Tobias Weinberger will be performing with the Yard Dogs Road Show this Sunday, Jan. 25 at 8 p.m. at the Sebastiani Theatre. Photo by Joseph Lemas.
Acts like the Yard Dogs Road Show are a culture writer’s dream. Whomever created the media-ready verbiage on the Web site for the traveling mélange of rock ‘n’ roll, cabaret, burlesque and vaudeville deserves a tip of the (bowler) hat.
Delicious hyperbole such as “It’s pure visual and sonic voodoo” and “this is a love letter from the bordello of your imagination,” coupled with neologisms like “hobohemian” make my heart go pitter-patter. Moreover, they capture the zeitgeist of a show that not only boasts “sword swallowers, dancing dolls, sometimes fire eaters and sunset hobo poetry” but “the live sounds of the Yard Dogs cartoon heavy band.”
Suffice it to say, the Yard Dogs Road Show is not part of your basic cable package.
“It’s true that there is definitely an element of things you won’t get to see every day on TV,” said Sonoma native Tobias Weinberger, who billed himself (when prodded) as a “performer, magician, sword swallower, percussionist and noise maker,” then added “Yeah, all that and roadie-slash-chicken wrangler.”
“I think it’s that everybody is moving so quickly… Television and movies these days are so sensational that somebody swallowing a sword is not as sensational as it was when young folks were walking down the midway at a carnival,” lamented Weinberger. “We just don’t really have that kind of intimacy anymore.”
Weinberger, a veteran of the Sebastiani Theatre stage since childhood, performed magic alongside theater manager Roger Rhoten in his youth. The Yard Dogs Road Show was launched 10 years ago and continues to tour nationally five to six months out of the year. In the intervening months, the performers are busy creating new music or performances or, as Weinberger said, “just getting by.”
“I’ve always been drawn to magic in general. I live here and I do all kinds of local shows. But I have always been attracted to the circus and elements of spectacle – things that just put people in a place of being able to feel wonder and curiosity,” said Weinberger. “That is one of my biggest goals with this project. Trying to bring those elements of curiosity to the audience.”
One might assume that being the proverbial man-behind-the-curtain would make it difficult for Weinberger to maintain his own sense of wonder and curiosity. Not so, says the performer, whose travels keep him in a state of perpetual intrigue.
“I am always working on something new and always traveling around and meeting new people, so it is always easy to maintain that distance,” he explained.
There is no distance, however, between the Yard Dogs Road Show and its audiences. The act is dedicated, in part, to creating a space for theatrical intimacy.
“You realize that it could be you up there on stage. You know, ‘Here is a person doing something that I could do if I wanted to.’ I don’t know why anyone would want to know how to do it,” he laughed.
The Yard Dogs Road Show begins at 8 p.m., Sunday, Jan. 25 at the Sebastiani Theatre, 476 First St. E. Reserved seating tickets are $22 in advance and $25 at the door. They can be purchased in Sonoma at Readers’ Books or at the Sebastiani Theatre. Call the Sebastiani Theatre at 707.996.9756 for reservations. VISA and Mastercard are accepted. Doors open at 7 p.m.
