google it).
How did they get that way?
Anne explains, “I went to the San Francisco School of Circus Arts, I took classes at A.C.T., for many years I studied with a lot of different vocal teachers, and I did a lot of theater, a lot of plays, but I also always wanted to create something. So, I think that the partnership with Jonathan, taking all of our skills, and just getting in front of an audience as often as we could, and over the years being in different countries where we interacted with so many different types of audiences, it’s great training. And we tried to stay really curious about it, and change our material, because I think the best teacher, by far, is the audience.”
Jonathan adds, “We have a lot of training. When I was 20 years old, I went to Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Clown Circus. That was the beginning of my training. It’s about honing an act and doing it over and over again.”
That honing takes place all over the world during the half of every year they’re not in Sonoma. “We live in Sonoma half the time,” says Jonathan. “Six months of the year, every year, we’re on the road. We’re either in Las Vegas, in the Mad Apple show, or in a robust tour around the world. We call it ‘The Hustle.’”
They’re on the road so much that when they take a break, “Our vacation now is usually a staycation,” says Anne. “We’re going to be home September to January. When we’re home we just set up shop. Jonathan does woodworking. I’m a digital artist. I do art fairs. And we’re huge nature fans. It’s absolutely magical just walking into beautiful SDC. We walk around and no one knows us. But we’ve talked about being more a part of the arts scene locally.”
Tickets for The Magic Banana Hour are available HERE
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